Seafarers who worked for Energy Transportation Corp (ETC) helped pioneer the global natural gas trade more than 40 years ago.
But their proudest accomplishment did not involve LNG.
In 1980, an ETC-operated ship, the 126,400-cbm LNG Virgo (built 1979), came across a boat adrift in the South China Sea. Lauren Vuong and her family were among the Vietnamese refugees onboard the boat. The crew of the LNG Virgo rescued the refugees, many of whom later settled in the US.
In total, ETC ships rescued 2,000 "boat people" who were fleeing the country during that time.
Vuong's chance to thank the crew for her rescue came last weekend at the Maritime Industry Museum at State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College at Fort Schuyler in New York.
At the opening of an exhibition of artefacts from ETC, Vuong presented the museum with a statue commemorating her and her family's rescue.
