wreck

Log This Dive

SS President Coolidge

We’re just going to say it: the SS President Coolidge is our pick for the best shore-accessible wreck on the planet. Forget the boats, you just walk in from the beach, fins on, and descend straight onto a 22,000-ton luxury liner. What an introduction. Dropping down to the bow at 20 metres, you start to feel the sheer scale of the ship. We love exploring the cargo holds, where jeeps and equipment sit frozen in time, and the famous 'The Lady' mosaic in the first-class lounge is always worth a visit. Deeper, around 40 to 60 metres, you can penetrate the engine rooms or the medical bay, but those are serious technical dives. Visibility here is usually pretty good, often 20 metres plus, but a big rain can stir things up a bit. Even then, the atmosphere inside the wreck is incredible, light shafts cutting through the gloom. The ship’s been down since 1942, so the corals are well established, and we always spot plenty of squirrelfish lurking in the shadows. Look for bluestripe pipefish amongst the deck fittings, too. It’s an advanced dive, for sure, due to the depth and overhead environments, but the rewards are immense. We’d suggest multiple dives to properly take it all in; one simply isn’t enough.