Um El Faroud

The Um El Faroud carries the heaviest story of any Maltese dive site. Built on the Tees in 1969, the 110-meter tanker spent her career moving refined fuel around the Mediterranean for Libyan owners. In February 1995, during maintenance in Malta's Grand Harbour drydocks, gas lingering in a tank exploded and killed nine Maltese dockyard workers — a national tragedy the island still marks, and a plaque on the wreck remembers them. The damaged ship sat in harbor for three years before she was cleaned and scuttled in September 1998 off Wied iż-Żurrieq on the south coast, minutes from the Blue Grotto boat slips. She settled upright on sand at about 36 meters and winter storms a few years later cracked her in two just aft of amidships, leaving bow and stern sections slightly offset — a split that conveniently opens the interior to light. Reachable from shore by a determined surface swim or by short boat hop, she has become Malta's signature wreck: a full-size ship in famously clear water, with tuna and barracuda over the deck, and the engine room a celebrated technical-level tour.

How she sank: Deliberately scuttled as an artificial reef off Wied iż-Żurrieq on 3 September 1998, after a fatal 1995 dockyard explosion ended her career.

Condition: Upright and imposing; the two sections stable but slowly working apart, with superstructure intact

Penetration: Full With Training. The accommodation block and pump spaces suit trained wreck divers; the engine room is a deeper, silt-prone technical dive with real fatality history around Malta's wrecks — lines and lights, always. Entering any overhead environment requires specific training — a wreck certification at minimum, technical wreck training for full penetration.

Recommended certification: Advanced Open Water; wreck or technical training for the interior

Current: Mild · Visibility: 20–35 m

Marine life: Barracuda stack over the bridge in summer, amberjack and the odd tuna sweep past, scorpionfish and moray eels hold the deck fittings, and fireworms roam the plating.

Hazards: Depth for the full circuit, long shore swims in swell, and dark enclosed machinery spaces

Managed as a dedicated dive wreck; the memorial plaque and structure are to be left untouched