Paul Allen and co. have been getting up to more exploration and discovery lately in his new R/V Petrel, a 76.45 meter research vessel he acquired in 2016 and extensively refit to a standard that basically puts it in a class of it's own as the best equipped, privately owned research vessel in the world. This time it was the USS Lexington, one of the first aircraft carriers built, found at a depth of 3000 meters at the bottom of the Coral Sea, about 500 miles off the coast of Australia. https://www.paulallen.com/uss-lexington-wreck-located-rv-petrel/ As someone who grew up reading Cussler novels (since I was about 14 or so) I can't help but get excited by this as Mr. Allen has basically funded his own private NUMA.
Less than 2 weeks later R/V Petrel finds the USS Juneau: LINK It seems like Mr. Allen is making these searches a full-time endeavor for his new ship.
From the looks of it the Petrel was a pretty capable subsea vessel to start with, and its very cool to see the upgrades made.
Knew a family that lived next door to Clive Cussler near Costa Mesa, California. He was quite the character, always some ruckus going on in the backyard. The teenagers used to peek over the fence for an eyeful of activity circa mid 60's/70's!
