Cable Wreck

The Staphonos, a Greek cargo ship lost in 1978 with a cargo of cable, steel beams, chain-link fence and asbestos sheet. On its port side on coral sand, 17 m to the top and 24 m at the seabed.

Depth

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Dossier

Everything in this list comes from published dive-site descriptions. It drives the model's depth, attitude and cargo.

Name: Staphonos (also given as Stavronisos), Greek-registered. Divers call it the Cable Wreck (حطام سفينة الكيابل).
Lost: 1978
Site: Northwest of Two Tower Reef (Abu Tair), southwest of Jeddah
Cargo: Construction materials: cable of all kinds, steel beams, chain-link fence and asbestos sheets, plus cargo pipes. It is scattered across the seabed and gave the wreck its name.
Attitude: On its port (left) side on coral sand. Fairly intact, and relatively small.
Depths: 17 m (56 ft) at the top · 24 m (79 ft) at the seabed
Features: The mast and stern are the most photographed parts. There are hold spaces to explore, and mooring ropes at the bow.
Life: Hundreds of fish shelter in the bow among ropes, pipes and cables. Goatfish and blue-striped snappers gather at the mast. Whitetip reef sharks patrol the ledge, and guitar sharks rest near the bow. Also blue-spotted stingrays, dogtooth tuna and humphead parrotfish.
Conditions: Enough daylight to dive without a torch. Suits all levels on calm days, but it becomes an advanced dive when the current runs.

No plans, survey, sonar scan or photogrammetry set of the Staphonos is published, so the geometry is an informed reconstruction. It is built to fit the known depths and descriptions, and it should be corrected against your own footage.

Assumed

Hull: a 1950s–70s coaster of 52 m length, 8.6 m beam and 4.2 m depth. Rolled about 82° onto the port side, that beam gives the documented 7 m rise from 24 m to 17 m, with about 2.5 m buried in the sand.
Layout: raised forecastle, forward hold, mast house with the main mast and derricks, a long aft hold, and the accommodation, bridge and funnel aft.
With the ship on its side, the main mast reaches out horizontally over the cargo field. That explains why the mast draws so many photographers and fish.
Cargo spilled from the hatches onto the sand on the deck side. The number and position of drums, coils, beams, fence rolls and sheets are illustrative.
The reef ledge is placed behind the keel. The compass heading is not documented.

How it's rendered

Water absorbs red light fastest, then green, then blue. The shader applies that per channel along both the sunlight's path down and your line of sight, which is why colour fades with depth and distance. Switch on the torch to see colour come back up close.
Moving caustics, light shafts, marine snow, ambient occlusion and bloom. Growth, rust and sand ripples are generated per pixel from world position, so the detail holds up close. Turn off Cinematic on slower devices.

What would sharpen it

A lap of the hull in video at a steady 2–3 m standoff, plus a few measured distances (stem to mast, hatch length). That is enough for real photogrammetry in Metashape, RealityCapture or Polycam.
A compass heading along the keel, and depths at the bow, the stern and the mast tip.
Lloyd's Register or Greek registry details for the Staphonos (tonnage, length, builder) to fix the hull form.