Salem Express

Salem Express

As Fred Scamaroni in March 1968

Ship data flag  Egypt other ship names Fred Scamaroni (1966) Nuits of St. George (1980) Lord Sinai (1982) Al Tahara (1984) Ship type ferry Owner Samatour Shipping Company, Alexandria Shipyard Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer Launch 1966 Whereabouts Sunk on December 14, 1991

Ship dimensions and crew length 110.29 m ( Lüa ) 105.8 m ( Lpp ) width 17.84 m Side height 11.1 m Draft Max. 4.92 m measurement 4,771 GT

Machine system machine 4 × Pielstick eight - cylinder four - stroke diesel engine Machine performance 10,944 kW (14,880 hp) Top speed 19.5 kn (36 km / h) propeller 2 × controllable pitch propellers

Others Classifications Bureau Veritas Registration numbers IMO number 6502311

The Salem Express was an Egyptian ferry that sank in the Red Sea near Safaga in 1991 , killing several hundred passengers.

details

The ship was built in 1966 as Fred Scamaroni on behalf of the French shipping company Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) at the Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer . The Fred Scamaroni was designed as a RoRo ferry about 110 meters long and about 18 meters wide. It had three decks that were accessible via a bow ramp , a stern ramp and several side ports. In 1969, the ferry was transferred without renaming to the subsidiary Compagnie Générale Transméditerranéenne and in 1978 to its successor company Société Nationale Maritime Corse-Méditerranée .

From 1980 the ship drove under the name Nuits St. George for the shipping company Dunkerque Ramsgate Ferries. In 1982 it was acquired by the shipping company Lord Maritime Enterprise from Alexandria and operated initially as Lord Sinai until 1984 and then from 1984 to 1988 under the name Al Tahra . After being sold to the Samatour Shipping Company, the ship received its last name Salem Express in May 1988 .

View of the superstructure of the Salem Express at a depth of 16 m

On the night of December 14, 1991, the Salem Express ran onto the Shaab Sheer reef during a storm en route to the Egyptian port city of Safaga and struck a leak. The ship had large open decks and sank in a few minutes. The passengers , mostly pilgrims returning from their Hajj to Mecca , were surprised in their sleep. About 200 people were saved. According to the passenger list, more than 700 people were killed. The number of victims is probably higher, however, as it can be assumed that not all people were registered on board. It is still unclear why the captain deviated from the safe shipping route.

Today the Salem Express is about 1.5 hours by boat southeast of Safaga at a depth between 11 and 32 meters on the starboard side (position 26 ° 38 ′ 22 ″  N , 34 ° 3 ′ 39.9 ″  E Coordinates: 26 ° 38 ′ 22 "  N , 34 ° 3 '39.9"  E ). The wreck can be dived from the outside. Since not all corpses could be recovered from inside the ship, the Salem Express was officially declared a grave. In the meantime, the loading flap has been opened to allow people to dive in, but the cabins are still not allowed to be entered.

literature

• Garrit Leemreijze: The SALEM disaster . In: Schifffahrt International . Vol. 43, No. 3 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft , Herford March 1992, p. 99 .
• Register of Ships , Lloyd's Register, London, various years from 1967

Web links

Commons : Salem Express  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The ship at Fakta om fartyg (dates, history and photos, Swedish)
• DPND diving team: Salem Express - wreck near Sha'ab Sheer (Egypt, Red Sea) (description of the wreck with photos and video)
• Wrecks in the Red Sea - The "Salem Express" (description of the wreck with photos)
• Diver-Log, the diving blog about the Salem Express (description of the wreck with photos)
• GiddeonZeix Salem Photos (Photos from the Salem Express inside and outside)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kim Murphy: Up to 470 Missing as Egyptian Ferry Hits Red Sea Reef, Sinks , In: Los Angeles Times , December 16, 1991.