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.

Con tàu đã chìm như thế nào: Deliberately scuttled as an artificial reef off Wied iż-Żurrieq on 3 September 1998, after a fatal 1995 dockyard explosion ended her career.

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

Lặn xâm nhập: 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. Khi lặn vào bất kỳ môi trường trần kín nào đều yêu cầu huấn luyện chuyên biệt — ít nhất là chứng chỉ lặn xác tàu, và huấn luyện xác tàu kỹ thuật cho việc thâm nhập hoàn toàn.

Chứng chỉ được khuyến nghị: Advanced Open Water; wreck or technical training for the interior

Dòng chảy: Mild · Tầm nhìn: 20–35 m

Sinh vật biển: 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.

Nguy hiểm cần lưu ý: 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