The Billionaire and the Battleship
Boy is smart, boy makes billions, boy spends his billions on a football team and a yacht, boy uses yacht to discover long lost sunken battleship - the oldest story in the world.
This news from yesterday,
“Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen said Wednesday he has found the wreck of the WWII Japanese battleship Musashi, one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced battleships, more than 70 years after U.S. forces sank it.
The battleship was located Sunday by Allen’s luxury yacht and exploration ship, the M/Y Octopus, at the depth of 1 km (0.6 miles) in the Sibuyan Sea off the Philippines...
The Musashi fought in several battles, including the Battle of the Philippine Sea. On Oct. 24, 1944 it was sunk by an estimated 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs in the lead up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which is considered the WWII’s largest naval battle. There, U.S. and Australian forces defeated the Japanese.
Of the battleship’s 2,399 crew members, nearly half lost their lives...
“Since my youth, I have been fascinated with World War II history, inspired by my father’s service in the U.S. Army,” Allen said in a statement.
“The Musashi is truly an engineering marvel and, as an engineer at heart, I have a deep appreciation for the technology and effort that went into its construction,” he added.”
Commissioned in 1942 along with her sister ship, the well known Yamato (which also got sunk; lesson here - don't upset the American navy) the Musashi was an absolute beast, weighing in at 73,000 tons, sporting 18-inch-thick armor plating and brandishing 9 guns at 18 inches apiece. Unfortunately for the Japanese Navy, the great sea battles of WWII marked the decline of the battleship's dominance as the aircraft carrier rose to take its place - the new apex weapon of the high seas.
No word yet on whether or not Allen plans to gift the wreck to Marshawn Lynch in lieu of not handing him the ball in the waning moments of Superbowl XLIX.
To watch a video of the Musashi's discovery, look below.