Diving the President Coolidge
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2006
1
71
79
Trip End
Aug 22, 2006
Luganville, Espiritu Santo,
Vanuatu
Monday, August 14, 2006
03 The Coolidge run aground in 1942
Our guide would be an Australian fireman named Jason, who comes every year on holiday to help guide divers on the wreck.
01 gearing up and briefing
He would take us on a relatively shallow and easy dive since this was the girls' and Marjolaine's first wreck dive (I've had the chance to do a few small ones in the Caribbean). At 8:30 we drove a few km down the road toward the airport, and then branched out on a dirt road that took us down to the wreck site. It is so close to the shore that we would simply dive off the beach. We suited up and waddled through the waves to chest-high depth (for the adults) to where guide ropes have been affixed underwater.
02 walking out to the dive site
We put our fins and masks on, put our regulators in, gave the OK then the thumbs down signs and entered the underwater world. Visibility was not too good since there was been recent rain and some waves to stir up sediment. Tatiana paired with me and Fiona with Marjolaine as we followed Jason down the rope. Gradually, at about 15 meters, through the gloom we could see the looming bow of the great ship.
04 The bow of the Coolidge
We reached the peak of the bow and paused a moment to look around, orient ourselves and to do an equipment check. Everything was good to go.We swam down underneath the bow then along deck of the ship, which lies almost completely on its port (left) side. We passed a 3 inch canon still on its deck mounting as we worked our way aft.
05 the 3 inch deck gun we saw
Finally arriving at the promenade deck we saw the front area was open, so that we could easily swim inside. It was an amazing, sublime sort of feeling to actually be swimming inside the structure of what had been a great luxury liner and troop ship! There is a mixture of pulse-pounding excitement at the adventure of discovery, mingled with a slight fear of the dark unknown, and a small voice continually asking the question in the background, "could I get out of here if there were a problem?"
06 swimming through the Promenade Deck
Because the ship was on her side, what had been the outside windows were now above us, the floor of the deck was the wall to our left, what had been the wall, was now our floor. As we moved slowly along the promenade deck we came to some artifacts. Jason got our attention and handed around a bayonet, a gasmask, and the head of a pickax for us to handle. Rifles were piled nearby.
07 Rifles and helmets on the Promenade Deck
I thought about how these things had been made over 60 years ago to fight WW II and had been sitting here underwater since the wreck. Marjolaine told me later she was feeling a little overwhelmed by the murky water which limited visibility to 10 meters (30 feet) or so (which seemed to her to be more like 3 feet...), and the enclosed feeling of being inside the ship's structure. She decided during the dive that once would be enough for her. We exited the promenade deck at the aft end and made our way up the hull to the top side which was actually the starboard (right) side of the ship. We moved forward, swimming over portholes and large rectangular holes that had been cut in the hull to allow Navy salvage divers to enter. We saw the remnants of a shark cage that had been welded to the hull for the protection of the navy divers. It had never had to be used; for some reason sharks are hardly ever seen here and if they are it is only the small reef shark variety. Jason showed us a large cooking pot that had been placed on the hull. He pulled the lid off and showed us another gas mask, some trays, plates and bottles and other artifacts gathered from the wreck. We swam on then, back to the bow before starting up the guideline. We were at our safety stations about half an hour after we entered the water. We had seen and experienced so much in only half an hour! Since we had been to a depth of 30 meters (over 90 feet), we made two safety stops: 3 minutes at 9 meters and 10 minutes at 6 meters.
While we waited, Jason gave us some bread to feed the many fish circling around. There were all sorts of fish ranging from small clown (Nemo) fish, to angel fish of various sizes, to large red snapper bass, and even a titan trigger fish. Titan triggers, which can grow to 80 cm (nearly 3 feet) or so in length, can be very territorial during spawning. I've heard stories of unwary divers having chunks bitten out of their wet suits or even their legs by defensive titan triggers which have sharp beak-like mouths. I kept my eye on the one circling us, but it became clear he just wanted some bread. Fiona and Tatiana reveled in the experience of having clouds of fish all around them, right in front of masks, eating the bread right out of their hands and even nibbling their fingers. Finally, the safety stops finished, we surfaced.
We walked back to the beach through the surf and got out of our gear before riding back into town, where we warmed up over coffee and hot buns with the other divers. We looked through books and photos of the wreck to gain a better understanding of what we had just seen. Fiona and Tatiana were so enthusiastic that the three of us decided, if we could, to dive one more time in the afternoon. Jason said they'd be around to pick us up at 14:00. That time came around quickly.
Marjolaine wasn't going to dive, but did come out to the beach with us to take photos and shoot some video footage. Once again we donned our gear and heard the dive briefing. We'd be going to about the same depth, but this time far inside the hull of the ship into an area where medical supplies had been stored. We would all have torches (what we call in the US "flashlights") with us so that we could see.
