A yacht chef who died alongside 'British Bill Gates' Mike Lynch and others after the £30million Bayesian superyacht sank had been working to pay for renovating his late parents' home, it has been revealed.
Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian citizen working in Antigua, was the first confirmed victim of Monday's disaster off the coast of Sicily.
Tributes have been pouring in for him, with a friend hailing him as a 'very special person' who 'had so much to give' - while he has also now been described a 'lover of all things Italian' and 'one of the world's best humans'.
Others shared photos of the chef on his travels around the world, during which he would regularly post on social media about his stunning culinary creations.
It today emerged that he hoped to work for just two more seasons on the vessel so he could finance a makeover of the property which belonged to his late parents.
Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian citizen working in Antigua, was the first confirmed victim of Monday's disaster off the coast of Sicily - tributes have been pouring in for him
British technology tycoon Mike Lynch, pictured a CEO summit at London's Savoy Hotel in June 2011, is among the victims of the Bayesian superyacht sinking in Monday this week
The luxury vessel owned by Mr Lynch sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19 (file picture)
Gareth Williams, who grew up with Thomas in Antigua, told the BBC: 'I can talk for everyone that knew him when I say he was a well-loved, kind human being with a calm spirit.
'He told me just the other day that he needed to work two more seasons to fix up his late parents' house - he loved yachting, but he was tired.'
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Hannah still missing: Agony continues as teen's body is yet to be found in superyacht tragedy
Meanwhile, fellow yacht chef Molly McMullin posted on Facebook that Mr Thomas was 'truly one of the world's best humans'.
She also said of the man known to friends a Ricky was an animal lover and keen reader - adding how he was 'a lover of all things Italian, a man with such style and panache, wit and humour'.
Tributes have also been paid to 59-year-old Mr Lynch, as searches continued for his missing 18-year-old daughter Hannah who is feared to also be dead.
This afternoon she remained lost at sea as Italian authorities named five people whose bodies were recovered from inside the Bayesian superyacht
Mr Lynch, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith and US nationals Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda have all been formally identified by coastguard officials.
The six passengers had been missing since Monday when the Bayesian yacht, with four bodies pulled from the water yesterday while a fifth was recovered earlier today.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, is among the five bodies recovered from the wreck of the £30 million superyacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily
Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda (top image), Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer (bottom left), and his wife Judith (bottom right) have also been identified
Mr Lynch's attorney Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Neda are also among those who have died
Brent Hoberman, a friend of Mr Lynch's for 28 years, described his death as 'unbelievably tragic' and his friends and family had been 'hoping for a miracle'.
He told Sky News: 'We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope.
Read More
The tech billionaire on board sunken superyacht: 'Britain's Bill Gates' Mike Lynch
'It's just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.'
He said he hoped close friends were rallying around My Lynch's 57-year-old wife Angela Bacares - who survived the tragedy - to give her 'courage and strength'.
The Bayesian sank after being hit by a 'black swan' waterspout on Monday at 5am.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has paid tribute to its 'mentor, donor and former council member' Mr Lynch following his death, while technology industry group TechUK called him a 'hugely significant and pioneering figure'.
Mr Lynch was also a member of the Create The Change fundraising board, set up by Cancer Research UK and which helped fund the building of the Francis Crick Institute.
Its chairman Lord John Browne said: 'Mike Lynch should be remembered as the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK.
Rescue personnel work at the scene today where luxury yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo
Divers found five bodies in the wreck yesterday (Pictured: A rescue boat with rescue personnel on board resume search operations this morning)
The Bayesian (pictured in an undated handout photo) overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning
Rescue workers look at the plans of the the Bayesian as they organise a search operation
'His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.
'I send my condolences to those close to him. We have lost a human being of great ability.'
Read More
Missing Mike Lynch held garden party at his £6million manor house weeks before superyacht tragedy
Mr Bloomer was previously an honorary treasurer at NSPCC.
Today, the children's charity's chairman Neil Berkett paid tribute to the 70-year-old and his wife Judy.
'We remember Jonathan from his time with us as a very kind individual with a great sense of humour and Judy as formidable and passionate,' he said.
