Allen releases new video of wreckage of Japanese WWII battleship Musashi

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen on Saturday released a second video of the apparent wreckage of the sunken Japanese battleship Musashi that his team of researchers located in Philippine waters earlier in the week.

Allen posted the 56-second video on his Twitter account, where he announced Tuesday the discovery of the wreckage of one of the largest battleships in naval history. Hours later, he posted another photo of an object that bore Japanese characters.

The 73,000-ton Musashi was sunk by U.S. warplanes on Oct. 24, 1944, during World War II in the fierce Battle of Leyte further east of the Sibuyan Sea.

Commissioned in 1942 by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Musashi was at the time the largest battleship on Earth. Its sister battleship, the Yamato, was sunk by U.S. forces almost six months later, while on its way to Okinawa.

The video of the wreckage, with commentary by a male narrator, shows what it says is the ship’s outer port propeller, main rudder, twin-barrel 15.5-cm guns, steam turbine and combat bridge with a 15-meter range finder.

It also contains images of the starboard superstructure below the combat bridge, including the superstructure machine-gun placements.

The video lists the names of the crew on Allen’s yacht that began searching for the battleship in Philippine waters more than eight years ago. The wreckage was found Monday, Allen’s team said.

The photo with Japanese inscriptions appeared to have been taken Saturday, and bore the caption: “Musashi a few new discoveries today, including more Japanese writing, any translation help appreciated.”

According to Allen’s website, his team is “still actively exploring and capturing data from the site,” and it intends to share the findings with the Japanese government and the world.

The images of the wreckage that Allen made public Tuesday and Wednesday include the bow bearing the Japanese Imperial crest, the valve of the vessel, a plane-launching catapult and an anchor.