The tide was out this time so we could walk over nothing more than damp sand almost to the spot where the guide ropes began. Fins and masks on and regulators in, we all gave the OK sign and headed back down to the President Coolidge.
Instead of going all the way down to the bow, we glided over the side of the ship (which is now on top) to where the rectangular salvage holes had been cut. After one last OK check from everyone, Jason exhaled and let himself drift slowly down into the dark hole. Fiona and Tatiana followed, and I brought up the rear. We drifted down about 8-10 meters, and then swam over to one side through some additional holes cut in decking and bulkheads. We came to a spot against a bulkhead where we found many bottles of medical supplies lying in disarray: jars and vials of powders red, blue and white, syringes and the like.
08 medical jars and vials.
Several of the jars had been cleaned of their mud and goop so that divers could see the contents and colors clearly. To hold these things was to hold small pieces of history. We handled them carefully and gently. We might have floated farther down than the ledge where the supplies sat, had our buoyancy not been properly regulated; I was happy to see that the girls are really getting the hang of this technique now and did very well. When I looked up I could see a greenish light coming from above and to one side. That represented the way, through a series of passage holes, back up to the surface. I always kept one eye on it....We moved back under the entry holes and across the area open to the surface, through another passage hole and then settled down a few meters farther in the trench of another cargo hold. There we found another stash of medical supplies. Vials of white powder, antibiotics, I believe, and more vials of clear colorless liquid with enough air in them to make them buoyant. If we had not placed them back carefully in their protected place, they would have bobbed up and perhaps eventually have made their way to the surface to be broken by the surf on the beach.
Back under the entry holes we went and down into another trench where we saw medical tubing for IVs and other items like funnels (probably to be used for enemas) and similar kinds of medical materiel. Then we had to swim through a very small hole into another section of hold.
It's easy to misjudge clearance distances when diving. Diving masks tend to magnify what you see, and also limit your field of view, as if you cupped your hands around the side of your eyes. It takes some getting used to, as Fiona learned here. She misjudged the size of the hole and the clearance required and bumped her head on the top of the metal ringed hole. Both Jason and I saw it coming and tried to reach her in time, but neither of us made it. Fortunately she was swimming slowly and the contact didn't hurt much.
Once through in the much larger hold, we saw through the greenish light arriving from above, ropes and cables dangling here and there, and all sorts of non-descript material beside and below us. By this time Fiona was down to 50 bars of air, which is considered a diver's reserve. We signaled this to Jason, who signaled "OK" and started us toward an exit hole. Fiona had settled a meter or so below us while I was turned away signaling Jason, so as we turned to head for the outside, and I gave a kick of a fin, I brushed Fiona's head below me at the level of my feet. Poor girl! First she bumps here head on a bulkhead passage, and then has her father give her a kick in the head as well. Again, it was more just contact that a kick and she said later it didn't hurt, but I felt concerned anyway until I knew she was fine.
We finally swam free of the hull, and after a last look at a barber's chair bolted to what used to be the floor but was now a wall, we moved back to the bow. To conserve Fiona's reserve air, she switched over to a spare regulator that Jason's had attached to his double tank. We climbed to nine meters where we did a first safety stop of three minutes in what they call the coral garden, the place where we had fed the fish during the morning dive. We had no bread for the fish this time, but they cruised around anyway still hopeful. Moving up to six meters we had another ten minute wait, during which Jason demonstrated how to blow air rings (similar to blowing smoke rings). By lying on his back, taking a lungful of air, removing his regulator and blowing out air with his mouth held just so, he could produce a very nice spinning ring which rose beautifully to the surface. By using the same procedure Fiona, Tatiana and I could produce an amorphous blob of bubbles that went every which way. Jason gave us the "not so good" signal by way of score card. We obviously need more work on our air rings.
The safety stops over, Fiona switched back to her own regulator for the final leg of surfacing. I had been watching to see how she would react to having to breathe from someone else's tank. If one thinks too much about all the things that could conceivably happen, fear or panic can take over, and I've seen that happen on a dive two. But Fiona had stayed calm and handled the whole thing with perfect aplomb. Jason told me later he was very impressed with how well both girls handled themselves underwater: very at ease, alert and attentive, confident. Of course that's all music to a parent's ear!
Marjolaine snapped photos of us as we waded ashore, and we all bubbled (if you'll pardon the expression) with excitement as we relived all the amazing experiences of the dive.
09 Coming back in
It was truly exceptional. We won't soon forget either of our dives on the President Coolidge!
10 Happy divers
Back at the hotel I again checked for messages hoping to have heard from the people we wished to contact. There was still nothing.
Diving as we had done during the day is tiring, even taxing; Tatiana had a headache that came and went through the evening. We were all tired enough that after dinner we decided to make an early night of it.
