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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen says he has found the wreck of the Japanese Navy's biggest warship at the bottom of the sea in the Philippines, 70 years after US forces sank it.
Allen posted a photo on Twitter on Tuesday of the second world war battleship Musashi's rusty bow, which bore the Japanese empire's Chrysanthemum seal. The Musashi and its identical sister ship, the Yamato, remain the biggest battleships the world has ever seen.
The so-called "super battleships" displaced about 70,000 tonnes when loaded, and bristled with enormous weaponry.
But such ships were rendered obsolete in the face of aircraft carriers, and the plans by the US and the Soviet Union to construct similarly vast battleships never proceeded.
The American billionaire Allen, who has also pursued space exploration, said his luxury yacht and exploration ship, the M/Y Octopus, found the Musashi, a kilometre deep on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea.
The Octopus' remote operated probe Octo ROV located the Musashi on Monday, according to Allen's website. The Octopus is also outfitted with an exploration submarine.
"RIP (Rest in peace) crew of Musashi, approximately 1,023 lost," Allen said in another tweet. He also posted a photo of a valve from the wreckage, which he described as the "first confirmation" that it was of Japanese origin.
He said on Twitter he would soon post video of the ship's catapult and valve areas.
The Sibuyan Sea, at the heart of the Philippines' central Visayas islands, covers busy shipping lanes and lies on the path of most tropical storms that cross the country from the Pacific Ocean.
American warplanes sank the Musashi in the Sibuyan Sea on October 24, 1944, at the height of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, considered the largest naval encounter of the second world war in which US and Australian forces defeated the Japanese.
The Musashi was a "mighty battleship" with "mammoth 18-inch guns", according to the US Navy's website.
Its twin, the Yamato, was damaged in the fighting, according to the US Navy, and American warships and aircraft finally sank it a year later as it attempted to reach Okinawa.
The two vessels' huge 70,000 tonne size guaranteed their place in military history. By comparison, the famed US battleship Missouri, known as "Big Mo" and now a museum ship in Hawaii, displaced about 45,000 tonnes.
At 270 metres, the Missouri is about seven metres longer than the Japanese warships were, but the latter were much broader.
The Seattle-born Allen, 62, who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, is the 51st richest person in the world with a net worth of US$17.5 billion, according to Forbes Magazine.
In 2012, Allen loaned the same ship that located the Musashi to the British government to locate HMS Hood's bell from the bottom of the Denmark Strait.
The search was eventually called off due to bad weather.
Allen is also working on a project called Stratolaunch, which aims to put "cost-effective" cargo and manned missions into space.
He launched SpaceShipOne, the first privately built craft into suborbital space in 2004.
Allen did not immediately reply to a request for comment via Twitter.
Spokesmen for the Philippines' navy and coastguard said they were not informed of the discovery.


Japan's biggest warship found off the Philippines, says billionaire Paul Allen

Wreckage of second world war battleship Musashi. A crew of 1,023 was lost when the ship was sunk by US planes during the conflict's largest naval battle. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Wreckage of second world war battleship Musashi. A crew of 1,023 was lost when the ship was sunk by US planes during the conflict's largest naval battle.Photo: SCMP Pictures

The Musashi under US attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It sank in the Sibuyan Sea on October 24, 1944. Photos: SCMP Pictures

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Photo of Musashi's rusty bow posted on Twitter by Microsoft's Paul Allen, whose exploration located the wreckage in the Sibuyan Sea


Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen says he has found the wreck of the Japanese Navy's biggest warship at the bottom of the sea in the Philippines, 70 years after US forces sank it.