'We are so grateful for everything they did for children and the NSPCC and our thoughts are with their family, friends and colleagues at this desperately sad time.'
In a further twist of fate, it emerged this afternoon Mr Lynch had put the doomed vessel up for sale in March but withdrew it from the market after he was acquitted in one of the biggest ever fraud cases, according to industry sources.
The Telegraph reported he was going to review the decision to sell in the autumn after his summer trip to the Mediterranean.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who survived the disaster
Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing, Italian government official Massimo Mariani (left) confirmed this afternoon
Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily's civil protection agency, said searches are resuming this morning, and there will be an investigation in due course
The Bayesian sank after being hit by a 'black swan' waterspout on Monday at 5am (Pictured: A large waterspout on sea in Campina, Italy, on August 19)
A decision on whether to raise the luxury yacht to the surface is currently 'not on the agenda' but Italian Coastguard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said: 'It will be, but not now.'
But a salvage chief has argued the only way of finding out why the Bayesian sank is to lift it to the surface.
Read More
Mike Lynch 'considered selling £30m superyacht before victory celebration trip but changed his mind
Nick Barke, head of salvage operations at Boats.co.uk, said that the 'only real way of knowing' why the yacht sank will be to lift it to the surface, but that would be 'expensive and complicated process', likely to involve a crane barge.
He said divers would attach straps to the boat before it is lifted upright and then hauled out of the water.
He predicted this would be 'time-consuming' as 'they have to do it in such a way that they don't damage anything too badly.'
Royal submarine captain Ryan Ramsey says those taking part in the recovery operation would be under 'huge amounts of psychological stress'.
'It's been exceptionally stressful for them both mentally and physically,' he told Sky News.
'If you take into account the pressures that they're operating under, those are considerable.
The superyacht (pictured) was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when it was hit by an over-sea tornado, known as a waterspout
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
'It's dark. It's a platform that they've never been inside before, and they're having to recover bodies. That's huge amounts of psychological stress for those for those divers.'
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why the superyacht sank - described as 'unsinkable' by a CEO of a boat manufacturing.
Read More
Inside the life of brilliant and eccentric Mike Lynch who became Britain's Bill Gates
Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of The italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi that built the Bayesian, blamed human error for the disaster.
He told Corriere della Sera: 'The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.'
The Italian Sea Group has also dismissed speculation the enormous 264ft mast was to blame and says only a massive entry of water could have caused it to sink.
'The controversies about the mast are sterile controversies because the mast, according to those who have seen it, is intact,' they said.
'The retractable keel stabilises the ship, but even without the keel completely out the ship is stable and only a massive entry of water could have caused the sinking which did not happen in a minute as someone wrote.'
The ship's captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members.
The ship's captain, James Cutfield, 51, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members
Mike Lynch was one of the UK's richest men, worth an estimated £852million
A frantic search got underway at the site of the shipwreck after the Bayesian sank
Speaking to New Zealand media, Mr Cutfield's brother Mark said his sibling was a 'very good sailor' with eight years of experience working abroad on luxury yachts
The captain of a yacht, the Sir Robert BP, who helped to rescue them, described how those aboard his vessel spotted the distress flare set off from a life raft.
Read More
ROBERT HARDMAN explores the many unanswered questions about what caused the Bayesian disaster
Karsten Borner said his crew noticed the Bayesian had disappeared before a passenger spotted the flare.
He told Sky News: 'We couldn't see them any more and they disappeared from the radar, we were busy keeping our own ship sailing.
'We couldn't see the ship again so we were aware something was very wrong.'
He said it was only when the tender set out that they found the life raft.
Mr Borner continued: 'It turned out to be the life raft, a 12-person life raft with 15 people inside including one baby.
'They stepped over to our tender and we brought them back to our ship. There we took good care of them, gave them dry clothes, towels, blankets, tea and coffee and so on and took care of them.'
Tech tycoon and married father-of-two Mike Lynch is pictured here with his wife Angela
Mike Lynch (second left) is seen in the early days of his techology firm Autonomy in Cambridge
Mike Lynch, a married father of two daughters, was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to enterprise
The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch's acquittal in a fraud case in the US.
The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The Financial Times reported that Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.
