SS Carnatic

The SS "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.

The "Carnatic" was a P&O steamship, built by Samuda Brothers at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs, London in 1862. In September 1869 she ran aground on Sha`b Abu Nuhas coral reef near Shadwan Island in the Red Sea. Expecting rescue, the passengers and crew stayed on board for some time, and were beginning to enter the lifeboats when "Carnatic" broke in half. 31 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 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.

In Jules Verne's 1872 novel "Around the World in Eighty Days", Phileas Fogg intends to take a steamer named "Carnatic" to travel from Hongkong to Yokohama, but loses it.His valet Passepartout catches the ship however.

ee also

List of shipwrecks