The largest accessible wreck dive in the world, the President Coolidge has ben open to scuba diving and underwater photographers for over 30 years and fully protected by the Laws of the Republic of Vanuatu and both it and the marine life of the surrounding seabed has been declared as a Marine Reserve. The reserve also includes Million Dollar Point area.
With a gross displacement of 21,936 tons the SS President Coolidge was the largest passenger ship to be constructed in America at the time, being 200m long and 25m wide. It was launched on 21st February 1931 and after 10 years as a luxury passenger liner it was converted to a troop ship.
On the 6th of October 1942 it sailed out of San Francisco with 5342 men headed for New Caledonia and Espritu Santo in Vanuatu.
Unfortunately this was to be its last voyage as the Captain was never informed of the mines laid in Santo Harbour to protect the large military base from attack from the sea.
On the 26th October 1942 the ship ran into a friendly mine in the vicinity of the engine room. Soon after, a second mine exploded near the stern.
Sunk by a friendly mine during the second world war the President Coolidge is one of the most dived wrecks in the South Pacific.
The captain aware of its fate, ran it aground so that those on board could escape to land. When the ship eventually sank and slid back so that its stern now lies in 70m of water, while the bow is in 16-18m.
The ultimate "President Coolidge" book by Peter Stone.
Aware that the ship was sinking, Captain Henry Nelson ran it ashore and gave orders for those aboard to abandon ship. Due to his foresight 5340 men were safely disembarked in only 90 minutes, many of them walking ashore. The captain tried in vain to beach the ship but the coral reef prevented the ship taking hold and within hours the ship listed onto its side and slid down the slope into the channel.
Today the ship rests on its right side with the stern pushed into the mud at 70 metres (240 ft) and the bow angling up the slope to the 20 metre ( 70 ft ) mark.
Down at 20 metres and beyond, the reefs off Santo have hectares of Sea Fans growing out into the current from the walls. While there are many species, Melithaea sp. is one of the most common.
(Photo Neville Coleman)
The initial blast in the engine room killed Fireman Robert Reid who was on duty at the time of contact. The second fatality was that of the second in charge captain Elwood J. Euart who after safely disembarking heard that there still injured men in the infirmary and went back to rescue them.
By a strange twist of fate he got all the men out safely but at the moment of his own escape the ship slid off the reef and he went down with it. His bravery is remembered by every diver who passes the underwater memorial on their way into the ship.
Marine Reserve
While the metal is rusty and corroded, the amount of marine life present is amazing, especially under the over hanging plates and decking.
(Photo Neville Coleman)
As the largest accessible wreck dive in the world the President Coolidge is fully protected by the Laws of the Republic of Vanuatu and both it and the surrounding seabed has been declared as a Marine Reserve. The reserve also includes Million Dollar Point area.
Diving the Wreck
All dives are led by experienced guides. The various dive areas are all buoyed off so that there is little room for uncertainty of times, or depths. Everybody is briefed on every dive as to the procedures required. ( photo: Nigel Marsh)
Due to its enormous size and the depths required for successful penetration, the wreck can hardly be adequately explored in just a few dives. The Coolidge is divided into a number of separate dives.
All dives are professionally guided and times and decompression stops are very strictly observed and implemented by all guides. These are all carried out at various staged levels of 12 m, 9m, 6m and 3metres on the reef slope above the wreck.
Decompression routines are made on 60% Nitrox mix as an extra precaution. Knowing how many dives the diver has in the dive package enables the guides to work out the best series of locations the diver may wish to visit, maximizing bottom time and air consumption.
The Red Hydrocoral Distichopora sp. from Vila and Santo is one of the most colourful to be seen in the South Pacific and can be seen in the shallows where it lives in shady crevices, or beneath ledges and in caves. In deeper water it occurs along the edges of drop offs and on wrecks, where there is moderate current.
(Photo Neville Coleman)
There are buoys anchored at various sites along the ship so that divers can snorkel out from shore and go straight down to their chosen dive site without wasting air negotiating the entire ship underwater.
Still very much in tact, it is possible to swim through the holds and access much of the deck areas and penetration dives are on almost every divers list of things to do.
However, the accumulated silt of over 50 years is a hazard and divers must be extremely careful as an unguarded fin sweep can stir up a visual fog that defies penetration by even the strongest light.
Any such clumsiness also restricts the diving experience for those coming behind.
The Red & Black Anemonefish Amphiprion melanopus may be found inhabiting several species of sea anemones. Anemonefishes are not able to survive in the wild without a host sea anemone.
(Photo Neville Coleman)
Viewing giant wrecks and the remains and reminders of war in their silty underwater graves always leaves one with a sense of amazement that something so huge could be sunk by such a small explosive device as a mine. Yet, when you see the damage caused by the blasts, it sinks in that all it had to do was blast through the outer skin and the ocean did the rest.
Named as the Santo Sea Star Fromia sp. is not known from any other area and as yet cannot be identified, as it matches no known species.
(Photo Neville Coleman)
The wreck is almost entirely wreathed in stony and soft coral formations, with black coral sea whips growing out like so many fishing rods, a gigantic artificial reef with an unbelievable number of encrusting marine life formations inhabited by hundreds of species of fish.
The famous "Lady" resides above the fireplace in the
ballroom of the "President Coolidge"
Photo: Leanne and Kathy de Koeyer - Deco Stop Lodge. (Santo)
In the original ballroom above the fireplace resides the famous Lady an Elizabethan porcelain statue of a woman with arms outstretched in front of a rearing white horse.
Santo has some of the oceans most beautiful flatworms. This one, Pseudoceros leptostichus occurs in many areas of the Pacific and grows to around 50 mm.
(Photo Neville Coleman)
Whether you are into tried and tested tri mix, a serious wreck diver, a Technical diving whiz, underwater photography, videographer or just out for a look see, the President Coolidge is no doubt one of the best wreck and artificial reef dives in the world, and, it has Nudibranchs!
Neville Coleman's diving expeditions, fauna surveys, photographic fauna surveys and marine life identification courses include every major group of marine life.
Neville Coleman's expertise in marine life identification extends to the identification of Algae, Sea Grass, Forams, Sponges, Stony Corals, Soft Corals, Sea Anemones, Sea Jellies, Zoanthids, Corallimorphs, Black Corals, Flatworms, Segmented Worms, Crustaceans, Barnacles, Shrimps, Rock Lobsters, Hermit Crabs, Squat Lobsters, Molluscs, Chitons, Univalves, Bivalves, Cephalopods, Octopus, Cuttlefish, Squid, Opisthobranchs, Nudibranchs, Sea Slugs, Bryozoans, Sea Mosses, Echinoderms, Sea Stars, Feather Stars, Brittle Stars, Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers, Ascidians/Sea Squirts, Marine Fish, Sharks, Marine Reptiles, and Marine Mammals, all found in the waters around Vanuatu Islands and reefs.
( Copyright Neville Coleman)