Uniglory crew receive award for bravery after sea rescue

Taiwan's Uniglory Marine Corporation has been awarded a marine commendation for bravery on behalf of its container vessel, Uni-Fortune and her crew who launched a search and rescue operation to save the crew of a sinking general cargo ship in the South China Sea on 27 January, 2000.

At a ceremony on Friday 9 March at the Hong Kong Marine Department, Mr Tsui Shun Yiu, Director of Marine, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, presented the commendation of bravery to Mr Walter Chan, Deputy Senior Vice President and the head of Uniglory's Operations Department.

Uniglory officials and casualty reports state that on the morning of 27 January at 10:25 local time, Uni-Fortune picked up an alert signal from the MRCC (Marine Emergency and Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre) reporting that the St Vincent-registered 4,942 grt general cargo vessel Rui Da had begun to take on water near Vietnam, prompting the crew to abandon ship. The vessel subsequently sank.

As Uni-Fortune was in the vicinity, she started to conduct an extensive search at the scene and at 14:20, recovered a total of 25 crew members from their lifeboats. Uni-Fortune then proceeded on her voyage to Ho Chi Minh City where the rescued seafarers were landed.