Carnatic shipwreck

The Carnatic is a famous shipwreck, a steamer ship that was on the Suez/Bombay run in the last years before the Suez Canal was opened.

In September 1869 it ran aground on a coral reef near Shadwan Island[?] in the Red Sea. Expecting rescue, the passengers and crew stayed on board for some time, and were just beginning to enter the lifeboats when Carnatic broke in half. Thirty-one people drowned. The survivors made it to barren Shadwan, where they were rescued the next day by a passing ship, Sumatra.

Onboard Carnatic was £40,000 worth of gold (well in excess of £1,000,000 in modern terms), so the wreck was the subject of a salvage operation barely two weeks later. All the gold was reported recovered, but persistent rumours of remaining treasure has added to the romance of the ship.

These days Carnatic is a popular scuba-diving destination.