Paul Allen's team recovers icon from ship sunk by Bismark
Updated 7:36 am, Monday, August 10, 2015
A team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has recovered the bell from the HMS Hood, the British battle cruiser sunk by the German ship the Bismark in 1941.
The Hood was the largest Royal Navy vessel ever to have been sunk. The 1,415 lives were lost in the sinking.
The bell will be restored and put on display at the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
Allen' yacht, the Octopus, recovered the bell in the north Atlantic on Friday using a remotely operated vehicle. Blue Water Recoveries LTD took part in the effort.
The bell was discovered in 2001 lying well away from the hull of the Hood.
An Allen mission in 2012 to get the bell failed due to bad weather and technical difficulties.
"This year marks the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of World War II, and this effort commemorates the hundreds of brave sailors who were lost at sea," Allen said in a statement. "It is a true honor to undertake the expedition to recover the bell from 'The Mighty Hood. '
David Mearns, director of Blue Water Recoveries, noted that the mission fulfilled one of the last wishes of Ted Briggs, one of only three survivors from the Hood, to recover the bell and make it a memorial.
"Despite 74 years of immersion in the hostile depths of Denmark Strait the bell is in very good condition. The inscriptions decorating its surface clearly indicate that the bell was preserved for use on the battle cruiser Hood after first being used as the bell of the Battleship Hood from 1891 to 1914. This bell has therefore seen action in two capital ships of the Royal Navy spanning a period of 50 years."