SS President Coolidge

Verified2026-09-24 checkedWreck

A 200 m luxury liner turned troopship, lying on her side a short swim from the beach — the most accessible big wreck anywhere.

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Depth: 20–70 m66–230 ft
Difficulty: Advanced
Entry: Shore
Typical current: Light
Coordinates: 15°31.782′S 167°11.766′E
Activities: Scuba · Technical

The Coolidge was a luxury liner requisitioned as a troopship, and she struck friendly mines at the entrance to Santo harbour in October 1942. The captain ran her aground and almost every man aboard walked off; she then slid back down the slope and settled on her port side. The bow is at about 20 m and the stern at 70, and because the slope starts at the beach this is a shore dive — you walk in, follow a line, and are on a two-hundred-metre ship. Inside are guns, jeeps, helmets and a porcelain relief of a lady on a unicorn that everybody visits. It is deep, it is an overhead environment, and it is dived with a guide who knows it.

Shore entry from the beach at Luganville on Espiritu Santo; fly from Port Vila.

Best season

ExcellentMay–Sep
GoodOct–Dec
GoodMar–Apr
FairJan–Feb

Before you get in

Going inside a wreck is an overhead environment: silt can take the visibility in seconds, and there is entanglement. Swimming the outside of it is a different dive.
Deeper than recreational limits. It carries a decompression obligation and gas planning, and is not a dive to plan without that training.

Taken from this site’s recorded depth, type and current, and nothing else. An empty list is not a safe site — the sea on the day, the local geography and the boat traffic are not in it. The briefing on the spot comes first.

Conditions

Water temperature: 26.6°C80°F
Wave height: 0.8 m3 ft

Updated 2026-10-07 15:45 UTC · Source: Open-Meteo

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0)

Conditions are reported for information only. Assess the site yourself and follow your guide and your training.

No live conditions for this site yet.

We only show numbers we can attribute to a source.

Sea state and tide

On a date

Tide · 10/8

High02:201.41 m
Low08:340.15 m
High14:581.46 m
Low21:020.30 m

Forecast heights against mean sea level. Real tides in a bay, a harbour or over a flat can differ — check an official tide table before you get in.

Pick a day to see its tide

Only wave height and wind are scored, because those are what close a boat ramp or a shore entry. Water temperature is reported and never scored: 12°C is an ordinary dive in a drysuit and punishing in a 3 mm, and a number that cannot see your suit has no business marking it down. Stars do not decide whether you get in — you and your guide do, on the day.

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0)

Marine life you may see

Teira batfishPlatax teiraCommon
Giant morayGymnothorax javanicusCommon
NudibranchNudibranchiaCommon
Red lionfishPterois volitansCommon
Bigeye trevallyCaranx sexfasciatusSeasonal
Staghorn coralAcropora spp.Common
TrumpetfishAulostomus chinensisCommon
FlatwormPseudoceros spp.Rare
Feather starCrinoideaCommon
Bluestripe snapperLutjanus kasmiraCommon
Spanish dancerHexabranchus sanguineusRare

From divers

What people who were in the water reported. Not a forecast, and not a judgement about whether the site is safe to dive.

No recent reports from divers. If you dived here in the last two weeks, you can say how it was.

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