The captain of the tech magnate Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian is facing a manslaughter investigation over the deadly wreck after the ship capsized last week off the coast of Sicily, according to reports.

Italian prosecutors are probing whether the actions of Captain James Cutfield, 51, may have led to the disastrous August 19 sinking which claimed the lives of seven people, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter.

Cutfield, a New Zealander, was interviewed by investigators for over two hours on Sunday – the second time he’s been brought in for questioning, the Italian papers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera reported.

Under maritime law, a ship’s captain assumes full responsibility for safety of the vessel, its crew, and all passengers.

The Bayesian is believed to have been hit by a sudden and severe weather event, but Italian prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio suggested Saturday that negligence on the part of the crew may have left the ship susceptible to damage and sinking.

Prosecutors are also considering looking into a crew member who was on duty when the foul weather blew in, according to La Repubblica.

Questions have been raised about whether all the ship’s hatches were properly secured before the storm, and whether the boat’s retractable keel was fully extended while it was at anchor.

“The Bayesian was built to go to sea in any weather,” naval architect Franco Romani, one of the people who helped design the Bayesian, told La Stampa Monday, adding that he believed a side hatch was left open and allowed water to pour into the boat.

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of Italian Sea Group – which owns the yacht maker Perini Navi that built the Bayesian in 2008 – previously told Reuters the boat must have sunk due to “indescribable, unreasonable errors.”

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing seven passengers.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, was the final one to be recovered.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage, according to the Telegraph. 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the Bayesian sank Monday shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the Bayesian’s speedy demise, maritime experts say.

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“The captain should have prepared the boat and put it in a state of alert and of safety,” he said in a later interview with the Financial Times, adding that if proper protocols had been followed the 22 people onboard would have been fast asleep in their bunks within an hour of the powerful storm blowing through.

“Ask yourself — why were none of the Porticello fishermen out that night? A fisherman checks the conditions and a ship doesn’t? The disturbance was completely readable on all the weather maps. It was impossible not to know,” he said.

Further raising suspicion about the culpability of crew members is the time frame of the ship’s sinking.

Earlier reports said the Bayesian went down in just two minutes – but Constantino said he’s seen data from the ship showing it took a full 16 minutes to founder.

“It went down, not in one minute as some scientists have said. It went down in 16 minutes,” he said, questioning why the crew wasn’t able to evacuate the boat in that time.

Of the 12 passengers and 10 crew members who were onboard when disaster struck, 15 made it off alive.

With Post wires.