Three dead and four missing as Thai fishing vessel sinks
S. Kanchanawari 888 went down at anchor 40 miles off Sattahip with 22 people on board
Three crew members died and four remain missing after the Thai fishing vessel S. KANCHANAWARI 888 sank about 40 nautical miles off Sattahip in Chon Buri province. Fifteen of the 22 people on board were rescued.
The vessel went down at about 22:00 on 21 September near 11 degrees 56.93 minutes north, 100 degrees 50.30 minutes east, some 40 nautical miles from Laem Pu Chao on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand. Her crew comprised two Thai nationals, the captain and the engineer, and 20 Myanmar nationals. Captain Wichan Ma-iang was identified as one of the dead; two further deaths were confirmed subsequently.
Thailand's First Naval Area Command deployed the patrol vessel T.112, an anti-submarine helicopter and navy divers after the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Centre Region 1 alerted it to the casualty. Fishing vessels working nearby joined the search, and it was those vessels that took the 15 survivors out of the water.
The timeline carries the hardest detail. Prasert Pitakkorn, mayor of the Samae San subdistrict and president of the Samae San Channel Fisheries Association, said the association was alerted at around 05:00 — roughly seven hours after the vessel went down. A fishing boat working alone at anchor has no obligation to report a position continuously, and no watchkeeping arrangement ashore that misses her when she stops answering.
The owner, Chatchawan Ma-iang, said S. Kanchanawari 888 left Samae San pier on the evening of 21 September together with three other fishing vessels, which then separated to fish. He said the vessel was at anchor when severe weather struck.
Strong winds and heavy seas affected the area, but the cause of the sinking remains under investigation. A vessel lost at anchor rather than under way narrows the questions to stability, freeboard and downflooding: a hull that takes water over a low point while lying to her cable has no way to steer out of the sea that is putting it there.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 24 September 2026.
