British divers among the seven people still unaccounted for after the sinking of the Sea Story liveaboard in Egypt have been named as Jenny Cawson, 36 and Tariq Sinada, 49, an engaged couple from Devon.
Both divers are reported to have worked in the past as instructors in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines though now, living together in Ashburton, they were employed as IT consultants.
Also read: UK expresses ‘serious concern’ about Red Sea dive-boat safety
Two other British divers rescued in the aftermath of the sinking have been named as Colin Sharratt, 65, and Sally Jones, 58, a couple from London. They were among six guests and three crew said to have been treated for minor injuries at a hospital in Marsa Alam.
Sea Story was carrying 44 people, 14 of whom were crew. Thirty-three have been rescued and four bodies found, including that of the captain, Alaa Hussein.
The search operation on the vessel itself has been described as dangerous, hampered by rough sea conditions, though questions have been raised about the length of time it took to scour the inside of the boat for possible survivors.
The rescue team, co-ordinated by the Egyptian Navy, includes other military, Coast Guard (part of the Navy) and local diver volunteers.
The timber-hulled vessel had sunk to a depth of 12m with a section protruding above the surface in the early hours of 25 November. It was not until some 30 hours later the following night, however, that rescuers discovered and were able to extract five people who had survived trapped in a cabin. They had survived in the cold and darkness thanks to a 20cm-deep air-pocket.
One of the five survivors, 23-year-old instructor Youssef Al-Faramawi, had been trapped after trying to help guests to safety – and was rescued by his own uncle Khattab Al-Faramawi, an employee of the boat's operator, Dive Pro Liveaboard of Hurghada.
He told press that searching the four-deck boat by torchlight had been challenging, including the task of getting cabin doors open.
Shaking and tilting
Apart from the UK, other diving guests on the vessel have been said to hail from Belgium, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. After medical treatment, where required, in Marsa Alam, survivors were taken to Hurghada for repatriation.
Talking to the Mirror, a crew-member said of the wave claimed to have toppled the boat: “We’d never seen anything like it before. It hit the boat suddenly and caused it to shake violently before it capsized. We tried to alert passengers but there was very little time.” Sea Story sank within seven minutes.
Another witness said that they had “felt the boat tilting sharply and tried to hold on to something stable, but the capsizing was very quick. I heard screams from inside the cabins but many couldn’t get out because the doors were closed and the place was filling with water.”
However, oceanographer Simon Boxall told Sky News that there was no evidence of a huge wave and maintained that the wind force at the time would not have been sufficient to “create these alleged 3-4m waves”.
Despite adverse weather and sea-condition warnings, issued the day before departure by the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, the dive-boat had left Port Ghalib on 24 November.
It had headed south on a five-day itinerary that should have seen it arrive in Hurghada at the end of the week. The sinking occurred near Dolphin Reef towards Hamata, and the Red Sea Governorate had been quick to explain that a “huge wave” had been the culprit.
Need to see investigation
“I still feel that this is probably not a wave that caused the capsize,” insisted oceanographer Boxall. “We need to see an investigation coming out of this. It’s still early days, but the information coming out from the Egyptian authorities is still very sparse.”
Unfortunately, despite a spate of some five liveaboard sinkings and fires in the Red Sea this year, the results of promised investigations are not routinely shared by the Egyptian authorities.
Another recent loss had been that of the liveaboard Seaduction, which had also forged ahead with a trip despite weather warnings.
Two of this year's losses have now been of boats operated by Dive Pro Liveaboard. Apart from Sea Story, in February the 42m steel-hulled Sea Legend caught fire, resulting in the death of one of its guests, a German female solo traveller.
Egyptian officials have only stated that Sea Story had a valid safety certificate and was understood to have exhibited no technical problems.
A diver told Sky News this week that a recent trip on another Dive Pro Liveaboard vessel, the 32m Sea Pearl, had exposed an absence of evacuation drills and what he described as poor safety standards. He said that he had been left to find and work out how to release the vessel's small emergency hatch for himself. DPL is not responding to requests for comment.
This post has been amended to remove the suggestion that DPL was an operator of the liveaboard Scuba Scene. When that boat caught fire in 2022, it was replaced by DPL vessel Sea Legend – which itself caught fire this year.
Also on Divernet: 8 still missing after ‘huge wave’ sank Red Sea liveaboard, ‘Red Sea liveaboard survivors located’, Survivors speak after fatal Red Sea dive-boat fire, Egyptian liveaboard sinks in deep south, What happened to the Seaduction?
Jenny Cawson & Tarig Sinada are a married couple for 7 years. I am Jenny’s aunt..we are grief stricken & will never recover. The Egyptians have done a total cover-up. We don’t know where the boat sank or where it is now.. are they still trapped in boat or eaten by sharks..so many question’s that need answers. The boat was unseaworthy.. the owner should face the consequences..he hasn’t made 1 statement..just interested in the money…
I would like to clarify, that Dive Pro Liveaboard was NEVER involved in the management of Scuba Scene.