Scuba Diving in Dubai | A Fantastic Dive on the Dara | Wreck Diving in the UAE

Welcome to another video in my UAE Diving series. In this series I am trying to film as many of the UAE scuba diving sites both on the Gulf Coast (Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf) depending on your point of view) and the East Coast (the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean)
On the Gulf Coast, the diving is mainly on wreck diving and some of the videos we post will show shipwrecks on TH-cam for the first time, like this one.
On the East Coast (Fujairah and Sharjah) the diving is more focused on coral reefs as the marine life tends to be varied due to cooler water temperatures, deeper water, and lower salinity compared to the Gulf Coast
In this episode, we go the MV Dara probably the most historic we have in the UAE. At the time of her sinking in 1961, with the loss of 238 people it was the second largest peacetime loss of life at sea after the the Titanic.
We were lucky to have good visibility and no current. The wreck was also completely free of nets at last thanks to the hard work of the Dubai Voluntary Dive Team who over recent weeks have removed all the nets see dubaivoluntaryd...
The wreck live just off shore in the waters of the Emirate of Umm Al Quwain. There can be strong currents and poor visibility.
The MV Dara was a Dubai-based passenger liner, built in 1948 by Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., The 120 metre, four-decked vessel travelled mostly between the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the Indian subcontinent, carrying expatriate passengers who were employed in the Gulf.
The Dara had sailed from Bombay on 23 May 1961 on a round trip to Basra, calling at intermediate ports. She arrived at Dubai on 7 April 1961 and was unloading cargo, embarking and disembarking passengers when the wind picked up, quickly reaching force seven winds and preventing further work. The Dara had been hit by another boat which had dragged its anchor in the bad weather and Captain Elson decided to take the ship out of harbour to ride the storm. Due to the conditions there had been no time to disembark those persons on board who did not intend to travel, including relatives and friends seeing off passengers, cargo handlers and various shipping and immigration officials.
At approximately 04.30 on 8 April 1961, a large explosion struck the port side of the engine casing between decks, passing through the engine bulkhead and two upper decks, including the main lounge. The explosion had occurred as Dara was returning to the harbour and it started a series of large fires. The explosion having affected all electrical, fire-water and steering systems, the fire spread rapidly, aided by the wind, and the captain ordered the evacuation of the ship.
The launching of the lifeboats was chaotic in the rough seas, with one witness describing an overcrowded lifeboat overturning due to the height of the waves. A second lifeboat had been damaged earlier during the storm, this ailing lifeboat would later be intercepted by the lifeboat of a Norwegian tanker. At the time there were several ships nearby and aid was given by British, German and Japanese vessels in the vicinity, as well as boats travelling out from Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain.
In the days following, three British frigates and a US destroyer sent parties on board the Dara to extinguish the fires and the vessel was then taken in tow by the Glasgow salvage vessel Ocean Salvor, but she sank at 09.20 on 10 April 1961.
The explosion is believed to have been caused by a deliberately placed explosive device, planted by an Omani rebel group or individual insurgents A British Admiralty court concluded, more than a year after the disaster, that an anti-tank mine, "deliberately placed by a person or persons unknown", had "almost certainly" caused the explosion. It was suspected but never proven that fighters in the Dhofar Rebellion were likely responsible, having previously sabotaged British assets. However, no forensic evidence has ever been provided to prove beyond doubt that a bomb was the cause.