Sinking boat at Bali Hai Pier raises questions

Mr. Navin Songsuphap, one of the feet operators of the department said, “The sinking ship in question used to be a restaurant ship that catered to tourists. The ship started sinking in the beginning of March due to negligence in maintenance. The owner and manager of the restaurant ship is Korean, but we do not know his name. The ship had many problems and our department had to pump water out of the ship three times. We kept informing him of the worsening situation, requesting that he fix the problem and improve his facilities but to no avail. It rained heavily on the day the ship sank and the boat could not hold water and stay afloat. We do not know the name of the boat, but the department has nicknamed it the Dragon Ship because its outline now looks like a Dragon.”

Mr. Sudthichai Upsri, Head of the Sea Rescue Department said, “The said boat was sunk since March and we raised it on the 11th of April. The reason that we did not hoist it before was because we could not contact the owner. We also had wait for the tide to recede so we could pump water out of the ship, plug the leaks and drag the ship out of the water. The owner then transported the ship to be fixed at Hea Seang fishing dockyard in Naklua.”