SS Turbo

The SS Turbo was a 4,782 gross register ton steam tanker, built in Sunderland, in the United Kingdom, by J.D. Laing for the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co., of London, and launched on 11 July 1912. On 20 August 1941, while sailing from Haifa to Alexandria with 7,500 tons of fuel, 42 crew and 10 Royal Navy gunners, she was attacked by Italian S79 bombers, and a torpedo struck the ship amidships on the starboard side, opening a hole of about 40 feet in the hull. The ship was so badly damaged that she was abandoned, but she did not sink: she was re-boarded and taken to Port Said, where the cargo was unloaded.

On 1 April 1942, she left in tow of the Gladys Moller bound for Aden, where she was to serve as a floating fuel storage hulk. On 4 April, in bad weather and as they neared Ras Banas, the hull broke in two. The bow, a hazard to navigation, was sunk by naval gunfire, and the stern was never seen again until it was found by divers in the 1990s.

Since only the stern half remains, the wreck used to be called the Half Wreck, and its location is credited to the Egyptian captain of the boat Lady M, known as Crazy Ahmed. The stern section is complete, with the open deck and its fuel cargo transfer pipes, the mast, the accommodation block with the galley, and the engine room, which has the gun deck above it. The triple-expansion steam engine also remains.