Vanuatu is a small island republic in the South Pacific - sort of in the neighbourhood of Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
I visited Vanuatu seven years ago, I thought you might be interested.
May 2008
So what am I doing in
Vanuatu? Well it’s part of my “Bucket List.”
I’m in the South Pacific
Island of Espiritu Santo which is part of the Republic of Vanuatu. Vanuatu is
an island nation comprising of approximately 83 islands. If that isn't
confusing enough there are over a 100 different indigenous languages that are
spoken in the tiny country of about a quarter of a million people. It was
originally a French colony; but given the fact that it was – well a French
Colony, there isn't that much French spoken there anymore. English is the main
language spoken along with Bislama – a type of Pidgin English spoken on several
South Pacific Islands. Vanuatu is in the South Pacific about 1700 east of
Northern Australia and west of Fiji.
If you’re a survivor fan,
you might have heard of Vanuatu, as the shows 9th season was shot there
in 2004. If you’re a lot older you might remember the TV Series “Baa Baa Black
Sheep” staring Robert Conrad. The series was about American pilots stationed in
Vanuatu during WWII.
Vanuatu was a key base
during WWII used by the allies to stop Japan's relentless march towards
Australia, and is indirectly the reason why I’m visiting the country.
As a scuba diver who
relishes diving on historical WWII wrecks, Vanuatu is very high up on my
“bucket list.” That’s because Vanuatu sports the only intact ocean liner, lying
only a few hundred yards off shore.
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| SS Coolidge |
The Coolidge, named after
American President Calvin Coolidge was a luxury ocean liner built in 1931. She
was 654 feet long and 84 feet wide and could accommodate 3500 passengers (By
comparison the Holland American Veendam is 720 feet long and can accommodate
1250 passengers).
In 1941 the Coolidge was
appropriated by the American Government to be used a troop transport. All the
luxury and finery was stripped out of her. She was painted gun metal grey and
reconfigured to carry up to 5000 troops.
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| Coolidge on the Beach |
It was on one of these troop
carrying missions to Vanuatu that the Coolidge hit a mine and began to sink.
The Captain ran the ship onto the shore of Espiritu Santo and by some miracle
nearly all the 5000 troops and crew scrambled off the ship and waded ashore. A
few hours later the Coolidge slid off the beach and sank into deeper water.
For the next twenty years
the ship lay untouched until an Australian diver/photographer named Alan Powers
rediscovered the wreck and led in salvage operations in the late sixties then
opened a diver operation specializing on dives on the Coolidge.
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| Jeff & Alan Powers |
Alan is a Cherubic man in
his mid seventies who still often goes out with his clients to dive the
Coolidge. He has built a fairly large very professional dive operation that
operates in a large building on the main street of Luganville next to his home.
One of the unique things
about diving the Coolidge is that you can do so right from the beach. You wade
out about about a hundred feet where you find a rope. You simply follow the
rope down to the bow of the ship. The bow of the ship is fairly shallow, about
10 meters. The stern is quite deep lying in 70 meters – a deep dive by
anyone's standard.
Because most of the dives
are fairly deep most of the dives require what is known as “decompression.”
What this means is that because you have been diving at depth, you must make
some carefully planned rest stops on your way back up to allow your body time
to expel the excess nitrogen that has accumulated in your body. If you don't
you could suffer a nasty and potentially fatal case of the bends. Depending on
how deep you've been and how long you've been there you can spend easily
upwards of half an hour just “blowing” off nitrogen. Because of the lengthy
waiting, you probably won't have enough air in your tanks to complete the dive
without some help. That's why the dive operation plans to leave extra tanks for
their divers at certain depths. When you arrive at the predetermined depth there
should be tanks waiting for you and you switch over to them, then when the rest
time is complete you witch back to your own and proceed to the next stop or the
surface. This process can take a while.
Decompression diving is not
a skill that is taught to beginning divers, but is taught in the more advanced
courses, so if you're a new or beginning diver you might want to reconsider
diving the Coolidge.
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| The Coolidge on the bottom |
My first dive on the
Coolidge was to familiarize myself with the outside of the ship, and this went
well. This ship is so huge that it's hard to really get a feeling for the scope
of it. Also because the ship is lying on it's starboard side it's hard to
really get the perspective of it. The dive was fairly deep and my dive computer
began to beep indicating that I had now entered decompression mode. I followed
the instructions on my computer and with my fellow divers completed the dive
without incident. Because we were not that deep for any great length of time I
didn't need to use the auxiliary air. However the next dive was a completely
different story.
 |
| "the Lady" |
The “must do” dive of the
Coolidge is the visit to “The Lady” The lady is a large picture of a lady
riding a horse in the main dining room of the Coolidge. It's considered good
luck for a first time visitor to swim up to the picture, take the regulator of
their mouth and kiss the lady.
I'm somewhat skeptical about
doing this. First of all it's a much deeper dive than my previous one. It's
also deep inside the ship. Also several divers have gone to visit the lady and
never returned. Did I mention I'm slightly claustrophobic? I have panic attacks
in car washes.
I'm told that I will be
fine. In fact they will assign an experienced dive master to accompany just me.
I reluctantly agree.
David is my experienced dive
master. I introduce myself and ask him how old he is.
“I just turned twenty one. “
He says proudly. My kids are older than him. This does inspire confidence.
We proceed down the rope to
the Coolidge. I've got a small diving torch and my underwater camera with me.
Things go well till we enter into the ship. It's darker than the inside of a
cow! I grab onto David's arm like a blind man crossing a busy highway. My other
hand has a death grip on my flashlight. My camera is all but forgotten. All my
breathing techniques are quickly forgotten and I begin chugging through my air
like a steam engine. I worry that if my flashlight runs out of battery power
I'll be lost in the inky darkness forever.
David gamely keeps pushing
me forward. Finally we've arrived at the painting. David pries the camera from
my hand and motions for me to take the regulator out of my mouth and “kiss the
lady.”
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| Jeff Kissing the ???? |
David shakes his head and motions for me to do it again. I do it three times while he keeps taking pictures. Finally it's time to head back. As we leave the ship I notice that I have hyperventilated through a most of my air. I won’t have enough to make it back to the beach. I show David my air gauge and he motions for me to share some of his air – he has lots. We proceed along like a pair of Siamese twins to the first decompression stop where I switch to the tanks that have been left at the site. After about twenty minutes it is time to swim back to the beach.
Back at the dive shop David is showing the other dive masters the pictures he took of me kissing the lady. They are all laughing uproariously. When I ask to see what’s so funny they show me the pictures.
The pictures show me not kissing the lady. I am, in fact, kissing the unicorn! I confess that I would have kissed the unicorn’s back end if it would have got me out of the ship quicker!
All in all, diving on the Coolidge was a great experience. So what’s next on my bucket list? I hear there’s 1890’s vintage American Battleship scuttled in Suva harbor in the Philippines. I just hope there isn't anything to kiss there.
If you go:
Vanuatu is serviced by Qantas and Air Vanuatu. Routing can be a bit of a challenge as the airlines only fly on certain days and change their schedules frequently. I booked my South Pacific trip which included Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Australia through Travel Arrangements Limited (www.SouthPacificReservations.com) which specializes in South Pacific Travel. The dive operator in Vanuatu was through Allan Power Dive Tours (www.allan-power-santo.com)
NEXT:
Out of Africa - Is it safe to return?
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