Help is on the way for the 18 Vietnamese crew members on a broken-down ship marooned in the Gulf of Thailand for over two months, after Thanh Nien reported on the story Sunday.

On July 22, the cargo vessel DT18 broke down off the shore of Bang Saphan Town in Thailand’s Prachap Khirikhan Province while carrying 3,300 tons of rice en route from Bangkok to Pasir Gudang in Malaysia.

The ship’s owner, Trai Thien Company in Ho Chi Minh City, neglected the crew’s request for aid for nearly a month before hiring a vessel to tow it close to Bang Saphan shore, then leaving the sailors adrift with no resolution.

On Thursday, crew members phoned Thanh Nien newspaper’s Thailand bureau in Bangkok to ask for help as fuel, electricity, cooking and freshwater were running out.

An official from Trai Thien Company said the firm sent engineers Sunday to repair the ship resume so it could its journey next week.

He said the firm had previously hired a Thai company to deliver food and freshwater to the crew after the ship was pulled closer to Bang Saphan Town, but perhaps the latter had failed to bring enough supplies.

Trai Thien Company Sunday asked the Thai company to provide additional freshwater, food and fuel to the ship, the official said.

Ngo Sy Thin, director of labor broker company Van Xuan which had supplied crew members for the ship, said he sent an official to Thailand Sunday to resolve the problem.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff