So the owner says it’s a “vast right wing conspiracy” rather than eco-terrorism. I’m not convinced. There were quite a number of explosions, some of which resulted in sinkings and loss of life, on diesel-electric submarines, and now that we read that the battery pack was involved an accident seems to loom ever more probable as the cause. Mr. Ockels is just guessing.

There is a long history of accidents every time a new propulsion system is adopted for ships. For steam, it was boiler explosions, remember those? For gasoline engines it was explosions and fires. After the fact, safety practices can be beefed up so that accidents become rare, although they still occasionally happen.

Experience with very large battery packs on yachts is not great, and my understanding is that the battey pack on this yacht wasn’t plain lead-acid but a high tech one. I think a technical investigation should be made but I would not be surprised to see the final report conclude it was an accident.