The ship had 17 officers and crew on board when it began to struggle in heavy seas that repeatedly hit it side-on.
Abubager Siddique, 50, a deck hand on the Hope – who had joined the ship just three months before – was plucked from sea by a Royal Thai Navy helicopter and flown to Phuket, where he is now being treated in Vachira Phuket Hospital.
Apart from five crew who made it to one of the ship’s lifeboats, and Mr Siddique, who was saved by the helicopter, the remaining crew members have yet to be found.
With tears in his eyes, Mr Siddique told The Phuket News this afternoon that the Hope was labouring across fierce seas and heavy winds when the deck cargo began to shift, causing the ship to list heavily to starboard.
It heeled over to the point where some of the cargo went overboard.
He said that while some of the crew managed to scramble into one of the Hope’s lifeboats, he and others simply leapt over the side, fearing that otherwise they might be carried to the bottom by the sinking ship.
Kept afloat by a life jacket, he waited for what seemed like hours for help to arrive. It finally arrived in the reassuring shape of a Thai helicopter.
When The Phuket News spoke to Mr Siddique in hospital, he had still to have X-rays but he had suffered cuts to his head and left arm and hand. He appeared shocked and disoriented, and deeply worried about the shipmates he had left behind.
Clutching The Phuket News reporter’s hand to his chest, he said he gave thanks to God that he was alive and added that his thoughts were with his daughter in Bangladesh.
During the interview, he received a call from his son in Singapore and told him about the ordeal.
Normally the ship would have had a complement of 32 officers and crew, Mr Siddique said, but that on this voyage there were only 17 on board.
The five in the lifeboat have since been transferred to the containership Buxmoon, which will take them to Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Mt Siddique lies in his hospital bed hoping that he will soon be joined by his other colleagues.