Twenty six Filipino seamen were rescued by the crew of the Chinese vessel MV Tong Ying hours after their cargo ship sunk off Camiguin, an island province of The Philippines, on Friday morning, January 9, the Philippines Coast Guard said in a statement.
The survivors were onboard the 2013-built, Mongolia-flagged deck cargo ship LCT 378 when it was battered by big waves and strong winds around 4:00 AM local time.
The ship’s Captain Edilberto I. Jugarap reportedly sent a distress signal when their ship continued to list at about 15 degrees to port side, and water flooded in the cargo hold. Jugarap and his men abandoned ship at around 8:30 AM before LCT 378 totally capsized 20 nautical miles off Camiguin.
The distress call was earlier received by MV Tong Ying, which came to the rescue and plucked the 26 crew members from two inflatable rafts.
The Coast Guard District Northern Mindanao deployed the personnel of Coast Guard Station (CGS) Dapitan to rendezvous with MV Tong Ying 50 nautical miles northeast off Port of Dapitan.
The 26 seamen were safely transferred to MV Aleson Con Carrier 9 and were brought to Coast Guard Station Dapitan for medical attention and further investigation.
So far no injuries to the crew have been reported.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.