Tabaiba

History and context

The Tabaiba wreck, known as El Peñón, is an Ursus-series tug built in 1958 at Seville shipyards for CEPSA's auxiliary fleet, originally named 'Cepsa Segundo' and later renamed 'Peñón'. She spent almost her entire working life in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In 1971 she capsized accidentally during the undocking manoeuvres of the liner Canberra — her five-man crew was rescued — was refloated and rebuilt in Seville, returned to service in 1975, worked in the Bay of Algeciras and came back to Santa Cruz in 2002 as a reserve unit. On 11 July 2006 she was sunk in a controlled scuttling off the coast of Tabaiba (El Rosario, Tenerife), at the initiative of the local diving club El Pejín, to create an artificial reef that would nurture marine life and promote diving in the area. The hull rests listing about 30 degrees to starboard between roughly 20 and 32 metres, just 70 metres from shore, which makes it divable from land. Two decades on, in 2026 the El Rosario town council commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the sinking, hailing it as a benchmark for diving and marine regeneration in the Canaries: the wreck shelters octopuses and large moray eels, schools of damselfish, barracudas, jacks and amberjacks circle it, and every Christmas El Pejín places an underwater Christmas tree beside it — now a local tradition.

Real name

Tug 'Cepsa Segundo', renamed 'Peñón' (Ursus series, CEPSA auxiliary fleet)

Built

1958, Seville shipyards

Sinking date

11 July 2006, controlled sinking off Tabaiba (El Rosario)

Purpose

Artificial reef to regenerate marine life and promote diving; an initiative of the El Pejín club

Length

Between 27 and 35 m depending on the source (official tourism sites cite 35 m)

Depth

Between ~20 and 32 m, listing ~30° to starboard, ~70 m from shore