SS Dunraven was built in Newcastle upon Tyne at the C. Mitchell and C. Iron Ship Builders and was launched on 14 December 1872.

The ship stuck fast south of Beacon Rock at the southern end of the furthest reaches of what is now the Ras Muhammad National Park on the outside of Sha'ab Mahmoud.

She sank quickly in 25 metres (82 ft) of water, leaving the crew to be rescued from the life boats by local fishermen.

The Dunraven wreck was known to local fishermen for generations, as the shallow depth would cause their nets to snag, but it was only rediscovered for the world at large in 1977, either by a German oil company employee or by several local scuba divers based at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, including Howard Rosenstein, owner and manager of the Red Sea Divers center in 1977.

In part owing to the shallow depth, an abundance of reef fish can be found: glassfish, groupers, jackfish, scorpionfish, and crocodilefish can all be seen around the ruptures in the hull.