One Million Dollar Point

One Million Dollar Point is one of the most historically fascinating and geologically unusual beginner dive sites in the Pacific — a shallow water dive off Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu at the site of one of World War II's most extraordinary and wasteful episodes: the deliberate dumping of millions of dollars' worth of American military equipment into the sea at the end of the war in 1945. When American forces departed Espiritu Santo following the Japanese surrender, the US military attempted to sell its massive surplus of equipment — bulldozers, jeeps, trucks, tractors, and countless other vehicles — to the British colonial administration at discounted prices. The British declined, reportedly expecting to receive the equipment for free as war surplus, so the Americans instead drove everything off the end of the pier directly into the sea rather than allow it to fall into others' hands. The resulting underwater deposit is an extraordinary archaeological site: the seafloor in the shallows of Million Dollar Point is carpeted in rusting military equipment in every direction, creating an industrial underwater landscape unlike anything else in the Pacific. Bulldozers, jeeps, spare parts, and miscellaneous equipment all lie jumbled together in 15 to 30 feet of water, thoroughly colonized by coral, sponges, and tropical fish after eight decades of submersion. The beginner depth makes the site accessible without advanced certification, and the combination of historical significance and extraordinary visual character — colorful reef life growing over the rusting machinery of war — creates one of the Pacific's most thought-provoking diving experiences. Fish communities are rich throughout the site.