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.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
