The Carnatic was a British P&O steamship that ran onto Abu Nahas reef in September 1869, the oldest of the four wrecks here by more than a century. She carried cotton, copper sheeting, Royal Mail and, by long-told account, wine and a consignment of gold coin. She held on the reef for more than a day before breaking and sinking, and a number of those aboard were lost.

What remains is the most graceful wreck on the reef. The wooden planking rotted away generations ago, leaving the iron ribs and frame standing open like the skeleton of a ship, every surface encrusted in soft coral and alive with glassfish. Light passes straight through the structure, which makes the Carnatic one of the most photogenic wrecks in the northern Red Sea. She lies on her port side between roughly 18 and 27m.

The open frame means there is no true overhead in most of the wreck, but swim-throughs are tempting and the structure is old and delicate. Move slowly, keep your fins off the frames, and let the light and the coral do the work.