My First Dives on the SS Maidan
By Hassan Adly, GUE Instructor
May 10, 2006
Copyright © 2006, Red Sea Discovery

Webmaster note: This article was originally posted on the Ocean Discovery Forums, this version has been edited for publication..

I want to write about a really amazing wreck I visited recently that, for several reasons, has only been explored by a handful of divers.

In 1923 the 152m long SS Maidan was passing through the Red Sea on its way from India to Britain, when after a series of navigational errors she struck the shore of Rocky Island, and after some hours sank in what was then simply reported as "deep water". A detailed account of her history and loss can be found here: http://touregypt.net/vdc/maidan.htm (note that on that page the Maidan is listed as "still undiscovered".

The precise location of the wreck remained unknown until 2003, when it was discovered in 120m depth off Rocky Island by a friend of mine, Grant Searancke. He and his buddy Kimmo Hagman did a few dives on the wreck using CCR's, producing some photos and announcing its discovery on some internet sites. I am amazed that they didn't explore the wreck more than they did, and if you search the net you will find that there is very little info and just a few photos online from that first expedition.

As far as I could gather, since Grant & Kimmo's first dives, the wreck had been visited only a few times, by just a handful of divers. You could literally count the number of people who had dived it on your fingers.

So you can guess that I was more than a little excited when I was invited to join a group of divers who were about to make the trip to Rocky Island and search for the wreck. Except for myself and a couple of others, all the divers were diving CCR's.

My first dive on Rocky was a scooter search for the wreck with one other diver on open circuit. Rocky is a very small, bleak desert island, standing like a pillar with sheer reef walls dropping from its shore down to about 70-80m to a wider plateau base. The plateau slopes down until at an average distance of 100m or so from the island wall, at about 120m depth, a second dropoff plunges into the abyss, down to almost a thousand meters.

All we knew of the Maidan's position was that it lay at the deep edge of the Rocky Island plateau. We picked a sector of the island to sweep, and the two of us scootered down till we were within sight of the edge of the plateau. After levelling off at about 90m, we simply gunned it along the edge, hoping to eventually bump into the wreck. We never saw the wreck on that first sweep, but in just under 20 minutes we covered quite a large area, and when the second team consisting of CCR divers entered the water to continue the search where we left off they lucked out, and despite being scooterless, landed on the wreck within 10 minutes of beginning their descent. They came back elated, looking smug but thankful that by not finding the wreck we had pointed them in the right direction.

The next day we had another shot at the wreck, this time knowing with more certainty its position. We had the same configuration as the day before: double alu. 80's with 10/70, plus an alu. 80 stage with the same. Our deco was one 80 with 50% and a 40 with 100%. Our plan was simply to descend to 100m, and scooter around exploring the outside of the wreck until we breathed down the bottom stage. As soon as we were on backgas we would begin our ascent. My bottom stage was done in about 18 minutes, of which at least 10 minutes were directly on the wreck. Our ascent and deco went fine although my backgas was a little thin by the time we switched to deco. I think I was just excited but nevertheless, next time I will take a second bottom stage and an additional deeper deco cylinder for better gas reserves. We made full use of the zodiac surface tenders, jettisoning the bottom stages, the scooters, and even the stages with 50% when we were finished with them. Our total runtime was 100 minutes, with 60 minutes of deco (not including deep stops). Post-dive we concluded that our profile was a bit too agressive, and our gas planning strategy for next time will give more bottom time with improved gas reserves, and longer deco.

What I can say with certainty about this wreck is that it is so big one could spend a year diving it and not know all its secrets. It's definately the biggest wreck I've ever dived. During the ascent I got a glimpse of the wreck from above, and with the amazing visibility its utter hugeness was put fully into perspective. I didn't even think of penetrating it on that dive, though the possibilities for penetration are endless. On that second day, some of the CCR guys had bottom times of around 25 minutes, and they did some light penetration, even retrieving some artifacts.

The ship is really beautiful, the stern section is especially well preserved, the massive propeller is fully visible, and a spare propeller blade as big as a bus is bolted to the stern deck. The ship must have crashed its way down the island walls, since the whole structure is rather twisted. Most of the structure is still intact however, and I can attest to the fact that the cavernous interior of the ship is packed with artifacts of all kinds. The bows of the Maidan are actually hanging off the edge of the plateau. On my next trip to Rocky I want to scooter under that bow at 120m, with the abyss below and the bow sillouetted above, it could be quite a kick, probably nice video footage too...

Red Sea Discovery, in cooperation with Ocean Discovery, have set a plan for putting a real project on this wreck in January 2007. up to 20 exploration divers from around the world will participate in a marathon of deep trimix wreck diving, collecting mapping data and stunning video footage. Hopefully, the next time I write about Maidan, I will be able to offer some nice photos and DVD's as well!

Hassan Adly is a GUE instructor and founder of Red Sea Discovery. Hassan's email: hassan@redseadiscovery.com