Bayesian superyacht lifted off seabed – DW – 06/21/2025
A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing British tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, was lifted from the water on Saturday.
Salvage recovery crews completed the complex operation to bring the Bayesian yacht ashore for further investigation.
One of Europe's most powerful maritime cranes hauled the 56-meter-long (184-foot) luxury yacht from beneath the waves during the day.
The salvage team, led by British company TMC Marine, pumped seawater out of the hull and the vessel was held in an elevated position, surrounded by pollution containment booms, while further checks were carried out.
The Bayesian's upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud after it had sat on the seabed at a depth of 50 meters
"The hull of the superyacht Bayesian has today been successfully and safely recovered from the sea off the coast of northern Sicily," said TMC Maritime. "This follows a delicate lifting procedure that began early today."
The vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 meters below the surface, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.
Eight steel lifting straps were used to put the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water on Saturday.
The Bayesian was missing its 72-meter (236-foot) mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal. The mast had to be detached to allow the hull to be brought to a nearly upright position that would allow the craft to be raised.
The floating crane platform will now move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese on Sunday, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it.
The vessel will then be made available for investigators to help determine the cause of the sinking.
The Bayesian sank on August 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the United States on fraud charges.
The 59-year-old sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011, and was acquitted of fraud charges in June 2024 by a federal court jury in San Francisco.
Lynch, his daughter and five others died while fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef.
Italian authorities are continuing to conduct a full criminal investigation.
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