A British sailor aboard Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht has told how crew tried to save everyone that they could.
Matthew Griffiths, a member of crew who was on watch duty when the Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily killing seven people, told investigators of the desperate scramble to save those on board.
British tech entrepreneur, Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, were among those who lost their lives when the yacht sank.
Mr Griffiths was one of 22 people on board the Bayesian when it was hit by a violent storm just a few hundred metres from the port of Porticello in the early hours of August 19.
He has told prosecutors that he “woke the captain up when the wind was blowing 20 knots”, according to the Italian news agency, ANSA.
“He ordered me to wake everyone else up,” Griffiths reportedly told prosecutors. I then stored away the pillows and plants, closed the windows of the sitting room on the bow and some hatches.”
The 22-year-old sailor is one of three crew members under investigation – together with New Zealand Captain James Cutfield, 51, and British engineer Tim Parker Eaton, 56, – into what caused the yacht to sink in only 16 minutes and whether they did enough to alert passengers and crew.