El Naranjito (“little orange”) is nickname of the Isla de la Gomera shipwreck, resting at a depth of 28-42 m near Cabo de Palos in Spain. This merchant ship sank on the night of April 14, 1943 during a storm. After the tragic sinking, the entire coast of Cabo de Palos was covered with the ship’s cargo – oranges.
Naranjito is one of the most popular wrecks among divers in Spain. Many of them start their adventure with wreck or technical diving from this wreck.
Our project aimed to create a detailed model of the wreck to make planning and executing dives on Naranjito more efficient, accurate and safer.
Overall model.
We made the first attempts to scan the wreck at the turn of 2023 and 2024. Unfortunately, they it didn’t bring satisfactory results. Finally, we repeated the scan in April 2025. The tasks were divided into 2 teams. We did 3 dives together on April 8 and 13, 2025. Here are the results:
Engine room of the wreck of El Naranjito – Isla de la Gomera
The engine room was scanned by Sean Romanowski during one dive in 2024.
Hold no. 1 of the wreck of El Naranjito – Isla de la Gomera
This model was prepared using photos taken by Ricardo Constantino and Angela Martínez.
The ship was launched on 18 November 1918 at the Echeverrieta & Larrinaga shipyard in Cádiz and was named Nadir. It was a nearly 50-meter freight steamer. As the sources recall, from the beginning she was accompanied by bad luck – she could not find a buyer for a long time, as if her slender, lines foreshadowed a future tragedy.
In 1926 it changed its name to Magurio, and in 1935 to Isla de la Gomera, under which name it made its last voyage. On the night of 13 to 14 April 1943, during a cruise from Cartagena to Barcelona, the ship sank as a result of a hull failure – a leak on the starboard side. The weather conditions were moderate at that time: east wind, rough sea, fog.
according to the captain’s account: “The ship suddenly tilted, began to sink with its bow. In less than a minute, Nadir disappeared beneath the surface.” In the water, many survivors held on to floating crates full of oranges.
In the end, only 8 people out of 15 crew members and 3 unofficial passengers survived. According to the survivors, there was no collision and the cargo was properly placed.
When dawn came, the banks of Cabo de Palos were covered with hundreds of drifting oranges. From that moment on, the wreck is known as El Naranjito – “The Little Orange”.
Today, the wreck of the Naranjito rests at a depth of 28-42 meters, slightly tilted to the starboard side. It is located just a mile from the port of Cabo de Palos, making it one of the most popular diving sites in the region. Over the years, the wreck settles more and more in the mud and there is a suspicion that in the future it may break in half, especially since cracks in the stern and engine room area are already visible.
Contact us if you like this project and want to take part in a similar one!
Alicja Ulejczyk, Angela Martínez, Bartosz Chrabski, Han Ng, Francisca Isadora, Javier Perez Soler, Juan Carlos Farra, Julio Cepeda, Lu Chen, Michal Ciemięga, Paweł Baranowski, Ricardo Constantino, Sean Romanowski, Veronica Alcantara
Bartek Trzciński
Islas Hormigas Diving Center
