The SS President Coolidge
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Sat 16 Oct 2010 02:44
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Any of you who know me (Mike) well will have
been bored to death about how diving the Coolidge is by far and away the best
underwater experience ever. End of story!
Anyway here goes: The SS President
Coolidge was at the time the biggest and most luxurious Cruise ship ever built.
It was operated by American President Lines mostly between San Francisco and
Japan. Being built before WWII it had to be designed in such a way that it could
be easily converted for military use in case of war. After the events of
Pearl harbour it's art deco luxury was boarded up and then converted from a 950
passenger liner into a 5000+ troop carrier for the Pacific arena. Coming into
Luganville in 1942, the Coolidge was met with radio silence, then hit a US
mine in the Segond Channel. The Captain steamed onto the reef in order for
everyone to safely disembark (the pictures of troops abseiling down the sides
and walking over the reef onto Santo are amazing). After this was complete,
the Coolidge, now listing to port, slid off the
reef and settled into the Segond Channel where she still lays bow in 21m, stern
in about 70m. Thankfully only 2 people died on the wreck.
 The wreck was partially salvaged by
the US military who had a base on Santo and later in the 70's it was emptied
of fuel and possible contaminants to minimise possible ecological damage.
Seeing the wreck in pristine condition with almost everything still on board
from when she sank, the salvage divers fought to make it a Marine Sanctuary. It
is still littered with rifles, gas masks, jeeps, medical supplies, pieces of
art, bottles, chandeliers, port holes, parts of airplanes and so on making
it an incredible dive site. Add to that it's over 200m long, has about 10 decks
and you can swim from the last cargo hold in 65m all the way through the
wreck and come out the chain locker at 23m - it makes for tons of amazing
dives.
 We dived it 3 years ago over a few
weeks and were more than a little excited to dive it again. This time we dived
with Aquamarine who were excellent. It's amazing how much of the wreck has
deteriorated since we were there last. The whole promenade/bridge area has
collapsed which were really nice interesting dives. One of my favourites is the
engine room. At about 55m the gauges, throttle levers, last command from
the bridge are all still there to witness. We also saw the enormous turbines and
prop shafts, then through several decks, hatches, down ladders and popped out at
40m by "The Lady" a beautiful art deco sculpture of a Lady with a
Unicorn. Tradition says you have to take your reg out and give her a
kiss!
 Another dive was a "magical mystery
tour". I asked the senior instructor to take me on a tour of some of
the highlights and into some deep, dark, tight spaces. It may sound odd but
it's fun contorting your body and scuba gear to get through tight gaps, a bit
like an under water obstacle course. We entered via the anchor chain locker and
wound our way through numerous gang ways that are not normally visited. Here
there are heaps of stashed treasures that haven't yet been pilfered by divers.
We did most of the dive without torches as there
was a beautiful ambient blue light that is enough to navigate by when your eyes
have adjusted. It also startles the fish less so you get to see flashlight fish,
flashing on and off in phosphorescent blue. We
ended by swimming under the huge bow area which was like a huge overhanging
rock with amazing soft coral gardens covering the steel plates.
  No trip to the Coolidge would be
complete without a visit to the stern. This involves a 200m surface swim
(through waves and chop) to a buoy, descend to about 55m, then along a row of
portholes on the starboard side (ship lies on its port side) gradually making
your way towards the stern. With good viz you can see the ship narrow as the
hull thins out. Then the prop shaft comes into view, the huge rudder and finally
descending to read PRESIDENT COOLIDGE across the stern and onto the sand in 68m!
Rehan from Aquamarine had sent staff down there to clean the letters for us as
there had been complaints that the famous photo opportunity
had gone!
Shame Akio and Gav couldn't make it
to re-unite No Brains Divers. Then again it's probably a good thing as I
remember what deco is like with a stinking hangover!
Captain Bran Flakes in his new
dress.
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