Qualla: SS Thistlegorm https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/u/b/n/ss-thistlegorm-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: SS Thistlegorm https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm SS Thistlegorm: Introduction https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm/ Photo credit Woodym555, CC BY-SA 3.0. It was half past one in the morning on 6 October 1941 when two bombs found her. The Thistlegorm lay at anchor in the Red Sea, a British merchant steamship waiting out a delay, her holds packed with the machinery of war. A German bomber, hunting a troop carrier it never found, spotted the largest ship in the anchorage and struck. The explosion tore her open near the stern and sent her to the bottom in minutes. Nine men did not get off. Today divers descend to her in calm blue water, and the first thing worth remembering, before the trucks and the motorcycles and the fame, is that this is a grave.

Read more: SS Thistlegorm on Qualla

Image: Woodym555 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/u/b/n/ss-thistlegorm-wp/subn-ss-thistlegorm-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SS Thistlegorm: The Men Aboard https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm/ Photo credit Albert Kok2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Thistlegorm sailed under Captain William Ellis, her merchant crew supplemented by nine Royal Navy personnel sent to work the ship's machine gun and anti-aircraft gun - the last line of defense for a vessel carrying munitions through a war zone. These were not soldiers stormin...

Read more: SS Thistlegorm on Qualla

Image: Albert Kok2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/u/b/n/ss-thistlegorm-wp/subn-ss-thistlegorm-the-men-aboard.mp3 0:06 2 full SS Thistlegorm: A Ship and Her War https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm/ Photo credit Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0. She was built for work, not glory. J.L. Thompson and Sons launched her at Sunderland in April 1940, a cargo steamship driven by a triple-expansion engine. In her short life she made three successful voyages - to the United States for steel rails and aircraft parts, to Argentina f...

Read more: SS Thistlegorm on Qualla

Image: Diego Delso | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/u/b/n/ss-thistlegorm-wp/subn-ss-thistlegorm-a-ship-and-her-war.mp3 0:06 3 full SS Thistlegorm: Cargo for a Desert War https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. What she carried tells the story of an army on the move. Bound for the Allied forces in Egypt - then the Western Desert Force, soon to become the Eighth Army - her holds held Bedford trucks, Universal Carrier armored vehicles, Norton and BSA motorcycles, Bren guns, rifles, and ca...

Read more: SS Thistlegorm on Qualla

Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/u/b/n/ss-thistlegorm-wp/subn-ss-thistlegorm-cargo-for-a-desert-war.mp3 0:06 4 full SS Thistlegorm: A Museum Eighty Feet Down https://qualla.com/ss-thistlegorm/ Photo credit Albert Kok2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Because the blast carried away her midships superstructure, the wreck opened up - and at around 30 meters at its deepest, it sits within reach of recreational divers. Swimming her holds is like moving through a flooded warehouse of 1941: motorcycles still racked in rows, trucks l...

Read more: SS Thistlegorm on Qualla

Image: Albert Kok2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/u/b/n/ss-thistlegorm-wp/subn-ss-thistlegorm-a-museum-eighty-feet-down.mp3 0:06 5 full