An American oil-drilling ship with 97 people on board capsized, and at least seven other ships sank Saturday as Typhoon Gay churned through the Gulf of Thailand with 120-mph winds whipping up 35-foot-high waves.
Unocal Corp. of Los Angeles reported its 361-foot ship Seacrest capsized in the storm but a helicopter spotted an overturned boat, or piece of wreckage, with what appeared to be several survivors clinging to it."The vessel is floating but it is capsized," company spokesman Barry Lane said in Los Angeles. "Our helicopter had to return to the mainland to refuel, and we can't confirm whether the people may be survivors from Seacrest."
Lane said six Americans were among those on board the Seacrest.
Another Unocal ship, with 89 people aboard, was reported missing but was eventually found with all of its crew accounted for, a spokesman for the company's Thai subsidiary said.
He said the crews on oil platforms in the Gulf were reported safe.
The Thai Navy and fishing association officials said at least seven other ships sank or capsized in the typhoon and an estimated 200 sailors are missing. The officials did not say whether the 200 figure included the 97 on board the Seacrest.
Three survivors from the sunken Sang Thai Diamond told rescuers that steep waves swept over their boat at night before they could radio for help. Another 19 sailors sleeping below at the time were feared drowned.
Thai fishing association officials said contact had been lost with another 14 trawlers, but it was hoped that some of them had managed to weather the storm.
The Thai Meteorology Department reported the typhoon was expected to strike the coast of Thailand at Chumporn, 280 miles south of Bangkok, on Saturday.
Thousands of people have already been evacuated from low-lying areas along the coast including 733 people from an unprotected spit of land in Nakornsrithammarat province where more than 1,000 people were killed in a sudden storm in 1962.