In a separate incident, Mr Lynch's co-defendant in his US fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
Mike Lynch
Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian citizen working in Antigua, was the first confirmed victim of Monday's disaster off the coast of Sicily.
Tributes have been pouring in for him, with a friend hailing him as a 'very special person' who 'had so much to give' - while he has also now been described a 'lover of all things Italian' and 'one of the world's best humans'.
Others shared photos of the chef on his travels around the world, during which he would regularly post on social media about his stunning culinary creations.
It today emerged that he hoped to work for just two more seasons on the vessel so he could finance a makeover of the property which belonged to his late parents.
Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian citizen working in Antigua, was the first confirmed victim of Monday's disaster off the coast of Sicily - tributes have been pouring in for him
British technology tycoon Mike Lynch, pictured a CEO summit at London's Savoy Hotel in June 2011, is among the victims of the Bayesian superyacht sinking in Monday this week
The luxury vessel owned by Mr Lynch sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19 (file picture)
Gareth Williams, who grew up with Thomas in Antigua, told the BBC: 'I can talk for everyone that knew him when I say he was a well-loved, kind human being with a calm spirit.
'He told me just the other day that he needed to work two more seasons to fix up his late parents' house - he loved yachting, but he was tired.'
Read More
BREAKING NEWS
Hannah still missing: Agony continues as teen's body is yet to be found in superyacht tragedy
Meanwhile, fellow yacht chef Molly McMullin posted on Facebook that Mr Thomas was 'truly one of the world's best humans'.
She also said of the man known to friends a Ricky was an animal lover and keen reader - adding how he was 'a lover of all things Italian, a man with such style and panache, wit and humour'.
Tributes have also been paid to 59-year-old Mr Lynch, as searches continued for his missing 18-year-old daughter Hannah who is feared to also be dead.
This afternoon she remained lost at sea as Italian authorities named five people whose bodies were recovered from inside the Bayesian superyacht
Mr Lynch, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith and US nationals Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda have all been formally identified by coastguard officials.
The six passengers had been missing since Monday when the Bayesian yacht, with four bodies pulled from the water yesterday while a fifth was recovered earlier today.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, is among the five bodies recovered from the wreck of the £30 million superyacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily
Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda (top image), Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer (bottom left), and his wife Judith (bottom right) have also been identified
Mr Lynch's attorney Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Neda are also among those who have died
Brent Hoberman, a friend of Mr Lynch's for 28 years, described his death as 'unbelievably tragic' and his friends and family had been 'hoping for a miracle'.
He told Sky News: 'We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope.
Read More
The tech billionaire on board sunken superyacht: 'Britain's Bill Gates' Mike Lynch
'It's just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.'
He said he hoped close friends were rallying around My Lynch's 57-year-old wife Angela Bacares - who survived the tragedy - to give her 'courage and strength'.
The Bayesian sank after being hit by a 'black swan' waterspout on Monday at 5am.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has paid tribute to its 'mentor, donor and former council member' Mr Lynch following his death, while technology industry group TechUK called him a 'hugely significant and pioneering figure'.
Mr Lynch was also a member of the Create The Change fundraising board, set up by Cancer Research UK and which helped fund the building of the Francis Crick Institute.
Its chairman Lord John Browne said: 'Mike Lynch should be remembered as the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK.
Rescue personnel work at the scene today where luxury yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo
Divers found five bodies in the wreck yesterday (Pictured: A rescue boat with rescue personnel on board resume search operations this morning)
The Bayesian (pictured in an undated handout photo) overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning
Rescue workers look at the plans of the the Bayesian as they organise a search operation
'His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.
'I send my condolences to those close to him. We have lost a human being of great ability.'
Read More
Missing Mike Lynch held garden party at his £6million manor house weeks before superyacht tragedy
Mr Bloomer was previously an honorary treasurer at NSPCC.
Today, the children's charity's chairman Neil Berkett paid tribute to the 70-year-old and his wife Judy.
'We remember Jonathan from his time with us as a very kind individual with a great sense of humour and Judy as formidable and passionate,' he said.
'We are so grateful for everything they did for children and the NSPCC and our thoughts are with their family, friends and colleagues at this desperately sad time.'
