Inside the recovered Bayesian: Tragic superyacht's eerie interior revealed following its salvage recovery after it sank killing seven people

Daily Mail​

29-06-2025

Eerie images have revealed the inside of the doomed Bayesian, ten months after seven people were killed when it capsized and sank during a freak storm.
The £30million superyacht was raised from the Mediterranean seabed last week near Porticello before it was taken to the port of Termini Imerese and lowered into a cradle.
Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, 59, and his Oxford University-bound daughter Hannah, 18, died when Bayesian sank in a freak storm last August after being hit by winds in excess of 70 mph.
Photos, obtained by Italy 's state broadcaster, Rai, show the mud-caked interior of the vessel following its near year-long stay 160ft under the sea.
The tragic tycoon's once luxurious reception room is now rotted with a divan soaked in seawater and grime, with torn chairs tossed upside down among the piles of furniture near the windows.
The engine room is cased in dirt, while other haunting photos show a hatchway leading down from the deck, and cracked glass.
US lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife, Neda, Morgan Stanley boss Jonathan Bloomer, 70, hos wife Judy, 71, and Canadian-Antiguan chef Recado Thomas were also killed.
Mr Lynch was on Bayesian with his wife – who survived the sinking – to celebrate his acquittal in June last year of fraud charges in an American court involving the sale of his firm Autonomy to Hewlett Packard in 2011.
Just two days before the sinking his business partner Stephen Chamberlain was run over and killed while out jogging in Cambridgeshire.
Nine crew members and six passengers survived the sinking.
Salvage work began two months ago but it was hit with a lengthy delay in early May following the death of Dutch diver Rob Huijben which is still being investigated by prosecutors.
Bayesian sunk in just 16 minutes last August after being hit by a violent downburst off the coast of the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello.
The operation to bring her to the surface had involved divers and remote operated vehicles attaching lines beneath the hull.
It comes as experts told the Mail on Sunday that prosecutors investigating the sinking of Bayesian are seeking to blame the crew – to save the Italian yacht building industry.
An interim report issued by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch suggested the yacht was susceptible to 'high winds' and 'if tilted to more than 70 degrees would be unrecoverable'.
The crew were 'unaware' of this vulnerability because it was not mentioned in the 184ft Bayesian's manual, it added. The yacht's trademark 236ft mast may have also been to blame, it is suggested.
The tragedy last August killed seven people including British billionaire and tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah
But Giovanni Costantino, chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, who bought Bayesian's builder Perini Navi, has repeated several times in interviews that the yacht was 'unsinkable' and blamed 'human error' for the disaster.
And prosecutors seem to have ruled out any possibility that the yacht's design and mast, which was removed from Bayesian and brought up separately, may have contributed to the disaster.
According to a leaked prosecution document seen by the MoS, the focus is instead on skipper James Cutfield, first engineer Tim Parker-Eaton and nightwatchman Matthew Griffiths, who, it says, all 'cooperated negligently with each other'.
The MoS revealed today that prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano points the finger at Mr Griffiths for 'not noticing the worsening weather conditions', before saying Mr Parker-Eaton should have 'been aware water was entering the stern of the yacht'.
He adds that Mr Parker-Eaton 'failed to warn the captain promptly' before finally concluding Mr Cutfield 'did not adapt swiftly to adapt all measures needed to deal with the emergency that had arisen, causing it to sink'.
The trio have been placed under formal investigation by prosecutor Cammarano for multiple manslaughter and negligent shipwreck causing a disaster.
All three insist they did all they could to save the yacht and that hatches, doors and windows were all closed in anticipation of the storm that swept in.
But last night a UK marine source, who asked not to be named, told the MoS: 'It's quite clear here that the Italians are looking to protect their yacht-building industry and by passing the blame on to the crew they can make sure they will do.
Crane ship Hebo Lift 10 raising the wreck of superyacht Bayesian that sank off Sicily on August 22, 2024 -- June 22, 2025
The operation to bring Bayesian to the surface had involved divers and remote operated vehicles attaching lines beneath the hull
