The Thistlegorm was a british freighter. She moved 5'000 tonnes for a length of 131m and 17.5m at the beam. She was powered by a three cylinder machine fed with a coal boiler generating 1860hp at 57 rpm propelling her to a maximum speed of 10,5 knots. Du to the war she was armed with one 120mm canon, one anti aircraft machine gun on turret and one mobile heavy machine gun. The crew was made of 49 men.

She was built at the J.L Thompson and Sons shipyard and launched on the 9th April 1940. Owned by the Albyne Line Ltd, the Thistlegorm belonged to the class 100 A.I Lloyd's. Her first three missions brought her successively to the United States, the oriental Indies and finally to Argentina; her fourth mission was to transport war material of great value to the VIIIth British army, engaged in Africa against the Africakorps of General Rommel. She left Glasgow heading for the Red Sea and was sunk on the 6th of October 1941 in the sound of Gubal by the second flight of Heinkel He 111 from the 26th Kamp Geswader.

The Thistlegorm lies straight on the sand, except her stern, broken from the rest of the hull lying on her starboard side. Once on the top deck, we are met by magnificent coral formations aswell as the crowd of usual marine life who now populate the wreck (groupers, lutjan, angel fish). Vast tanks can be seen and the port side anchor is still on deck as for the starboard anchor, it follows the hull down to the sea bed. The forecastle is well conserved. The anchor winches are still in place. Penetration of the holds are easy and a multitude of very well conserved objects lie there; the first one on two levels contains on its lowest part crates of Lee Enfield Mk III rifles in racks of ten, mechanical spare parts, aircraft parts for the RAF and a multitude of rubber boots of which the holds where full of. On the top level lie Morris automobiles and a little further the BSA WDM20 motorbikes, a model specially developed for military use. The second hold contains on its lowest part many trucks still loaded with motorbikes. Its here that the objects are best conserved. The central portion of wreck is ruin due the bombing. The stern is some 20m aft the main section. This portion is worth checking out too. The anti aircraft machine gun and the 120mm canon are still in place and its a good place to encounter groupers. The gigantic propeller is worth the sight. On the side of the hold no 4 lies its contents scattered on the sea bed, two steam locomotives lay about 20m from their. Two small tanks were also part of the cargo aswell as an important quantity of ammunition.

There are no particular difficulties, no fishing nets. However their can be at times strong currents. Nitrox 36 would be the gas of choice for this dive, giving us over 30 minutes without leaving the NDL.