Artifact to be retrieved in the coming days
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and a keen yachtsman, has sent his 400-foot superyacht to recover the bell from the sunken British warship HMS Hood.
HMS Hood was sent in 1941 to stop Germany’s Bismarck battleship before it could get into the Atlantic and attack Allied convoys.
However the Bismarck struck first in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, sinking the HMS Hood in three minutes, killing 1,418 officers and crew and resulting in the Navy’s single greatest loss of life.
The wreck is a protected war grave but Mr Allen received permission from the British government for the expedition.
Once the 110-pound bell is recovered it will be placed in the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth.
The recovery will be conducted by a remotely operated vehicle as the wreck is 2,849 metres below the water’s surface.
Mr Allen hopes to recover the bell in the next few days after performing an examination of the site on Thursday.