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In 1983 King Hussein decided to buy the ship and
appointed his son Price Abdullah (now King Abdullah II)
to oversee the project of creating an artificial reef in
Aqaba. James Fylan was appointed to get the job done.
The wreck was made clean and diver safe. Meanwhile
Prince Abdullah had dived many possible sites in Aqaba
and narrowed the place for scuttling the ship down to
five possibilities.
Finally he decided on the place where she now rests
between Rainbow Reef and the Japanese Gardens. On the
16th November 1985 James Fylans team towed the ship out
to the site. Moorings where placed at four places to
ensure she sunk in the right place. Three charges of
explosives where place on the outside of the hull on her
starboard side. With all divers out of the water they
were detonated simultaneously. Nothing seems to happen
for a long time, the old girl did not want to sink.
Slowly she started to list to her port side as the water
poured in. Eventually the bow went under first and she
slowly sank to her final resting place bridging two
coral reefs, which allows for a dramatic swim-through
under the wreck. |
