Advanced Vanuatu
Vanuatu
An ocean liner converted into a troop transport that you can walk into from the beach
A luxury ocean liner converted into a troop transport struck a mine in 1942 and sank just meters from shore. Two hundred meters of ship, with the jeeps, the guns and the crockery still inside, and you walk in from the beach.
In this profile you'll find out what this wreck is and why it's unique, what its size and depth mean in terms of training, what the military scrap graveyard next to it is, when to go, and what level it really demands.
It's one of the most accessible large wrecks in the world, and precisely because of that, it's one of the sites where many divers get in over their training without realizing it.
Geography and access
Vanuatu is a volcanic archipelago in the South Pacific, and the wreck that made it famous sits off the coast of one of its main islands, just meters from the beach.
The ship was a luxury ocean liner converted into a troop transport. In 1942 it entered its own minefield and its captain deliberately grounded it on the shore to allow the evacuation; it then listed and slid down the slope.
That explains its current position: it rests on its side on a steep slope, with the bow just over twenty meters down and the stern below sixty. It's the same wreck, but with completely different depth ranges depending on the zone.
Next to it is a spot where the US military dumped tons of material into the sea at the end of the war: trucks, bulldozers, cranes and supply crates, today a seabed covered in rusted machinery.
Access is by international flight to the capital and a domestic flight to the island. Dives on the wreck are done by entering from the shore and swimming a few meters.
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