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Diving program launched at Green Island to explore underwater heritage

  • Date:2020-08-27
Diving program launched at Green Island to explore underwater heritage

A tailor-made program, including a visit to the area where an American luxury ocean liner was stranded in 1937, was carried out at Green Island from Aug. 24 to 27 to train divers to explore underwater sites and to promote public awareness and appreciation for Taiwan’s marine cultural heritage.

Commissioned by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Tamkang University's Center for Ocean and Underwater Technology Research (COUTR) launched the four-day program to draw attention to code of conduct for diving on submerged archaeological sites.

The program saw 25 diving instructors engaged in a two-day diving activities to explore a site off the north coast of Green Island where the ocean liner SS President Hoover was stranded.

SS President Hoover , which provided a trans-Pacific service between the US and the Far East in the 1930s, encountered heavy weather and ran hard aground on a reef in Gongguan area when on its way to Manila, the Philippines, in December 1937 at the height of World War II. Its bottom was torn open, according to local archives.

There were more than 700 passengers and crews on the vessel, who eventually went ashore with the assistance of the Green Island's residents, the archives say.

Both of the United States and Japan sent warships to guard and monitor the vessel, which was said to transport important correspondence and valuables. SS President Hoover was handed over to Japan for dismantling after important items and personnel on the cruise were removed by the U.S. military.

The Green Island Lighthouse, the area's landmark, was established in 1939 with the fund provided by the United States through the American Red Cross, as a token of appreciation for the rescue of the people on the vessel.

The Bureau of Cultural Heritage listed the area where the cruise ship stranded as a designated zone for underwater cultural assets. In July, 2020, a warning sign – the first of its kind in the nation – was erected in Gongguan area by the bureau to protect the registered underwater archaeological site.

Such training courses are essential to Taiwan's budding underwater archaeology as well as the protection of underwater cultural assets, according to COUTR director Liu Jin-yuan (劉金源). To cultivate public understanding of Taiwan's cultural assets, programs alike can be combined with underwater sightseeing tours, he added.