Kingston Wreck / Sarah H wreck

The wreck of the Kingston lies on the eastern side of the southern of two large pieces of the reef […]

The wreck of the Kingston lies on the eastern side of the southern of two large pieces of the reef which are known as Shag Rock. The Kingston is a twin mast steamship, 80 meters in length with a beam of 10m and she ran into the reef at shag rock on Feb 22nd, 1881. As with many of the wrecks in the Red Sea, she did not sink immediately and it took 2 days for her to settle upright in 18m of water (at the stern) on a gently sloping reef wall. The Kingston is a very old wreck, built in the early 1870's and you will often here she referred to as the Sara H, or Sarah H because of the absence of correct identification in the late early 1990's. As a big safari boat "Sea Surveyor" was usually seen here and on board was a Dive Guide Sarah Hillel - the wreck was named after her. Shag Rock is situated about a mile south of Sha'ab Ali and 6 miles away from the wreck of the Thistlegorm. On the northern side of the reef lies a wreck which for a long time had been falsely called Sara H, an imaginary name that in reality does not apply to any ship. The wreck, in fact, was the British cargo vessel Kingston built in 1871 in Sunderland by Oswald Shipbuilding Co. which ran aground on the 22nd February 1881 whilst en-route to Aden, located in Southern Yemen with its cargo of coal. 78m long, 10m wide and 1449 tons this wreck lies in water of 4m down to 15m. The wreck is easily accessible and offers spectacular opportunities for photographers. There is an abundance of soft and hard corals and numerous and varied reef fauna. Divers need to be aware that this wreck should only be dived when conditions are good as strong currents are possible.