A large crowd attended a special Mass in the Sicilian town beside the waters where the British superyacht Bayesian capsized and sank with the loss of seven lives a week ago.
Locals from the small fishing community of Porticello, close to Palermo, gathered on the evening of Sunday 25 August at the <em><a href="https://visitsantaflavia.it/en/maria-ss-del-lume-2/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Chiesa di Maria Santissima del Lume</mark></a></em> – Church of Most Holy Mary of the Lamp – to mark the tragedy and pray for those impacted.
“It was a heartfelt gesture of grief and mourning from a town that lives off fishing and knows all too well the dangers of the sea,” <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/26/sicily-porticello-vigil-bayesian-yacht-mike-hannah-lynch/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Daily Telegraph</em>.
Reflecting that inextricable link between the sea and the local community, the altar of the church is decorated with a giant image of Christ in marine blue robes hovering over fishermen pulling up their nets from two boats.
The Mass was followed by a solemn candle-lit procession, led by teenagers holding a silver crucifix, which proceeded through the streets to the seafront, as people made the sign of the cross and bowed their heads in respect.
The procession, comprising of hundreds of locals, stopped on the esplanade a few hundred yards from the dock where the bodies of multi-millionaire British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his teenage daughter Hannah and the other five victims were brought after being recovered from the wreck of the Bayesian by specialist divers.
In a “moving ceremony”, Father Vincenzo Buscemi, the local priest, read out the first names of all seven of the victims of the tragedy which occurred during a storm in the early hours of 19 August.
“We are here to pray for the victims, who have concluded their earthly journey,” the priest told those attending, which included fire service divers, coast guard officers and local volunteers.
As the crowd recited the Lord’s Prayer, four wreaths were laid on the water, which then drifted out to sea and towards the spot where the Bayesian, which had the second-tallest mast in the world, went down around 4 a.m. after the storm hit.
“This is a moment of prayer for the community to remember the victims," Father Buscemi told the <em>Telegraph</em>. "Ours is a community that has in the past felt the pain of tragedies like this. Many men have lost their lives while working at sea.
“For a lot of locals, the tragedy of the Bayesian brings back memories of past losses, it reopens wounds. There is huge sympathy for the victims and their relatives. People here want to show solidarity with them.”
The luxury yacht sank barely half a mile from the shore, within sight of the town. A photo taken by a local captured the red flare of the emergency rocket being launched from the Bayesian’s life raft at 4.35 a.m.
Fifteen people aboard, including a mother with a one-year-old baby, escaped to safety
Italian prosecutors announced on 24 August that they had launched an investigation into the tragedy, and are looking into the potential crimes of multiple manslaughter and causing a deadly shipwreck, the <em>Telegraph</em> reports.
The prosecutors said the investigation was still at an early stage and stressed that nobody has yet been charged.
<em>Photo: The Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily during a storm, killing seven of the 22 people on board. (Credit: Perini Navi Press Office.)</em>
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