The SS Carmen which sank following a collision in thick fog with the Turkish SS Sadikzade on 13 June 1963 is a very big and intact Panamanian Freighter. She has been swept with explosives but these have only taken the top off of the bridge opening it up for exploration.
She is very intact and perfectly upright in 45m, with the funnel around 30m, the top of the superstructure at around 32m and bridge at area around 35m. You can swim all around the open bridge, sit in the Captains bath and swim along the two bridge wings (there is a little bit of netting at the end of one of these).
Swimming out the front of the bridge you drop onto the decks at around 38m, where most of the decking has gone, then you can if you wish drop down into the holds. The cargo of Bauxite has settled down and you are at 43m on the top of this.
The large gash from the collision is very clean and swimming out of this the seabed is at 45m., after a good look around the hold which carries back under the bridge (I did not go all the way through) we head up to the deck and forward to the perfectly intact bow.
At the bow there is a winch room with 2 doors allowing access, this area is very clean and silt free and there is another exit up onto the deck at the very bow. You can also go down another deck level at the bow but there is little in here to see. The visibility here is often very good as the bow faces north and into the current. Behind the bridge there is lots of superstructure debris and working back over the stern hold there is a blocky bit of superstructure, probably an auxillary steering wheelhouse and behind that the intact but bent upwards stern.
My sketch I think is slightly out of scale at the stern end and the hold is a bit larger than shown.
This is a very big and impressive wreck, however it is in a very busy part of the shipping lanes and needs good surface visibility to go ahead and you must return to the shot or risk getting run down by a freighter.
