Paul Allen legacy includes a long list of solved World War II naval mysteries

BILLIONAIRE Paul Allen had a passion. And he made a personal bucket-list to live it to the full. But he didn’t quite get to tick all the items off.

MICROSOFT co-founder Paul Allen loved history. Naval history in particular. And, after his initial diagnosis with lymphoma in 1982, he made it his personal bucket-list.

He wanted to find the wrecks of famous warships sunk during World War II.

Their locations were uncertain. And the circumstances behind some of the tragedies were not entirely understood.

So, by sinking a significant sum from his personal fortune into survey ships and submarines, Allen hoped to find them all.

He almost achieved this goal.

Among the many wrecks his team discovered are great names such as HMAS Canberra, USS Lexington, and IJN Mushashi. Canberra was an Australian heavy cruiser, lost in the battle of Savo Island. Lexington was a US aircraft carrier, sunk after the battle of Coral Sea. Musashi was one of the world’s largest battleships — battered beneath the waves of Leyte Gulf.

But Allen, 65, died even as his team set out once again.

The $250 million superyacht Octopus owned by Paul Allen when it pulled into Cairns after looking for World War II ship wrecks in the Coral Sea near Papua New Guinea. Picture: Brendan Radke

His exploration ship, RV Petrel, is in the Philippine Sea, west of the Mariana Islands.

It was the scene of several climactic battles between the US and Japan in World War II.

The exact identity of the Japanese warship they are looking remains a secret — until they find it.

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Marine scientists David Mearns told National Geographic that Allen’s passion was real: “Paul’s interest in marine exploration and shipwrecks was very personal, which grew in part from his father’s service during World War II. But in pursuing his passion and curiosity he also invited the world to join these exciting explorations through the computers he helped create. His important discoveries and illumination of naval history have ensured that the sacrifice of those who served is not forgotten.”

Wreckage from the USS Lexington, a US aircraft carrier which sank during World War II, that was found in the Coral Sea by a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Picture: AFP

MYSTERIES SOLVED

One of Allen’s most recent underwater missions was to help Australia solve the mystery of submarine HMAS AE1 — the first allied submarine to be lost in World War I. It vanished, without trace, carrying 35 officers and crew, in 1914.

Allen’s Petrel research vessel conducted a detailed underwater survey of the wreck in April this year.

“The AE1 has a special place in Australian maritime history, and I’m proud of our partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum and others that brought an end to the mystery of the AE1’s final resting place,” Allen said at the time. “For all of us associated with Petrel, we view this work as a means to honour the courage and sacrifice of the crew of the AE1.”

Allen expressed this sentiment with all of his finds.

These includes the cruiser USS Indianapolis. The story of the fate of its survivors — who spent days adrift in shark-infested waters — was made famous by the movie Jaws. But the ship had also just returned from carrying components of the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima.

His team also found one of the most serious losses the US suffered during the Pacific War — the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. Its aircraft and structure was located — remarkably intact — in waters some 3km off the coast of Queensland.

Musashi was one of the two biggest battleships ever built. But she and her sister ship, Yamato, were sunk by swarms of US aircraft. Their demise marked the end of the big-gun era.

Naval shipwrecks weren’t Allen’s only passion. He had a penchant for American football, rock’n’roll and conservation.

He invested the fortune he made from Microsoft to fund research into topics as diverse as climate change and the human brain to space travel and education.

“Those fortunate to achieve great wealth should put it to work for the good of humanity,” Allen wrote when he announced that he would give the bulk of his fortune to charity. He said that act was to “reminds us all that our net worth is ultimately defined not by dollars but rather by how well we serve others.”