A rescue mission is under way off the coast of Sicily after the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian sank during freak weather early on Monday morning.

One man, the vessel’s cook, has died and his body has been recovered, according to Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Some 15 people have been rescued from the boat, while six remain missing.

Specialist divers from the Italian fire brigade resumed their search early on Tuesday morning.

Five of the six people who are unaccounted for have been named.

The six missing include four British nationals and two Americans, according to La Repubblica.

The Italian newspaper Il Giornale di Sicilia reported the vessel had mostly British passengers on board, along with people from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland and British-French citizens.

Several people on the boat worked on the recent trial of British businessman Mike Lynch, who was recently acquitted of fraud in the US.

There have been reports that the yacht trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal.

Mr Lynch is a tech entrepreneur who was once regarded by some as “Britain’s Bill Gates”.

Born in Ireland and raised in Essex, he went on to study at the University of Cambridge, before co-founding software company Autonomy in 1996.

The 59-year-old made his riches by selling the company to US tech giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).

Mr Lynch became embroiled in a decade-long legal battle following the acquisition. He was acquitted in the US in June on multiple fraud charges, over which he had been facing two decades in jail.

He told BBC Radio 4 in August that he believed he had only been able to prove his innocence in US court because he was rich enough to pay the enormous legal fees involved.

“You shouldn’t need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen,” he said.

Mr Lynch was travelling with his daughter Hannah, who is also missing.

The 18-year-old is reportedly the younger of Mr Lynch’s two daughters.

She had just completed her A-levels and secured a place to read English at Oxford University, according to the Times.

Chris Morvillo is a lawyer who represented Mr Lynch in his US trial. Since 2011, he has been a partner at the Clifford Chance law firm in New York.

His biography on the firm’s website says that he served as assistant attorney for the southern district of New York from 1999 to 2005.

During his tenure, he worked on the criminal investigation surrounding the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Jonathan Bloomer is the chairman of the Morgan Stanley International bank and insurance company Hiscox.

The 70-year-old Briton was educated at Imperial College London and has previously served on a number of company boards.

Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, according to the the Financial Times. Media reports suggest the pair are close friends.

Judy, the wife of Jonathan Bloomer, is also among the six people missing, Hiscox has confirmed.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event,” said Aki Hussain, group chief executive of Hiscox, which Bloomer has also chaired since 2023.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing.”

Ms Bloomer is listed as a former director of property developer Change Real Estate along with her husband.

Among the 15 people who survived the wreckage are nine members of the yacht’s crew.

This means every member of the crew survived minus the chef, who local authorities say has died.

Eight of the 15 who were rescued have been taken to hospital.

A British mother, named locally as Charlotte Golunski, was travelling on the yacht with her partner and baby girl. All three have been rescued from the boat.

In an interview, she described holding her infant daughter above the surface of the sea to save her from drowning.

Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch’s company, Invoke Capital, where she has worked since 2012, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The Times has reported that she has previously worked for Autonomy, the company at the centre of Mr Lynch’s recent court case.

Another lawyer, Ayla Ronald, was also reportedly rescued.

The New Zealand national works for Clifford Chance, where Mr Morvillo is a partner, and was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team for his June trial.

Her father told the Telegraph that she was “invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case”.

He said she had texted him to say that she and her partner were alive, without elaborating.

Angela Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife and Hannah Lynch’s mother, is also among those who have been rescued.

On Monday, Ms Bacares was using a wheelchair after suffering ­abrasions on her feet, according to the newspaper La Repubblica.