The President Coolidge A 654ft 21,936 ton luxury liner was converted to a military transport vessel at the beginning of WW2 making several successful runs in 1942. In October of that year she departed San Francisco for New Caledonia and Espiritu Santo with over 5000 troops & equipment. On the morning of 26th October after misunderstandings in regard to sailing instructions she struck 2 mines in a field deployed at the entrance to the Segond Channel. Hopelessly disabled her captain ordered the vessel to be run aground & all personnel to immediately abandon ship, with the intention of salvaging their equipment later. However 55mins later she was claimed by the waters of the Segond Channel sliding backward from the shore rolling on her port side. The President Coolidge remains in her final resting place to this day,only meters from the shore with the bow at 20m & stern at 65m,she’s the largest most accessible wreck dive in the world. Divers can swim with local guides through many of her compartments to see the amazing array of military equipment left behind. Along with the destroyer USS Tucker which suffered a similar fate at the other end of the Channel months earlier .The Henry Bonnard an Island trader purposely sunk as a dive site they form truly unique pieces in the pattern of life beneath the blue mirror of Espiritu Santo. These dives are rated some of the best in the world.