Paul Allen News

A privately funded mission has found, surveyed and filmed the USS Johnston, the world’s deepest known shipwreck, offshore Samar Island in the Philippines Sea.The expedition was backed by Victor Vescovo, is an entrepreneur, explorer and retired U.S. Navy Commander who personally piloted his submersible DSV Limiting Factor down to the wreck during two separate, eight-hour dives 21,180 feet (6,456 meters) below the ocean's surface. These constituted the deepest wreck dives, manned or unmanned…

The expedition crew aboard the late Paul G. Allen’s research vessel (R/V) Petrel discovered wreckage from USS Wasp (CV 7), which was sunk in 1942.Wasp, found Jan. 14, was sunk Sept. 15, 1942, by four Japanese torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-19 while escorting transports carrying the Seventh Marine Regiment to Guadalcanal as reinforcements. Of the 2,162 on board, 176 were killed as a result of the attack. The sunken aircraft carrier was found in the Coral Sea, 4,200 meters (nearly 14,000 feet) below the surface.“Paul Allen’s passion for U.S. history lives on through these missions.

The USS Helena (CL 50) is the latest in a string of historic shipwrecks discovered by Paul G. Allen’s expedition crew aboard the state-of-the-art research vessel Petrel.The U.S. Navy's storied St. Louis-class light cruiser began her World War II service at Pearl Harbor and took part in three significant battles during the Solomon Islands campaign before being sunk by Japanese torpedoes on July 6, 1943, during the Battle of Kula Gulf. All but 168 of Helena’s 900 crew survived the…

The anchor chain of 303-foot mega-yacht, the Tatoosh, belonging to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been blamed for destroying a large area of protected coral reef in the Cayman Islands. It destroyed almost 14,000 square foot, or about 80 per cent,  of reef in a protected area in the West Bay area of the Cayman Islands, according to the islands' Department of Environment (DoE). Allen's Seattle-based Vulcan Inc organisation, which manages his fortune, said on Wednesday that the M/V Tatoosh was moored on January 14 in a "position explicitly directed" by the local port authority and that his team was co-operating with the investigation. CNN reported that Mr Allen could face a maximum fine of roughly $US600,000, not counting civil damages.

An attempt by US philanthropist to recover the bell of the sunken Second World War British battle-cruiser HMS Hood postponed. After more than ten days working in the North Atlantic in worsening weather and difficult deep currents, the recovery team on board US philanthropist Paul Allen's yacht Octopus were reluctantly forced to discontinue the operation, but not before commemorative wreaths were laid where the ship sank. The bell was found in more than 2,800 metres of water in the Denmark Strait, where it has lain since Hood was sunk by the German warship Bismarck on 24 May 1941.

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the world’s richest man is currently on an Antarctica cruise in one of the largest and most luxurious private super-yachts belonging to his associate Paul Allen. The $250m Octopus with Gates and 17 relatives and friends called in Ushuaia over the weekend to wait for Allen who arrived in a private Boeing 757 and was flown on board in one of the two super yacht’s helicopters. For security reasons the Octopus had to wait for the helicopters in Ushuaia bay. The Gates and Allen group are scheduled to cruise the Antarctic peninsula during ten days before returning to Ushuaia, revealed Sunday Gustavo de Robles, head of Ushuaia port authority. The 413-ft.