The ship is covered with both hard & soft corals. Before you enter the interior, you’ll be greeted by trigger fish, lion fish, nudibranchs & a resident green moray eel, all in glaring contrast to the cannons they adorn & inhabit. Inside you’ll find gas masks, helmets, ammunition, rifles … all the accoutrements of a soldier’s life including personal items. In the holds, you find major military equipment including trucks, jeeps, ambulances & cannons. You can swim through the control room, see the turbines & shaft and visit the galley where you’ll get a feeling for food preparation on board. Pretty well everything that was used in daily ship life is there for you to ponder.

The doctor’s office and infirmary still have medicines and syringes while in the barber shop, you find the actual barber’s chair still there and the soda fountain has masses of coke bottles.

Perhaps most astonishing in this entire experience are the remnants of a luxury liner. In the midst of all of this military paraphernalia, there remains a beautiful mosaic fountain, a porcelain statue of a lady and a unicorn, a first-class dining room, lobby, library and swimming pool.

The contradictions will almost certainly leave you contemplating the complexities of war.

Adding fascination to the history is the recent expedition of American military divers who found the remains of Army Captain Elwood Joseph Euart, who, after escaping, returned to the ship to free soliders who were trapped in sick bay.  According to records, they all got free with his help but Captain Euart was unable to climb the rope to safety before the ship slipped further into the water, taking him down with it.  DNA results have confirmed that indeed the remains recovered in March of 2015 are those of the heroic army captain ….. and a plaque in his honor has been placed upon the shipe ….