wreck

Log This Dive

MARIA SCHRODER

Maria Schroder, what a name. We’ve always been drawn to this one, not for its diving, but for its sheer presence. It’s not really a dive site in the typical sense, sitting there, brazenly aground, half-submerged just off the coast near Sharm. You can pretty much just walk out to it when the tide is low enough, and snorkel around the bow. It’s an 80-meter steamship, beached way back in ‘56 during a sandstorm. You can see the stern section sticking right out of the water, a stark, rusty monument against the turquoise. We love how you can peer down into the broken hull from above, watching the waves slosh around the skeletal remains. It’s a great spot for an afternoon trip, especially if you’ve got non-divers with you. They can wade, you can snorkel around the bits that are still underwater – though it’s pretty shallow, maybe a meter at most. Little reef fish flit in and out of the corroded metal, and sometimes you’ll spot a moray eel tucked away. It’s more of an atmospheric historical curiosity than a dive. Our advice? Go at sunset. The light on the rusty hull is something else.