Abandoned Cruise Ship Ocean Dream Sinks Off Thailand

Ocean Dream. File photo: MarineTraffic.com/Graham Buchan Innes

A cruise ship abandoned by its Chinese owner for over a year has capsized and is leaking oil off the port of Laem Chabang in Thailand.

The cruise ship Ocean Dream began sinking Saturday and came to rest half submerged in the Gulf of Thailand about two miles from the coast near the town of Si Racha.

Local media reports say that the cruise ship has been abandoned by its Chinese owner for over a year without crew or maintenance despite repeated requests by local authorities to remove the ship from Thai waters.

Video (below) from an overflight of the capsized ship filmed over the weekend and posted to Youtube shows an oil slick extended several hundreds meters from the vessel.

An update from Thailand’s Marine Department said that windy weather on Sunday caused oil to escape boom that has been placed around the vessel and crews are working with skimmers and dispersants to cleanup with the oil that has been released.