A team of researchers led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has discovered a long-lost Japanese battleship that was sunk during WWII with the loss of over 1,000 Japanese sailors.
Allen announced the finding on his website that his team discovered the wreck of the Musashi, one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced battleships in naval history. The ship was sunk by American forces off the coast of the Philippines on October 24, 1944, during WWII.
Allen said that the ship was found in Sibuyan Sea at a depth of more than 1 kilometer on March 1, 2015 by a team aboard his superyacht, MY Octopus.
Commissioned in 1942, the Musashi was part of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato-class. At 73,000 tons fully loaded, the Musashi and sister-ship Yamato are considered among the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed. The ships were equipped with 460mm (18 inch) guns, the largest ever mounted on a warship.
It is estimated that 1,023 of the total 2,399 crew lost their lives when it capsized and sank, bow first. The exact location of her sinking has remained a mystery up until now.
Allen and his team did not come across the wreck by chance. According to his website, Allen has been searching for the Musashi for more than eight years.
The Yamato also did not survive the War. It was sunk by Allied forces on April 7, 1945 with the loss of nearly 2,500 lives. The wreck of the Yamato was first located at the bottom of the East China Sea in 1985.
Since being launched in 2003, Allen’s MY Octopus, one of the most recognizable, largest and advanced yachts in the world, has been regularly used for exploration, scientific research and rescue missions. In 2012, the Octopus was used to launch Director James Cameron’s world record solo dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest place on earth located in the Marianas Trench.
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