Gearóid Ó Loingsigh
(Reading time: 3 mins.)
If one read and believed the international press, one would conclude that the only vessel to sink in the Mediterranean in recent times was the super-yacht, Bayesian, belonging to the magnate Mike Lynch.
The sinking of the yacht was not only international front-page news, but dominated the headlines in the major media outlines since going down on the 19th of August.
From the comments of those who have little to do in life except talk inanely about yachts, it seems to have been an impressive yacht in all senses of the word, and it is surprising that it sank so quickly, as just like the Titanic, it was considered unsinkable and could list up to 75 degrees without capsizing.
But the super-yacht wasn't a news item due to its technical characteristics, nor its value, estimated in the region of $40 million dollars, although both aspects were mentioned in the press, but rather for the characteristics and value of those who died (excluding crew of course).
Late tycoon Mike Lynch photographed at home (Source photo: Internet)
Mike Lynch was a software magnate, compared by some media to Bill Gates. He sold his software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard for eleven billion dollars. Without this favourable bank balance his death in the African cemetery that the Mediterranean now is, would go unremarked.
It is not the first time the press went into overdrive on the sinking of a vessel belonging to a rich person.
In June 2023, the submersible Titan imploded near the wreck of the Titanic killing five people, all of them rich and the press dedicated extensive columns to the tragedy for some time, even enquiring about the details of life onboard the Titan.
On both occasions large-scale and long search and rescue operations were deployed, something the Italian government has tried to criminalise in the case of Africans trying to reach Europe.
In April this year, a court in Sicily acquitted the crew of the Iuventa, who were brought to trial for rescuing migrants (officially for "human trafficking", i.e. the survivors of a shipwreck).
The crew of the Iuventa rescue ship were on trial for saving lives (Photo sourced: Internet)
The Iuventa boat had by 2017, when Italian authorities impounded it, rescued not less than 14,000 people without favourable bank balances. It is not the only attempt to criminalise rescuing shipwrecked people in the Mediterranean. The contrast with Mike Lynch is noteworthy.
Many ships sink each year. The insurance industry reports that between 2013 and 2022, 807 ships with a gross tonnage in excess of 100 tonnes sank around the world, 32 of them in the Mediterranean, almost all of them commercial vessels of different sorts.
However, according to the IOM, in 2023, 3,041 people died crossing the Mediterranean and 100 alone in the month of January 2024. Nobody rescued them, the press did not give over daily columns to their lives. Unlike Mike Lynch, they were not rich.
When the rich die, just like the poor they don't take their bank balance with them. However, that balance is important.
When the press talk of the value of the person, eleven billion dollars buys words like 'tragedy, disaster,' obituaries in major media outlets and it buys a rescue attempt without any fear of those who do the rescuing being charged.
Now that all the survivors and bodies have been rescued, there comes another judicial persecution. The Italian authorities are going to investigate the crew for the accident, but not the deceased Lynch, as if it were possible for the crew to say no to a man with eleven billion in the bank.
People that rich are all like Donald Trump, they do not take 'no' for an answer. Their wish is a command, that must be obeyed. So once again the Italian authorities are going after those who are least to blame for a shipwreck.
A boat carrying over 500 migrant people capsizing off the Libyan coast in 2013 (Photo cred: Italian Navy via AFP)
If they are African migrants, they were asking for it and do not deserve our sympathy or empathy. If they are billionaires, they are victims of the indolence of their employees and we should all mourn them. The world turned upside down.
End.
New York Times (22/08/2024) Lynch Yacht Sinking Off Sicily Proves as Baffling as It Is Tragic. Emma Bubola & Michael J. de la Merced. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/world/europe/sicily-yacht-mike-lynch.html
Ibíd.,
New York Times (04/07/2023) A Rubik's Cube, Thick Socks and Giddy Anticipation: The Last Hours of the Titan. John Branch & Christina Goldbaum. https://web.archive.org/web/20240815162607/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/02/us/titan-submersible-passengers.html
The Guardian (19/04/2024) Crew of migrant rescue boat acquitted in Italy after seven-year ordeal. Lorenzo Tondo. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/italian-court-acquits-crew-of-migrant-refugee-rescue-boat-iuventa
See https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-marine-accidents
See https://www.iom.int/news/iom-chief-nearly-100-disappeared-or-dead-mediterranean-2024-underscoring-need-regular-pathways
The Guardian (23/087/2024) 'I've never seen a vessel this size go down so quickly': why did the Bayesian sink in 60 seconds? Lorenzo Tondo.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/23/ive-never-seen-a-vessel-this-size-go-down-so-quickly-why-did-the-bayesian-sink-in-60-seconds-mike-lynch
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