A search was continuing off Taiwan on Tuesday for 12 crew members missing after their cement carrier sank.
The 10,000-dwt Xing Shun No 1 (built 2014) went down on Monday on the east side of the Changhua channel in the Taiwan Strait.
The Panama-flagged ship had 17 seafarers on board when it sank.
Five seafarers who abandoned the vessel were successfully rescued, and the remaining 12 were still alive at that point, having made it to lifeboats.
Taiwanese authorities said two empty lifeboats had since been spotted.
Reports said the Xing Shun No 1 was originally carrying 20 Indonesian nationals.
Three had been disembarked for medical treatment after being injured on 30 October in unexplained circumstances.
Then on Monday, the ship lost power 14 miles off Lizhuoshuixi.
The vessel had left Hon Gai in Vietnam on 25 October and was heading for Taichung in Taiwan.
The five seafarers who were saved were picked up by a passing container ship.
A rescue vessel has also joined Air Crew Corps in searching for the missing.
The ship’s last port state control inspection in Vietnam in September found two deficiencies.
These related to life buoys and lighting in working spaces.
Equasis lists the owner as Jin Shun Maritime of Hong Kong, while Clarksons records the ownership as unknown.
VesselsValue assesses the cement carrier as worth nearly $10m.
The identity of its insurer is not clear.
The Xing Shun No 1 was reported sold in June by Bahana Jaya Samudera of Indonesia for an undisclosed price.
