In the winter of 1934, Dr. Benjamin (Dean of the Faculty of Science at the Egyptian University) went to the officials of the Coast Guard and Fisheries Authority, carrying papers proposing that "Mabahiss" could go to a second exploratory journey, but it will be purely Egyptian, in a narrower range and for a shorter duration.

The success of its first voyage dominated their discussion, and they all got excited to do it again, but they thought about the cost. In the end, they allocated 2,500 Egyptian pounds for the project, but the development of Mabahiss will be postponed, because it will cost another 1,500 pounds.

The Red Sea is the destination of Mabahiss this time, and it wasn’t new to it. It passed this sea through its previous voyage, but it didn’t expand it. On the afternoon of 18 December, It moved to Suez, then Port Said, and finally Hurghada.

On this trip, the team was all new; Except Abdel Fattah Mohamed, who became a professor of natural chemistry. And it may have been expected who will head the team. He's Dr. Crossland, the man who hosted Mabahiss and its crew in Hurghada on its first trip, and he was deeply impressed by it.

This voyage passed quickly, and it also brought exciting results and information about the Red Sea. Perhaps most important, the momentum created by Mabahiss through two voyages, making the upcoming events should not be the same as before.

Hussein Fawzi (member of its first voyage and director of the Fisheries Authority) and Abdel Fattah Mohammed (the worker on both voyages) founded the Department of Marine Sciences at Alexandria University in 1948, the first one in the Arab world.

It was not a surprise that Egypt entered the field of oceanography with great force. It became has curricula and studies. The surprise was what happened after that in 1953.

The king is gone, without return. Egypt continued negotiations to end British occupation. Everything was changed politically, socially, and institutionally as Egyptians replaced foreigners. But this change didn't come in Mabahiss favor.

Unfortunately, its journey with the scientific field ended, returning to its old tasks and engaging in resupply and inspection work.

It anchored in Alexandria's Western port and was neglected. Subsequently, it was transferred to the Ministry of Scientific Research in 1965 with the hope of being used again in research work, but it became dilapidated and unprepared for doing that. It needed a renovation that was disrupted by a lack of money.

In the same year, a young man named Hassan al-Banna came from his governorate “Dakahlia” to Alexandria to join the Department of Marine Science: "I loved the sea after visiting Ras al-Barr, then I read about it, and about Mabhaiss voyages, so I did everything I could to be in this department."

But Mabahiss, which inspired “Al Bana” to join this department, is slowly dying at a time when the world is paying attention to oceanography. The UNESCO International Oceanographic Commission was founded in 1960, and during the sixties, 45 research ships carrying fourteen different flags sailed the Indian Ocean. Other countries came up in this field, such as the United States, Japan, and India.

Several times, Hassan al-Banna and his colleagues passed on neglected, leaning “Mabahiss”.

They look at it with powerless, then go on their way and took another small boat that exists in front of the department. It has the same name “Mabahiss”, and dedicated to practical exercises for the few students in the surrounding beaches.

As the department, the Institute for Marine Sciences does. This institute is next to the department in “Qaitbay” district, and was founded by King Fouad 15 years before the first voyage of “Mabahiss”. It relied on renting boats if it has a mission, and no longer owns large research vessels.

The scales changed and the winds did not come as the ships wished. Hassan Al-Banna considers that "the difference between Mabahiss time and this time is the lack of passion and interest, and the low capabilities, which led to smaller numbers, missions and ambitions."

For nearly 30 years, Egypt has lived through three wars and it couldn't do anything for Mabahiss and marine science in general until the 50th anniversary of its expedition.

A huge symposium, held for scientists, was organized by UNESCO in Alexandria to mark the unique journey of Mabahiss. Hussein Fawzi headed it and his age was 83.

With foreign facial features and bright eyes; one of the Ocean Institute’s researchers sat in a bench among 93 marine scientists representing different countries. The man waited until Fawzi had announced his name on the microphone, “Tony Rice,” to go to the stage. At that moment, he was full of tension and happiness.

Rice discussed his thesis “Deep Sea Challenge, John Murray's Journey to the Indian Ocean”, which based on unpublished paper, written by Captain Sewell, and was placed in London's Natural History Museum.

It's a golden opportunity for Rice, he says. He talked to Hussein Fawzi and two British scientists from the expedition, Dr. Gilson and McCann. Three of the characters he wrote about them in his letter turned flesh and blood in front of him.

