Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to live-stream tour of sunken Japanese battleship Thursday night, 9 p.m. (ET)
CNN--- Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen plans to live-stream an underwater tour of a wreck off the Philippine coast that's believed to be the remains of a long-lost World War II Japanese battleship.
Allen, a philanthropist, said last week that he and his research team had discovered the wreck of the Musashi, which was once one of the two largest warships in the world. They had been searching for the ship for more than eight years.
After the discovery last week, the team shared photos and video footage of parts of the vessel. Now, they're planning to take viewers on a real-time tour of the wreck with the unmanned submersible they used to find it at a depth of around 3,280 feet.
The live-stream is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Friday, Philippines time (9 p.m. Thursday, ET). It's expected to show various parts of the warship, including the bow and stern sections and the conning tower. [CLICK HERE to tune into the 9 p.m. (ET) live-stream.]
Launched in 1940, the Musashi was, at the time, the largest class of warship ever constructed, displacing more than 69,000 tons. It was one of two Yamato-class battleships constructed by the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The ship sank on October 24, 1944, during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the central Philippines. According to U.S. Navy documents, torpedo planes from U.S. aircraft carriers scored at least 10 hits on the battleship over the course of four hours. Navy dive bombers also hit the ship 16 times, but it was the torpedo hits that doomed the Musashi.
More than 1,000 of the Musashi's crew were killed during the battle and sinking. Over 1,300 survivors were taken aboard by other Japanese warships, according to the U.S. Navy report.
"We are proud to have played a role in finding this key vessel in naval history and are honored to share it with the survivors, the families of those who perished and the world," Allen said in a statement.
Here's a link to the complete story on CNN.
