Team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has retrieved the bell, lying at depth of 2,800m, from Royal Navy’s largest warship lost in action

An American philanthropist and investor has recovered a bell from a British battleship that was sunk in the north Atlantic during the second world war.

A team led by the Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, retrieved the bell from HMS Hood, once the largest warship in the world and the Royal Navy’s flagship. It was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the Denmark strait between Greenland and Iceland in 1941. All but three of the Hood’s 1,418-strong crew perished.

A first attempt in 2012 to recover the bell from the wreck – lying at a depth of 2,800m – failed because of poor weather conditions and technical difficulties. The Royal Navy and Allen’s website said that a second attempt, using a remotely operated vehicle and working with the shipwreck search company Blue Water Recoveries, succeeded on Friday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The battleship HMS Hood in 1930 during a dockyard refit. Photograph: Hulton Getty

The Hood was the largest ship the Royal Navy ever lost in action. Admiral George Zambellas, Britain’s first sea lord, called the Hood a magnificent symbol of the power of the Royal Navy and said her loss was a reminder of the high price Britain paid for freedom.

“Her story, her sacrifice, continues to inspire the Royal Navy today,” he said in a statement. “The recovery of the ship’s bell will help ensure that the 1,415 men lost, and the name Hood, will always be remembered by a grateful nation.”

The bell was said to be in good condition, although will require a month’s long conservation process. It is expected to be displayed in the National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth as a memorial to the Hood and its men.