Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced that he has located the wreck of the USS Lexington about 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia.
The Lexington has some pretty decent historical significance because it was one of the very first aircraft carriers the US Navy built, along with it’s sister ship the USS Saratoga. Both were originally intended to be battlecruisers, but the Washington Naval Treaty changed a lot plans in the 1920’s.
She sank in the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942, with 200 sailors losing their lives. 2700 sailors and the Captain’s dog did survive though.
Finding the Lexington is only slightly less impressive than when Jeff Bezos found the wreckage of the Apollo 11 first stage, because those were little pieces of a rocket and this is a whole aircraft carrier. So I would put Paul Allen solidly in 3rd place in the “Crazy Stuff Billionaires Do Just Because They Can Competition” between Bezos finding the Apollo 11 engines and Elon Musk launching his car into space.
