The Salem Express was returning from the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with a party of pilgrims aboard who had visited Mecca when she struck the Hyndman Reef with full force on 15th December 1991. A large hole was torn in the hull just under the bow door and the bow door was forced upward and open, which let in gallons of water resulting in a very fast sinking of around 10 minutes. This meant that was little or no time to launch the lifeboats. According to official sources, there were some 690 passengers aboard but it is believed that the real number could have been as many as 1600. In any case, there were only 180 survivors from this disaster.

The wreck lies on her starboard side at 30m depth, while the port side is in only 10m of water. She remains largely intact – one can see the lifeboats on the seabed, the passenger decks with their seating and the bridge still has all the instrument panels. Inside the wreck, which should only be dived by very experienced wreck penetration divers, one can see many personal possessions which belonged to the passengers aboard such as portable TVs and radio/cassette players, suitcases, bicycles and even cars.

There is some soft coral growth and you will find a few reef species including Lionfish and Butterflyfish but the site is not rich in marine life and diving the wreck, knowing the considerable loss of life which took place here, is a sobering and, somewhat, eerie and sombre experience. Indeed, many divers choose not to dive the site when they hear about the tragedy.