But the only thing that make “Rice” sad at that time, was while they were talking about "Mabahiss" and the importance of its voyage, the old ship was "in a pitiful state at the port," as he described it. What might give him a little patience was the idea of turning it into a museum, which is being discussed, but it would seem like false hope.

Egypt in the 1980s was preoccupied with other things: a referendum confirming Hosni Mubarak as its president after the assassination of Anwar El-Sadat, then a second term in which things are relatively stable, and confronting extremism and terrorism, there is no space for more attention to education and scientific research.

Three years after the symposium, nothing new was happening in the life of Mabahiss, except it became affiliated to the University of Alexandria. Despair gripped all those who spoke about rescuing it; It was "drowning, not floating," according to Reda Helmy (Director of the Navy Rescue Department). But a day came and it woke up from a long nap.

It has moved from its position in the Western port to in front of the yacht club in the Eastern port, which cost about one million pounds - according to Abdul Salam Shalabi (then the dean of the College of Sciences), but it will be safe from the currents until it turns into a museum, a project for which UNESCO has allocated $30,000.

Hassan Al-Banna got very excited when he came out of his department "Marine Science" to witness this moment. At the time, he was involved in research activities funded by foreign countries and the United Nations to work in the Mediterranean and Red sea, where he found out how many countries have competed Egypt in this field, and some even surpassed it.

The image he wanted to hint, is supplemented by Khamis Abdul Hamid (Professor at the Institute of Marine Science) in December 1986, he says: "Financial possibilities are the biggest obstacle to the continuation of our research. Laboratories need to be upgraded and equipped. Even the buildings have been eroded by the humidity."

In the midst of this situation, "Mabahiss" project never saw the light, until its iron body was rusted and swallowed by the water in the winter of 1988, the same year that Hussein Fawzi, who accompanied it on its first trip, died.

While “Mabahiss” are forever fading under the sea; two new ships were headed to Egypt as a gift from Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

It was expected that the Institute of Marine Science would receive the ships. It needs them, but similar to the sudden cinematic scenes, they were handed over by the Egyptian Fishing Company, which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture!

Their names became "Yarmouk" and "Salsabil", and they worked in the Ministry of Agriculture activities for about 10 years until the Institute of Marine Science turned to them. His director addressed the ministry and the Institute got them in November 1999, setting off their first trip in January 2000, according to Ikram Amin (Director of the institute at that time).

The existence of the two ships didn't make anyone forget "Mabahiss" and its story. On the contrary, perhaps the responsibility on the new ships was difficult because of “Mabahiss”, as the newspaper Al-Ahram reported in 2002, "that despite the strong start of Mabahiss, what has been done in the last decades is only individual efforts and not a national plan." And this image was supported by Yousef Halim (a professor in the Department of Marine Science): "Egypt ended up on the high seas, and its role diminished to study a few meters of coastline and lakes, to be preceded by countries like Greece, Turkey, and Israel."

The two ships' own workers didn’t seem to have the power to make the large voyages, so Salsabil and Yarmouk operated with just one crew of sailors and technicians rather than two, which is barely possible under the Institute's capabilities, according to Khamis Abdel-Hamid (a professor at the Institute and supervisor of research ships), what put pressure on both parties.

Anyway, they went to work near the sinking “Mabahiss”, and most of them didn’t know about it. On the other side, the atmosphere at the Institute of Marine Science was disturbed, as professors demanded - in one of the newspapers at the same time - the Minister of Higher Education to investigate what they called "serious financial irregularities at the Institute, which were followed by the monitoring authorities."

The early 2000s generally weren't good for the field. There were libraries and projects associated with the name Mubarak or his wife, but the oceanography didn't take up space among all of this. Thus; If anyone talks about a "Mabahiss," who would take care of a sinking ship? But UNESCO did and again offered to the University of Alexandria to rescue what was left from “Mabahiss” and turn it into a floating museum.

The university replied by saying “it will study the matter".


Years later, the researchers of the institute were preoccupied with pollution, declining fish production and the risk of throwing breakwaters on the beaches without enough study. And, the ships Yarmouk and Salsabil have made a few research voyages, Susan Khalif (former head of the institute) said that they made 12 trips between 1999 and 2012.

The lack of voyages has been related to a number of reasons, most notably financial possibilities. The cost per trip is at least 100,000 pounds and could be as high as 1 million pounds, as Amr Zakaria (current institute president) explains. Therefore, we cannot predict another future at a time when the allocation for scientific research in Egypt did not exceed 1% of the GDP, of which 2 million pounds is taken as the annual budget for research at the institute.