The tragic 184ft super yacht had 'vulnerabilities' which made it unstable in the violent storm, according to an interim safety report about which the shipbuilders have yet to comment
'The UK MAIB report clearly states the yacht was vulnerable in high winds and this wasn't noted in the manual. The night Bayesian went down winds were more than 70mph and this was enough to knock her over.
'Once she tilted to 70 degrees, there was no turning back and that's what happened.
'Yes, water would have got in as a result but the crew would have no idea that she was vulnerable in high winds because, crucially, it wasn't mentioned in the manual.'
Another London-based maritime accident investigator told the MoS: 'It's always much easier to blame the crew than the yacht manufacturers themselves, so this doesn't surprise me. They are a much easier target when it comes to the insurers as well.'
Minute by minute, how the Bayesian tragedy unfolded
August 18 - PM: The Bayesian was anchored at Cefalù on the northern coast of Sicily to shelter from the forecast weather and to allow for easy disembarkation of guests the following day.
August 19 - 00.30am: Having checked the weather the captain and the last guest had retired, leaving deckhand (DH1) and the evening steward (S1) on duty.
01.00am: The second deckhand (DH2) took over the watch. The wind at this time was noted as being no more than 8kts (9.2pmh).
03.00am: DH2 noted the wind as being at 8kts (9.2pmh) from the west but thought that the thunderclouds and lightning seemed to be getting closer.
03.55am: The deckhand 'videoed the advancing storm and posted it to their social media feed' before closing the hatches and cockpit windows.
03.57am: The winds had picked up to 30kts (35mph) and the Bayesian was listing and dragging its anchor.
04.00am: The deckhand ran to wake up the skipper and the crew leapt into action and began preparing to manoeuvre the Bayesian by starting the generators and steering pumps.
The rest of the crew, woken by either the captain or the yacht's change of motion, got up and made their way out of the crew accommodation.
Chef Recaldo Thomas was spotted in the galley stowing cutlery, pots and pan and called out 'Good morning!' to nearby stewards.
The Bayesian was lying with the wind about 60 degree off the port bow and moving at 1.8kts south-south-east of its original position.
Two guests – a British couple – had been woken by the movements and decided to head to the saloon with their baby.
4.06am: Disaster struck as the wind suddenly increased to more than 70kts (80.5mph) ripping the awning away. The Bayesian 'violently heeled over' in less than 15 seconds to a 90-degree angle.
The sudden movement sent people as well as furniture flying across the deck leaving five people including the captain injured while a deckhand was thrown into the sea.
Two guests trapped in their cabin were forced to used furniture drawers as an improvised ladder to escape into the saloon area.
The yacht's crew were able to push four guests through the cascading water up to the skipper on the flying bridge.
The captain called for the guests and crew to swim clear of the mast and boom as the vessel sank.
04.22am: The crew had launched the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB). They noted that the wind had eased and that Bayesian was only a short distance from shore.
In the water, a deckhand(DH2) improvised a tourniquet for one of the guest's gashed arm while a cushion was used as a flotation device foe the baby. Some of the survivors were treading water and others held on to some cushions that had floated free from Bayesian.
One of the guests frantically searched for other survivors in vain using the torch from their phone - while the captain and chief officer frantically freed the life raft from the sinking wreck.
04.24am: The captain and chief officer frantically freed the life raft from the sinking wreck. It was was inflated and the survivors were able to get inside it where the crew began administering first aid.
The skipper tried to raise the alarm by shouting at and then paddling towards the nearby vessel the Sir Robert Baden Powell.
04.34am: The Chief Engineer fired a red parachute flare from the life raft. Despite the winds being calm at the surface, the flare was carried sideways. He then used the life raft's torch to signal towards a hotel on the cliffs above them, passing cars, and Sir Robert Baden Powell.
04.43am: The Chief engineer fired a second parachute flare that was seen by the crew of Sir Robert Baden Powell. Responding to the flare, the skipper dispatched its tender towards the visible lights of the EPIRB and life raft.
04.53am: The tender carrying the 15 survivors returned to Sir Robert Baden Powell and a brief search was look for the missing seven people who were also on board.
04.56am: The tender from Sir Robert Baden Powell returned to the scene with Bayesian's Chief Engineer and skipper on board to search for other survivors. The local coastguard was called to arrange to transfer the survivors to shore.