In a further twist of fate, it emerged this afternoon Mr Lynch had put the doomed vessel up for sale in March but withdrew it from the market after he was acquitted in one of the biggest ever fraud cases, according to industry sources.
The Telegraph reported he was going to review the decision to sell in the autumn after his summer trip to the Mediterranean.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who survived the disaster
Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing, Italian government official Massimo Mariani (left) confirmed this afternoon
Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily's civil protection agency, said searches are resuming this morning, and there will be an investigation in due course
The Bayesian sank after being hit by a 'black swan' waterspout on Monday at 5am (Pictured: A large waterspout on sea in Campina, Italy, on August 19)
A decision on whether to raise the luxury yacht to the surface is currently 'not on the agenda' but Italian Coastguard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said: 'It will be, but not now.'
But a salvage chief has argued the only way of finding out why the Bayesian sank is to lift it to the surface.
Read More
Mike Lynch 'considered selling £30m superyacht before victory celebration trip but changed his mind
Nick Barke, head of salvage operations at Boats.co.uk, said that the 'only real way of knowing' why the yacht sank will be to lift it to the surface, but that would be 'expensive and complicated process', likely to involve a crane barge.
He said divers would attach straps to the boat before it is lifted upright and then hauled out of the water.
He predicted this would be 'time-consuming' as 'they have to do it in such a way that they don't damage anything too badly.'
Royal submarine captain Ryan Ramsey says those taking part in the recovery operation would be under 'huge amounts of psychological stress'.
'It's been exceptionally stressful for them both mentally and physically,' he told Sky News.
'If you take into account the pressures that they're operating under, those are considerable.
The superyacht (pictured) was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when it was hit by an over-sea tornado, known as a waterspout
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
'It's dark. It's a platform that they've never been inside before, and they're having to recover bodies. That's huge amounts of psychological stress for those for those divers.'
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why the superyacht sank - described as 'unsinkable' by a CEO of a boat manufacturing.
Read More
Inside the life of brilliant and eccentric Mike Lynch who became Britain's Bill Gates
Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of The italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi that built the Bayesian, blamed human error for the disaster.
He told Corriere della Sera: 'The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.'
The Italian Sea Group has also dismissed speculation the enormous 264ft mast was to blame and says only a massive entry of water could have caused it to sink.
'The controversies about the mast are sterile controversies because the mast, according to those who have seen it, is intact,' they said.
'The retractable keel stabilises the ship, but even without the keel completely out the ship is stable and only a massive entry of water could have caused the sinking which did not happen in a minute as someone wrote.'
The ship's captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members.
The ship's captain, James Cutfield, 51, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members
Mike Lynch was one of the UK's richest men, worth an estimated £852million
A frantic search got underway at the site of the shipwreck after the Bayesian sank
Speaking to New Zealand media, Mr Cutfield's brother Mark said his sibling was a 'very good sailor' with eight years of experience working abroad on luxury yachts
The captain of a yacht, the Sir Robert BP, who helped to rescue them, described how those aboard his vessel spotted the distress flare set off from a life raft.
Read More
ROBERT HARDMAN explores the many unanswered questions about what caused the Bayesian disaster
Karsten Borner said his crew noticed the Bayesian had disappeared before a passenger spotted the flare.
He told Sky News: 'We couldn't see them any more and they disappeared from the radar, we were busy keeping our own ship sailing.
'We couldn't see the ship again so we were aware something was very wrong.'
He said it was only when the tender set out that they found the life raft.
Mr Borner continued: 'It turned out to be the life raft, a 12-person life raft with 15 people inside including one baby.
'They stepped over to our tender and we brought them back to our ship. There we took good care of them, gave them dry clothes, towels, blankets, tea and coffee and so on and took care of them.'
Tech tycoon and married father-of-two Mike Lynch is pictured here with his wife Angela
Mike Lynch (second left) is seen in the early days of his techology firm Autonomy in Cambridge
Mike Lynch, a married father of two daughters, was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to enterprise
The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch's acquittal in a fraud case in the US.
The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The Financial Times reported that Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.
In a separate incident, Mr Lynch's co-defendant in his US fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
Mike Lynch
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