Reef Wreck & Critter
  • Home
  • U/W Photo Accessories
    • U/W Photo Accessories Range
    • Camera Housing Leak Detector
    • Underwater Camera Housing Maintenance
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Publications
    • Tulamben Book
  • More
    • Dive Western Australia - Book - Free Download
    • Canon Housing Leak Problems
  • Contact

Another WWII Shipwreck

24/8/2017

0 Comments

 
August saw us slip away to Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the South Pacific to celebrate a significant milestone, we've been married for 40 years! But don't worry, we are due for parole sometime soon :-)
High on our list of things to do was dive on the WWII wreck of the SS President Coolidge in Vanuatu, a 200 meter long luxury cruise liner converted to an armed troop carrier for the second world war. The ship was carrying 5000 US troops and lots of military vehicles & machinery when it hit two mines set by allied forces in the entrance channel to Luganville on the island of Espiritu Santo. The captain drove the ship onto the shore to save her, but she sank stern first and now lays with starboard side up in depths of 21 to 70 meters.
We did two dives using larger tanks than normal (not recommended for bad backs due to the long walk) with 30% nitrox to allow us ample time to check out the cargo holds contents and forward guns. The short video below shows some of our finds.
Picture

Troops escpape the sinking ship just after her captain drove her ashore
NOTE: We dived with Absolute Adventures Santo (thanks for your organisation Tom, and also Steve for guiding us through the dark interior of the ship). This was the only dive company we could find that had positive answers to our requests and had various mixes of  nitrox available (as well as rebreathers and mulitple tanks), Our dive guide had twin tanks and a slung spare nitrox tank should anyone need additional air. Plus we had four hour intervals between dives. Now we understand why so many people have been bent over the years diving on this wreck, as other dive companies we contacted promoted doing two dives in a morning on standard air.... No thanks!
0 Comments

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Reef Wreck & Critter Blog:

    Jeff & Dawn Mullins run this Blog to give an insight into our underwater discoveries in Indonesia and any news about what we are currently doing .

    Archives

    October 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    September 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    October 2009

Picture
Copyright - Jeff & Dawn Mullins © 2023