Marseille & the Calanques · France · Wreck
Le Liban
Deep-certified only: the 1903 liner Liban off Île Maïre
Area photo: Karim saari · CC BY 4.0
A passenger steamer built at Glasgow in 1882 and sunk off Île Maïre in June 1903, twenty minutes after another liner rammed her on the port bow as she left Marseille. Close to a hundred people died. The wreck lies past thirty metres on the ground called Les Pharillons, and the French record is blunt that it is for experienced divers only.
Also known as SS Liban.
Where it is and how deep
43.2072° N, 5.3372° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Everything about this dive is set by the depth. The wreck lies on the ground known as Les Pharillons, off Île Maïre at the western end of the Calanques massif, with the shallowest structure at 28 metres and the bottom of it at 36. There is no shallow section to finish on, so the time spent on the ship is short and the profile has to be settled before anyone gets in the water.
There is nothing casual about the way this one is run. The shallowest structure is already past the limit of entry-level certification, the ship is 91 metres of passenger steamer, and no-stop time between 28 and 36 metres is measured in minutes rather than tens of minutes. That is the trade on the Liban: a short working window on a large wreck, with the ascent budgeted before you leave the boat.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Liban
- Type
- Passenger steamship
- Length
- 91 m (299 ft)
- Built
- 1882
- Sunk
- 1903
- Cause
- Rammed on the port bow by the liner Insulaire off Île Maïre and sank in twenty minutes
- Lies
- On the Pharillons ground off Île Maïre, past thirty metres: shallowest structure at 28 m, bottom at 36 m
The Liban left Marseille for Bastia shortly before midday on 7 June 1903 and was rammed on the port bow by the liner Insulaire less than an hour out. She sank completely twenty minutes after the impact. Five of her six lifeboats could not be launched because the davits were in poor condition, and close to a hundred passengers died — the exact toll is uncertain because tickets were still being sold on board when the disaster struck. Fishing boats from Les Goudes, a steamer bound for Greece called the Balkan and the Hungarian steamer Rakoczy took off the survivors.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Marseille & the Calanques: Boats run all year; the sea averages 13 °C (55 °F) in February and feels cold.
Know before you go
- The shallowest structure is at 28 m and the bottom of the wreck at 36, so no-stop time is short and the ascent has to be planned before the dive rather than during it.
- The strait between Île Maïre and the mainland is only about 80 m wide and runs significant currents with rough water in any wind, so boat handling governs whether the day happens.
Dive videos
Plonger du Bord "épave Le Liban" (Marseille) · Eric Vastine on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Liban wreck?+
The wreck lies between 28 and 36 metres off Île Maïre, on the ground known as Les Pharillons. No part of it is shallow, so the whole dive is planned as a deep dive and the time on the ship is short.
Who can dive Le Liban?+
Divers qualified and current for depths past 30 metres. The French record describes the wreck as accessible to experienced divers only.
Sources
- Liban (bateau de 1882) — Wikipedia (fr)
- Île Maïre — Wikipedia (fr)
- Calanques National Park — Wikivoyage (en)
In The Logbook
- Deep wreck diving: where recreational stopsWrecks · 8 min read
More dive sites in Marseille & the Calanques
Cave & cavern
A cave named for the colours the sunlight throws
Cave & cavern
A cave-cathedral above a wall that drops to 40 m
Cave & cavern
A cave mouth 10 metres high and 10 metres wide
A plateau off Grand Congloué that ends in a beak
A shallow orange freighter, a 1928 steamer and a Bf 109
Reef
Rock stacks shaped like wheels of cheese
One rock, from 35 metres up to a 5-metre finish
Wreck
A 70 m sailing ship on the bottom since 1897
Similar dives elsewhere
Wreck
Airplane
Kemer & Tekirova · Turkey
A propeller plane sunk on purpose in 2012
The Ghost Ship: an intact 20 m motor-sailboat on sand at 38 m
A scattered cargo wreck on a reef running from 2 m to 35 m
Hull and wings at 40 m, tail 100 m away at 52 m