Hope you have your sea legs. Out the porthole on the RV Petrel research vessel, the water is a bit rough. Salt residue has built up on the window from the spray of the relentless, rolling waves. The 250-ft state-of-the-art vessel is owned by the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and its primary mission is to explore historically significant wrecks at depths up to 20,000 ft. Since 2017, the RV Petrel has found and documented more than 40 sunken crafts, most famously the USS Indianapolis. The World War II heavy cruiser was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea on July 30, 1945 after completing its top-secret mission to deliver parts of Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon ever used in combat.

03.10.20