Red Sea Safaris

Kormoran/Zingara

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The Kormoran at The Red Sea Wreck ProjectThe Kormoran was a 1,582 GRT Cargo Ship built at VEB Schiffwerft Neptun, Rostock, East Germany, for the state run shipping compnay of the GDR. The ship was 82.4 meters in length and 12.6 meters in beam, draft of 4.6 meters with a ice reinforced hull. The ship’s superstructure, accommodations, and engineering machinery spaces were all located aft, with 2 holds located forward of the superstructure. Propulsion was provided by a single 1,365 hp BPS-1365 6-cylinder diesel and single shaft for a speed of 12 knots.

In 1976 the Kormaran was sold and renamed Adamastos, which is Greek for “Untamed” or “Untameable”. In 1980, the ship was sold to Montemara di Navigazione S.p.a, Naples Italy, and renamed Zingara.

The Loss of the Kormoran/Zingara:
On 21 August 1984, the Zingara departed the port of Aqaba, Jordan, sailing south-west with a cargo of phosphate rock. Sometime the next day, on 22 August, the ship ran hard aground on the north side of Laguna Reef at position 28° 01′ 06″ N / 34° 29′ 24″E in approximately 10-12 meters of water.

It appears that the Zingara was moving extremely fast when she ran aground because the impact with the reef left a deep gouge in the reef wall, destroyed the ship’s bow, ripped off a large portion of the ship’s bottom, and damaged the superstructure aft.

No one seems to know why the ship ended up taking the course that she did, as the TSS (Traffic Seperation Scheme) shown on navigation charts for south-bound ship traffic coming out of Aqaba indicates that all ships should maintain a course on the western side of the straits and north-bound traffic staying on the eastern side known as the Grafton Passage. Laguna Reef is so far to the east as to be well out of the shipping traffic lanes altogether!

 

Diving Information

The ship lies bow-in to the reef with the aft superstructure just breaking the water. What is left of the vessel is inclined on its starboard side. The aft superstructure and the bow section are about the only complete sections of the ship left. Everything in-between is a like a bit of a metal junkyard. The masts of the ship lie on the reef on the starboard side and what remains of the engine can be seen at the base of the aft superstructure. There are plenty of deck fittings still in place on the superstructure and the stern section still has the propeller and rudder in place lying in a depression in the seabed. On the foc’sle forward, there is a winch with chains and the emergency hand-crank was still in place a few years ago. There are also a couple of other winches lying about to check out. Quite an interesting dive, especially for new divers who have never dove on wrecks before. The weather needs to be calm in order to enjoy this dive. Late afternoon is usually a good time to hit this spot.

 

References:

Miramar Single Ship Report for 6407547

http://www.egyptarticles.info

http://www.ponta-do-ouro.co.za/Destinations/EgyptRedSea/RedSeaDiving
/SharmelSheikh/SharmelSheikhDiving/StraitsOfTiranDiveSites/tabid/3192/Default.aspx

http://www.dive-sharm.com/tiran_straights_14.html

http://touregypt.net/vdc/Zingara.htm

http://www.scubashotz.com/gallery_images.asp?gallery_id=18

http://www.fotoflite.com/general-cargo-ship/270977.00-adamastos.html

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About Author

Lee has been in the marketing industry for the last 15 years and now specializes in teaching marketing techniques to people in the scuba diving industry. He is founder of Dive Media Solutions which, in addition to providing complete marketing, media, communications and IT solutions exclusively for the scuba diving industry, also produces The Scuba News. You can connect with Lee via Twitter by following @DiveMedia

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