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.
Eerie images have revealed the inside of the doomed Bayesian, with the once luxurious reception room now rotted
The engine room is cased in dirt as haunting photos show the mud-caked interior of the vessel following its near year-long stay 160ft under the sea
Other haunting photos show a hatchway leading down from the deck, and cracked glass
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.
A hatchway leading down to the deck of Bayesian which sank in a freak storm last August, killing seven people onboard
Damaged equipment can be seen among the photos, which have been obtained by Italian broadcaster, Rai
The tragedy last August killed seven people including British billionaire and tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah
Jonathan Bloomer’s wife Judy (pictured) was among the seven people who died when the 56m yacht sank
Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were killed when the yacht was hit by a storm
Canadian Antiguan Recaldo Thomas, 59, was among seven people who drowned when the yacht owned by British tech billionaire Mike Lynch went down in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily last summer
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.
Tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht the Bayesian, dockside at Termini Imerese — June 23, 2025
The superyacht Bayesian is raised to the surface off the coast of Porticello, Sicily
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 moment the doomed Bayesian sank in the early hours of August 19 last year was captured by security cameras of a nearby villa on the coast
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.’
