Vanuatu - The President Coolidge

Launched on 21st February 1931 the SS President Coolidge was the largest passenger ship to be constructed in America (with her twin sister, the SS President Hoover) at that time. Built by Newport News Shipbuilding Drydock Company in Newport News, the Coolidge was 200m by 25m and had a gross displacement of 21,936 tons. This ship first started out as a passenger carrier but by the beginning of the Second World War its role shifted to that of SS President Coolidge. On the 15th of July 1941 the President Coolidge began its first voyage, on a full-time basis, for the army, taking it from Honolulu to Manila. Up until the time it sank, the Coolidge ferried troops to the war front prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbour. On 6 October 1942 it sailed out from San Francisco headed for New Caledonia and Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu. This was the ship's very last voyage. On the 26th of October 1942, after striking an American mine, it sank in 20 fathoms of water at the east entrance of the Segond Channel of Espiritu Santo. Nearly all of the 5,000 officers and men on board were saved.