Gradually, the ships were completely disrupted due to lack of funds to maintain them, in parallel with unrest in Egypt after the January revolution. They remained like that for eight years, as if the sad fate of Mabahiss would be repeated.

But the ships survived in Ras el-Teen in Alexandria, Where is the headquarters of the Navy, which rented them a complete full maintenance.

The two ships are currently docked in the port of Alexandria. Six kilometers away by car. Ahmed Al-Nimr (the director of the Institute of oceanography in Alexandria) sits in an old building next to Qaitbay citadel, which is threatened with sinking due to climate change, around him is a number of papers and permits, which he has to prepare them to get “Yarmouk” out of its anchor on a short trip to the Red Sea, where it aims to collect samples from there and learn about the effects of climate change on water temperature and marine organisms.

The weather was cold and the sea was not assured of stability although it was previously spotted. However, “Yarmouk” went out with only six researchers aboard, headed by Walid al-Sawi (an assistant professor in the fisheries department of the institute) and accompanied by about 15 sailors.

“Yarmouk” marched in the Red Sea as Mabahiss had done before. But Weather conditions make their way difficult, and its crew had to wait too long because of waves and outbursts.

No surprise in the climate surprise, according to “Al-Sawi”, he is well aware of how the sea became sharp and volatile; Climate change is now at the center of their priority. Alexandria and Nile Delta one of the coastal regions most at risk of drowning as a result of the sea level rise due to the global warming.

Eventually, Yarmouk ended up spending three weeks in the Red Sea, then returned to the port of Alexandria. The duration of the voyages of the two ships has not exceeded that, since the beginning of their work. They may take only one or two days depends on their objectives, and they have never sailed outside the limits of Egyptian waters.

In the next phase, DR. Al-Sawi will write his detailed report on the trip. As usual; The reports are on a steady track, states Amr Zakaria (President of the Institute): "If the reports concerns a project they receive them.. And if not, it put in our own information center. To be present when the state needs that information."

Since Zakaria became president of the institute, his problem has not been in the possibilities, which he says can be managed, as it has been in the "routine and the long time to can come up with a journey or an exploration work." For him, time is the most important thing, because it precedes him to catch up with other countries.

He believes he has largely succeeded in that. After Egypt was out of the rankings three years ago, the institute now - according to the SCIMAGO Index for the Classification of Scientific Institutions - is ranked 48th in the world and 17th in the Middle East. But he's trying to get back to the front lines, as was the case at the time of "Mabahiss".

He believes that if “we walked at the same pace, we would be number two in the world.”

In slow steps, Hassan al-Banna, a man in his 70s, is entering the Department of Marine Science. He has become his oldest professor and his mobile "archive." Passing by pictures hanging on the walls in the doorway, which embody Mabahiss and its crew who died like it.

He gives his lecture, in which he talks about "Mabahiss", the ship he knew when he was a student in the department in the mid-1960s, but he didn't find anyone among his students who know it.. He tells them its long story, and it seems heavy on him when he reaches its end, the sad side, which is that it is buried behind them under the ruins of Qaitbay Castle. Salsabil and Yarmouk may pass over its head several times. The ships that “Al-Banna” look at them as "ineffective".

He finishes his lecture and goes home; He looks at a small box that has marine specimens. No one know it and no one is allowed to photograph it. The secret, he says with a smile, is “these marine specimens are samples from the second voyage of Mabahiss.”

It was a surprise. The samples of the 'Mabahiss' which are not visible in the department, some of them are in Hassan Al-Banna's home!. The man says that its specimens have been dispersed, and a very small part of its tools are in the department. Besides, having these things did not make him happy, he wished to collect them in a museum.

“I'm tired of talking about it,” he says, in a desperate tone.

The same tone can be gleaned from Tony Rice's words, when we emailed him about the ship, about which he wrote the letter presented at the 1983 Alexandria Symposium. Before he spoke about it, he said, "I was imagining that I would be the last one to write about Mabahiss".

While the two men gave up and “Mabahiss” sank with its idea of reviving, a statue depicting a man with mustache on his face and helmet stands in the lobby of the National Oceanography Center. The statue is a remnant piece of the HMS Challenger that was piloted by John Murray 150 years ago and London’s Natural History Museum keeps all its specimens to date.

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