A HONG Kong-based ship slipped past a cordon of Chinese gunboats yesterday to rescue six seamen stranded for a month on a mainland naval base.
One of the seamen, chief engineer Maung Kyaw Aung, needed urgent medical attention for severe stomach cramps he had suffered since his freighter Belinetta ran aground on Baili Island during Typhoon Koryn last month.
After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations to get a Hong Kong salvage tug or launch to risk a rescue in restricted Chinese military waters, the vessel's Hong Kong agent finally ordered its sister ship to mount a rescue from China.
Gunboats surrounded the Fairwind to keep it from getting too close to the naval base in the Wanshan group of islands 30 kilometres south of Lantau.
A Chinese naval ferry carried the six Burmese seamen to their rescuers, but the captain and two crew members remained to keep watch on the submerged hull of the Belinetta for insurance reasons.
A spokesman for the agent said the whole operation had been conducted without proper authority due to fears that China would detain the crew if the plight became ''official''.
''The Chinese Navy just wanted our men off the island, so they didn't give us too much trouble,'' he said.