All 16 crewmembers of the fishing boat, the Htoo Htet Aung (36) were saved when it sank 17 miles offshore of Kyaukpyu Township in Arakan State on the night of 8 April.
The captain of the fishing boat, U Kyaw Shwe, said the boat was heading to shore at 9.30pm after having pulled in its nets when seawater suddenly entered into the engine room, which caused the boat to sink.
He said: “While we were piloting the boat water suddenly entered the engine room and after that the boat slowly sank.”
Kyaukpyu police station confirmed that a navy vessel saved all of the 16 fishermen on the fishing boat.
An official from the police station said: “We knew when the fishing boat was sinking because other fishing boats close to the scene called navy ship No 599 by phone. Twenty minutes after the accident started Navy ship No. 559, captained by Captain Major Moe Kyaw Lwin, arrived and managed to save all 16 fishermen.”
The sunk fishing boat was 83 feet long. 22 feet wide and had a draught of 12 feet. It had a wooden body and a 500BHP Cummins engine. The crew had already caught about 1 tonne of fish when the boat sank. The boat was owned by U Than Shein from Mawlamyine city in Mon state.
The fishing boat had been fishing off the coast of Arakan State for the previous seven months and all the fishermen were from the mainland of Burma.
The navy handed over the rescued fishermen to the authorities from Kyaukpyu town on 9 April.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
