Construction of the ship
Built in Japan, as a Bulk Carrier with additional facilities for transporting vehicles, the Million Hope was launched as the "Ryusei Maru" in 1972. She was a very large ship - displacing 26,181 grt and measuring 174.6m x 24.8m with a draught of 10m. Her bridge castle is located at the stern behind 5 cargo holds - in between which are four massive cranes towering high above the decks. The ship was powered by two 6 Cylinder diesel engines capable of producing 11,600 bhp and a top speed of 17 knots. The ship had several names during her lifetime before being purchased by the Aksonas Shipping Co Ltd. It was at this time she was finally renamed "Million Hope" and promptly insured for ?4·1 Million. Only six weeks later, she became a constructive total loss. Loaded with a 26,000 ton cargo of Potash and Phosphates, the Million Hope sailed from Jordan's only port of Aqaba on 19 June 1996 - destination Taiwan. Visibility, however, quickly deteriorated and early on 20 June the vessel struck the inshore Reef near Nabq - on the western shores of the Gulf of Aqaba, approx. 3 miles north of Sharm El Sheikh. |
Diving the Million Hope
With much of her superstructure still out of the water, the Million Hope can be seen from several miles away. She is basically upright but with a pronounced list to port - i.e. away from the Reef. Her entire starboard side rests against the reef on which she foundered and her keel lies along the seabed at the base of that reef at between 19 - 24m. Her decks are underwater but not the foc'sle. Apart from fairly superficial damage, the vessel is completely intact - with no evidence of salvage. All the cargo holds are entirely open with no residue of cargo at all. Following the Bows down to the seabed at 19m, the Diver will find clear evidence of the ship's impact with the reef. Where one would normally expect to find a bulbous nose on a vessel of this size, here is the very opposite - a large dent cutting back into the ship several feet. On the starboard side - which is hidden against the reef, is further evidence of damage with bent and buckled plates stretching some distance back. If you look carefully, there is also some evidence of another ship squashed underneath. This is the Hey Daroma.
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Along the port side of the Million Hope, the diver is able to follow the hull all the way back from bows to stern. At the stern, the huge single propeller rests on the seabed at 24m with the ends of each of it's four blades bent hard over - a clear indication that the propeller was still turning when the vessel came into contact with the reef. Another victim of that enormous impact was the massive Rudder - which broke clean away and is missing altogether. Curiously, the absence of that rudder creates a great deal of space below the after-deck and this is now occupied by some very large shoals of various fish which seem to have found adopted this area as their new home. From here, of course, the only direction to take is "up" on the after-deck in 4-5m of water. All the usual fittings such as bollards, vents, railings and even ladders leading up out of the water remain intact. Right in the middle, however, is a big deck-winch onto which are coiled large-diameter rope hawsers - it would seem that a ship of this size needed a little more than ordinary manpower when it came to mooring.
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Some of the ship is still visible above the surface but the majority is below to a max depth of 30m. There is a crack which is the result of an impact which divers used to swim through into the empty hold however some of the ship is now unstable so penetration is not advisable now. Fantastic shots of the propeller, so take a camera and do a full 360 of the ship which very few get to dive.
The intact propeller is covered in a dense mass of soft corals, and nearby is a large moray in a hole.
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Several of the towers/cranes have fallen over the port side and rest on the bottom and against the hull creating "overhangs" where soft corals, glassfish and lionfish abound. Beware of cables. Wreckage - mainly deck pieces - are scattered nearby on the seabed to port amidships. The starboard (reef side) is largely uninteresting. The bow is interesting with a bent bottom to it, and one of the best bits to the whole wreck is the main deck at 9m depth with more lionfish and lots of light coming from above, creating some superb photography. The bow winches, (many) capstans and anchor are enormous, and at times the winches break the surface.
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