What factors could cause a ship to sink

Professional divers continue to search for six people aboard a luxury superyacht that capsized off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning, but questions are being raised about the cause of the ship’s sinking.

The ship left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on August 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a sailing status of “anchored,” according to ship tracking app Vesselfinder.

The ship is believed to have been struck by a tornado, also known as a waterspout, on the water, causing the Bayes to capsize.

There were separate reports that the ship’s mast was broken during the freak storm, and other factors that contributed to the ship’s sinking included water entering through hatches and doors that had been left open due to warm weather off the Italian coast.

Witnesses said they saw a waterspout during the storm before the Bayes sank.

Most people are familiar with what tornadoes look like – they are rotating columns of damaging wind that protrude from the base of the clouds to the ground.

The same goes for waterspouts, but on water rather than land, according to BBC Weather.

Instead of dust and debris swirling around the core of strong winds, it’s a mist of water lifted from the surface.

Like tornadoes, most tornadoes are short-lived, narrow columns that are not easily identified by weather radar, so many go unreported.

However, they are not as rare as you might think.

according to International Waterspout Research Center On August 19 alone, 18 waterspouts were confirmed along the Italian coast.

In the Northern Hemisphere, waterspouts are most common in late summer and fall, when ocean water temperatures are highest, fueling storm clouds.

However, as climate change causes sea temperatures to rise, there are fears they may become more common.

Last week, the Mediterranean saw its highest-ever sea surface temperatures, which helped fuel the latest storms.

Bayesian was built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini and last refitted in 2020.

According to Perini’s website, the Bayesian has a 75m (246ft) mast, said to be the tallest aluminum mast in the world.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht moored nearby during the storm, said there was a “very strong hurricane” and he had to work to keep his vessel stable.

According to Italy’s Corriere della Sera, he saw the Bayes’ mast “bent, then broken.”

But Marco Tilotta of Palermo’s fire diver team told AFP the ship had fallen completely on its side, providing an update on the rescue mission.

Matthew Shank, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Committee, explained that it was difficult to say whether the mast was broken.

He told the BBC: “I think this is pure speculation but the evidence we have from divers is that the ship is largely intact and is said to be lying on its side.”

“If the mast was broken, it would be a significant matter and would be reported.”

Mr Shank added that he believed what happened to Bayes was “an aberration”.

“Boats are not designed to sail in this kind of weather – 65 to 85 mph is the maximum speed a vessel can sail at, and that’s with sails down,” he said.

“They are not designed to travel through tornadoes or tornadoes.”

The sea around Sicily (Western Mediterranean Basin) has been experiencing a severe heat wave since mid-June.

The European Union’s climate change service, Copernicus, reported that sea surface temperatures in the region have repeatedly exceeded 30°C (80F), four degrees above the 20-year average for this time of year.

Spanish researchers at Barcelona’s Marine Institute confirmed last Thursday that the record for the highest sea surface temperature in the Mediterranean has been broken.

In 2023 and 2024, this record was broken Global single-day average temperature record.

Scientists attribute the rapid rise in temperatures to climate change, with the oceans bearing the brunt of absorbing about 90% of excess heat.

Following last year’s record ocean temperatures, Professor Mike Meredith of the British Antarctic Survey told the BBC: “The fact that all this heat is getting into the ocean is actually, in some ways, warming the ocean. It’s happening faster than we thought and it’s very worrying.

A navigation expert says hatches and doors left open overnight on the Bayes may have contributed to its sinking.

Weather records show that the temperature reached about 33 degrees Celsius the day before the sinking.

Sam Jefferson, editor of Sailing Today magazine, believes this may have caused Bayes’s occupants to want air circulation while sleeping.

Mr Jefferson said: “I would say the boat was hit hard by the wind and it flipped over.”

“I think all the doors were open, because it was so hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled up very quickly with water and then it just sank.

“The reason it’s fastened so tight is because the mast is so big. It acts almost like a sail. [It] Push the boat aside with force.

“[The boat] Just fill it with water. This is all speculation, but it’s the only logical explanation.