Four fishermen died after their boat crashed into a larger vessel and sank in Sattahip Bay.
The unidentified crewmen – two Thais and two Cambodians – were asleep in their bunks when the Chokchuchai collided with the unnamed freighter about 35 nautical miles offshore Jan. 6.
Royal Thai Navy Region 1 sailors managed to rescue one Thai and three Cambodian crewmen around 1 a.m. that morning. Navy divers pulled the bodies of the dead sailors from the sunken vessel later in the morning.
On Jan. 9, a salvage crew from Mahidol Adulyadej Shipyard used two 50-ton cranes to pull the Chokchuchai to the surface in an operation that lasted about two hours. A team from Forensics Office 4 in Rayong inspected the vessel to determine why it sank so quickly.
Boat owner Yaowalak Emprapai, 58, thanked the navy for recovering the bodies of the dead and saving the living, as well as salvaging her fishing boat, which she said would be repaired and put back into service.
Navy investigators are interviewing the crew of the freighter to determine what it was hauling and why it continued after the collision to a port in Koh Sichang.
