One of its residents, former New Zealand race car driver Reece Discombe, was the first person in the southern hemisphere to use the revolutionary aqua-lungs perfected by Jacques Cousteau.

It was at Luganville in the north island of Espirito Santo in 1947, a couple of years after the famous French underwater explorer made his prototype. Discombe went on to dive the wrecks of a couple of US Navy ships sunk in the harbour.

These days, veteran scuba divers say the wreck of the troop ship President Coolidge at Luganville is the finest dive site in the world.

The President Coolidge was launched in 1931 as a luxury liner. It could carry 988 passengers, 30 percent of them in first class. No money had been spared to make her art deco trimmings the equivalent of the best hotels in Europe. All first-class and many special-class cabins had en suites.

Special attention had been paid to forced ventilation in all public places, which kept them at an even temperature in an era that was yet to discover air conditioning.

There was even a stock exchange on board the opulent liner, where the wealthy could have their bids for shares radioed back to Wall Street. 

Early in World War II, the ship was converted to carry troops - the majority in cramped quarters nothing like the luxury its former passengers enjoyed.

On October 26, 1942, the giant ship steamed into a “friendly” minefield putting the lives of almost 5100 American troops at risk.

Unbelievably, the captain hadn’t been warned because he was a civilian. He expertly managed to beach the vessel and all but two on board got off alive before it slipped back into a watery grave.

In the past four decades tens of thousands of divers have swum through the ship’s shell. The highlight of any dive is the viewing of a magnificent panel of pottery, depicting a lady and a unicorn. It used to hold pride of place on the main wall in ship’s First Class Smoking Room.

Twelve years ago the locals brought “The Lady” to the surface, cleaned her up, and took her back down to a place where rookie divers can reach her. In recent years tourism numbers dwindled as major airlines stopped flying into Vanuatu’s Port Vila airport because of problems with the runway.

But earlier this year Pekoa Airport in Luganville was upgraded to take wide-bodied international aircraft and this month Qantas began a twice-weekly code-share service with Air Vanuatu out of Brisbane.

Now divers can return to view “The Lady”.