DEEP beneath the deceptively crystal clear waters of Sicily’s Tyrrhenian Sea, the wreck of super-yacht Bayesian is but to surrender all its secrets and techniques.
These unique pictures are the final to be taken earlier than dives to the London-registered vessel — which sank in a storm final 12 months — have been banned after the demise of a salvage crew diver.
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That tragic loss in an explosion three weeks in the past introduced the variety of victims to eight, with six passengers and one crew member shedding their lives when the £30million yacht sank on August 19 final 12 months.
They included multi-millionaire British tech businessman Mike Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
Veteran photographer Massimo Sestini, who dived 163 ft all the way down to take these eerie photographs of the barnacle-covered wreck, is aware of all too effectively how treacherous any underwater journey will be.
In January, he was left in a coma after a dive in an ice-cold Italian lake went terribly unsuitable.
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Lucky to outlive that very shut name, the 62-year-old daredevil photographer nonetheless went all the way down to the Bayesian in April. Massimo, who has additionally photographed the wreck of Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, which struck a rock and partially sank in 2012, instructed The Solar: “It’s harmful down there.
“It is rather darkish, there’s a present that brings up the sand in order that visibility is down to at least one metre at occasions.
“However I used to be not scared.”
The thriller of what introduced the “unsinkable” Bayesian to its watery grave is on the centre of a multi-million-pound confrontation.
This month a preliminary report by Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Department — concerned as a result of the Bayesian was a UK- registered vessel — mentioned the yacht, with its 236ft aluminium mast, was “vulnerable to high winds”.
Investigators assume the boat was knocked over by 100mph winds in a “mesocyclonic storm entrance” simply earlier than 4am whereas anchored half a mile off the Sicilian fishing port of Porticello.
However this principle runs counter to the one put ahead by the agency which constructed the 184ft-long yacht.
Giovanni Costantino, boss of boat-building agency TISG, or The Italian Sea Group, insisted the ship’s design was protected.
Authorized motion
He believes that one of many hatches was most definitely left open, letting in the water which sank the Bayesian.
He mentioned: “It tilted 90 levels for just one purpose — as a result of the water saved coming in.”
It is rather darkish, there’s a present that brings up the sand in order that visibility is down to at least one metre at occasions. However I used to be not scared.
Massimo Sestini
There have been rumours that divers to the wreck had seen windows and hatches open, however photographer Massimo mentioned that from what he noticed “it looks as if the hatch wasn’t open”.
TISG, which owns the Perini Navi shipyard in Viareggio, Tuscany, the place the Bayesian was in-built 2008, has taken authorized motion in opposition to the New York Occasions for reporting in October that the only tall mast design made the vessel “vulnerable to capsizing”.
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The Italian authorities are trying right into a suspicion that the crew didn’t react rapidly sufficient to the storm.
Two weeks in the past the yacht’s skipper, New Zealander James Cutfield, used his proper to silence when magistrates tried to query him.
British engineer Tim Parker-Eaton and deckhand Matthew Griffiths have additionally been positioned underneath investigation.
Eyewitnesses claimed the Bayesian went under in “seconds”, however it has additionally been reported that the yacht took 16 minutes to sink.
Relations of the victims, who embrace chef Recaldo Thomas, 59, friends Chris and Neda Morvillo, 59 and 57, and Jonathan and Judy Bloomer, 70 and 71, might sue if negligence will be confirmed.
However one of the best probability of discovering what actually occurred is by returning the ill-fated boat to the floor.
The dangers posed by the perilous operation have been made clear on Could 9, when Dutch diver Robcornelis Maria Huijben Uiben, 39, was killed in an explosion as he tried to chop the yacht’s growth — a pole alongside the underside of a sail — with an oxy-acetylene torch.
Since then the salvage has been conducted by submersible robots as a lot as attainable.
After I noticed the chilly photographs of super-professional divers of the wreck on the display, my coronary heart sank.
Massimo Sestini
The growth was the primary a part of the Bayesian to be recovered final week, and the rest is set to be salvaged any day now.
Meaning Massimo, from Florence, was the final individual to have the prospect to {photograph} the wreck.
However he insisted the dive didn’t remind him of his brush with demise in Lake Lavarone, in northern Italy, on the finish of January.
He had stopped respiration underneath the icy water when there was a malfunction together with his air provide.
However luckily a diving teacher was readily available to rescue him. Massimo, who has snapped the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana throughout a 40-year profession, was taken to hospital in a “important situation”.
The photographer mentioned: “I really feel so privileged as a result of I’ve a brand new life.
“For this, a particular thanks goes to those that saved me.”
His earlier exploits embrace leaning out of helicopters and perching on the tip of a ship’s rigging to get one of the best photographs attainable.
However watching a coastguard diver examine the wreck of the Bayesian did remind Massimo of the individuals who drowned contained in the yacht 9 months in the past.
He mentioned: “After I noticed the chilly photographs of super-professional divers of the wreck on the display, my coronary heart sank.
“I considered the seven individuals who died within the shipwreck.”
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