The MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98 was an Egyptian Ro/Ro passenger ferry, operated by El Salam Maritime Transport, that sank on 3 February 2006 in the Red Sea en route from Duba, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga in southern Egypt.

This was compounded by design faults inherent in Ro/Ro vessels, where minor flooding of the deck can gain rapid momentum due to the free surface effect.

The vessel was built by the Italian company Italcantieri in 1970 with IMO number 6921282 and named Boccaccio at Monfalcone, Italy for Tirrenia di Navigazione.

The vessel was rebuilt in 1991 by INMA at La Spezia, maintaining the same outer dimensions albeit with a higher superstructure, changing the draught to 5.90 m (19.4 ft).

Reporting from 27.00°N 34.40°E, approximately 150 km (93 mi) north-north-west of the sinking, the container ship shows winds of 24.1 kt (13 ms−1) from 320 degrees, with a surface pressure of 1005 hPa.

[12] The ship was carrying 1,312 passengers and 96 crew members, according to Mamdouh Ismail, head of al-Salaam Maritime Transport Company.

At 23:58 UTC on 2 February 2006 the air-sea rescue control room at RAF Kinloss in Scotland detected an automatic distress signal relayed by satellite from the ship's position.

The United Kingdom diverted the warship HMS Bulwark which would have arrived in a day-and-a-half, but reports conflict as to whether or not the ship was recalled.

[20] Egyptian authorities accepted a United States offer of a P-3 Orion maritime naval patrol aircraft after initially having said that the help was not needed.

Also, the recovered data recorder proved that the ferry's owner knew there had been a fire on board but gave orders to continue on instead of returning to port as the captain had requested.

[22] On 11 March 2009, after the initial acquittal was overturned in a hearing presided over by Judge Khaled Badereldin, Mamdouh Ismail was sentenced to seven years in prison.