Bayesian sailor 'woke captain up due to strong wind'

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 31 - Matthew Griffiths, the sailor who was on watch duty on the cockpit of the Bayesian on the night it sank on August 19, said he "woke the captain up when the wind was blowing at 20 knots".
    "He ordered to wake everyone else up", Griffiths told prosecutors, ANSA learned on Saturday.
    "I then stored away the pillows and plants, closed the windows of the sitting room on the bow and some hatches", Griffiths also told investigators.
    The British sailor, who is one of three crew members officially under investigation for the shipwreck - together with captain James Cutfield and ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton - is represented by attorneys Mario Scopesi and Corrado Breganti.
    The seaman did not talk about doors, for which he was not responsible, ANSA has learned.
    Griffiths also told investigators that the ship "tilted and we fell into the water.
    "We were then able to climb back on and we tried to rescue those we could", he said.
    The sailor during questioning added that the "boat was tilted and we were walking on the walls.
    "We rescued those we could, also Cutfield rescued the little girl and her mother", he said, referring to two passengers who survived the shipwreck.
    The defence attorneys of ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffiths could request technical consultancies to clarify the causes of the shipwreck off Porticello, near Palermo.
    One of the consultancies would focus on engineering and the other on weather conditions, according to investigative sources.
    The first will aim to determe whether the ship - which has been described as unsinkable unless it took on tons of water by experts like Franco Romani, who works for the its high-end manufacturer, shipyard Perini Navi - had some type of malfunction nobody was aware of.
    The second would determine whether the weather event that led to the shipwreck was sudden and violent or whether it was predictable.
    The boat did not have a black box but technical equipment onboard could have left traces on connected servers, according to investigative sources.
    The yacht's owner, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others - all passengers except for the boat's cook Recaldo Thomas - were killed when the yacht went down after being hit by an extreme weather event described by authorities investigating the accident as a downburst.
    The three crew members are being probed on charges of suspected multiple negligent manslaughter and causing a shipwreck. (ANSA).