The day-trippers were bailing for their lives as seawater gushed into the boat, according to an SOS call received at 2.30pm by the local Royal Thai Navy base.
The Navy alerted officials at the Koh Kood Tambon Administrative Organisation (TAO), who scrambled three speedboats for a search and rescue mission.
The crew of the sinking boat managed to radio their position – 16.2 miles off Koh Kroood’s Laem Thian cape – before the line went dead.
