Thanks to Alex Jordan for the picture of Cedar Pride
www.dawson-photo.com

Served the Naviera Anzar Shipping Company of Bilboa, until 1969 when she became the PUERTO DE PASAJES, with a further name change in 1978 to the ST. BRUNO. .She was then purchased by the Lebanese Cedar Pride shipping company, taking on the company name. In July of 1982 she arrived at the Jordanian port of Aqaba, and on the 2nd August while at anchor and in ballast a fire spread rapidly through her engine room and accommodation area’s. Two of the crew lost their lives. The damage from the ensuing blaze left the ship as a total constructive loss, although her hull was still intact and she was still afloat. For the next three years she remained a floating hulk, no one accepting the responsibility for her mooring and harbor fees. The King of Jordan himself, a keen diver, took an interest in the vessel and a plan was hatched to sink the ship, in the hope it would become a part of the reef, and a habitat for the rich marine life living in this quiet little backwater of the Red Sea. With the waters around Jordan plummeting away in depths beyond the sports divers reach, there were no natural wrecks for divers to explore.The Cedar Pride was to change that. The ship itself was prepared by the port,pumping off oil, removing any hazard and so on,they did a very good job indeed,so divers would not have any problems in the future.

Information from Alex Dawson;
The Cedar pride came to rest almost perfectly on her starboard side at a depth of 28m to the seabed and, in the years since her sinking, has become a true extension to the local reef systems being colonized by all manner of truly outstandingly beautiful soft corals. Furthermore, she came to rest less than 150m from the shore and, being buoyed, is easily one of the best shore dives to be found anywhere. With the uppermost starboard side being only 10m deep, there is a dive here for every grade of diver - shallow aspects for the novice, deeper elements for the more advanced and penetration diving for those with the appropriate skills and experience. Having said that, the more interesting parts of such internal investigation would include the Engine Room and it must be remembered that this was the seat of the fire which destroyed the vessel and consequently much of the structure was weakened. Generally speaking, the Cedar Pride is largely intact. The Bows are complete with twin windlass and fully retracted anchors. There are ladders on both the port and starboard sides down to the main deck. Immediately alongside the port ladder is an entrance into the foc’sle but it is a tight squeeze and the experience has little to recommend it. No 1 Hold is both open and empty. As with all such open holds that are well lit they can serve a useful purpose by allowing the more junior diver a first opportunity to enter a wreck - with no chance of becoming lost because the exit is always so well lit. It is, however, only a large empty space - although the occasional Turtle has been encountered in side. Immediately behind No 1 Hold are the deck winches that still stand immediately below a curious configuration of three masts - more like a single mast and an "A" frame, which still defy gravity as the stretch away from the ship parallel to the seabed. Right behind the masts is the central bridge and accommodation castle. The bridge is easily entered and the diver soon discovers it was stripped bare of all essential equipment long before anyone thought of sinking the ship. Below the bridge and resting on the seabed, are the remains of one of the ship’s lifeboats which was still hanging from it’s davits when the ship went down. From here, the rear deck is a wide open space dominated by an equally wide open cargo hold which provides an almost identical experience to that encountered earlier. The stern castle is raised and still support a profusion of winches and bollards that one expects to find on every ship. These are all very neatly surrounded by handrails. Just below deck level - right at the stern, the Diver is able to enter the passage way that surrounds the rear accommodation within the stern castle. Part of the ship’s name is still discernible across the stern of the vessel - although less and less so each year. Finally the large 3-bladed propeller and rudder are still in place and, at approximately 22m, are also brought to life by large numbers of brightly colored soft corals. A few meters from the stern of the Cedar Pride lies a small Harbor Launch at a depth of 30m. The circumstances of her sinking are unknown and it is difficult to speculate about how she may have become lost - she could not have struck the wreck it is too deep.