The nineteenth century was a time of incredible change in ships and shipping.  For the past four thousand years ships had been small, built of wood and powered by the wind in their sails.  By the time Dunraven was built at the Newcastle yard of Mitchell and Company in 1873 things were different.  She was built of iron, and was fitted with a coal fired two-cylinder compound inverted steam engine of 140 hp made by Humphrys and Tennant, also of Newcastle, alongside a full sailing rig.  She was fully capable of being operated as either a steamer or a sailing ship, but her crew of 25 or so was too small to have regularly worked her as a sailing vessel.  This was a steam ship with sails as a back-up. 
Her regular run was Britain to India, via the Suez Canal.
Dunraven left Bombay for Liverpool on 6th April 1876 with Captain Edward Richards Care in command and carrying ‘a valuable general cargo’.  She crossed the Indian Ocean and made a scheduled stop to coal in Aden before heading through Bab el Mandeb and into the Red Sea.   
At 01.00 hrs on the morning of April 25th her Second mate saw land and a fixed light, which he identified as Shadwan Island and the Ashrafi beacon respectively.  Captain Care accepted the identifications and, satisfied they were on course and where they should be, he went below at 02.15, leaving orders to be called in an hour.
At 02.40 the light was lost to view and the captain was called back to the bridge to find land six or seven miles off to starboard.  Care immediately ordered a course change, then the lookout reported a large dark object in the water directly ahead, which he reported to the bridge as a buoy in the water.  The Second Mate also saw the object, which he identified as a boat.  Care himself must have been concerned because he immediatley ordered the engines stopped, but too late to prevent Dunraven running hard aground.
Water started to flood in immediately and her pumps were started to keep her dry.  An attempt was made to pull her off using a kedge anchor but this failed and at 07.00 hrs water reached the boilers and the fires went out, killing power. 
There was no longer any hope of keeping her afloat.  By noon the upper decks were starting to submerge and the master and crew had no option but to take to the lifeboats, though they remained close by the sinking vessel until a passing Arab fishing dhow came alongside and picked them up around 16.00hrs. 
Dunraven sank at 17.00 hrs, and eventually settled upside down at the base of the reef, broken almost in two and with her bow very badly damaged.
At the subsequent Board of Trade enquiry Care blamed an unusually strong current for pushing his vessel well north of her intended course, but his case wasn’t helped when the Helmsman denied ever having seen the bright light and the Second Mate changed various parts of his story.  The Board eventually decided the accident was the clear fault of the Master, and took away Care’s Master’s ticket for a year, though they permitted him to work as a First Mate during that time.
In the event, Care served his year and then resumed his career as Master, with another vessel of the same shipping line.  His employers evidently had more confidence in Care than the Board of Trade.
Dives on the Dunraven usually start with a backward roll from a RIB.   When you’ve sorted yourself out swim down to the seabed a little way away from the hull.  Both her masts are laid out on the flat bottom with their crows’ nests intact and often shelter decent sized groupers.  Other debris can be found on the seabed between and around the masts.
After viewing the masts make your way to the stern of the ship and take a moment to look up at the graceful curve of the hull and her intact rudder and propeller.
Look down to where the stern meets the seabed and you’ll see a wide gap.  Take a look at the intact handrails and fittings as you swim under the hull and into the darkness inside.  A torch is useful, though enough light penetrates for you to find your way around safely.
Turn left as you enter the hull and you’re swimming toward the bow.  Take it slowly, you can see a great deal of the ships’ construction.  Don’t forget to look directly upwards, the long circular pipe is the propshaft, at the front end of which is the engine.
Keep swimming forward and you’ll come to the huge cylindrical shape of the boiler. The easiest way to exit the hull is to the left of the boiler, and you’ll be back out in the open having penetrated the rear half of the hull.  A huge shoal of glassfish sometimes occupies the space around the boilers.
The front section of hull can be penetrated in a few places but there isn’t much to see and you’ve been deep for some time so a better plan is to follow the hull up to the reef.  Keep a sharp eye on the reef as you make your safety stop, stonefish and scorpionfish are common here.