Wakeboarding - June 01, 2018

T

SEARCH AND

DISCOVERY

The team that searched for

the Lexington and other lost

ships works on Paul Allen’s

Petrel, a 250-foot former

IMR vessel from the oil in-

dustry that was designed to

handle rugged maintenance

duties for of shore drill-

ing stations. When Allen

purchased Petrel in 2016,

it already had a built-in dy-

namic position system and

was rigged to undertake

launch and recovery opera-

tions, which proved ideal

for handling remote oper-

ated vehicles. Allen’s team

refi t it with state-of-the-art

electronics and communica-

tions. Once ready, the crew

of Petrel set out to fi nd these

lost historic ships, being the

only privately owned re-

search vessel capable of ex-

amining depths exceeding

19,000 feet.

“Mr. Allen has a longtime

interest in history and ma-

rine archeology,” says David

Reams, the senior director

of maritime operations for

Petrel. “The discovery of

ships such as the Lexington

bring their history and the

PHOTOS: COURTESY PAUL ALLEN

That is, until last March,

when the R/V Petrel, a re-

search vessel owned by

Paul Allen, the co-founder

of Microsoft, discovered

her on the Coral Sea fl oor

using some cutting-edge

technology. The Lexington

is just one of several his-

torical fi nds undertaken by

Petrel thanks to its search

equipment armed with so-

nar technologies capable

of scanning the depths in

incredible detail.

94 | BOATINGMAG.COM | JUNE 2018