They belonged to a crew of 14 on a fishing boat owned by Vo Ngoc Do of Hoai Nhon Town in Binh Dinh Province that got caught in rough seas off the central Khanh Hoa Province.

"A Hong Kong cargo ship saved them," Tran Chau, deputy chairman of Binh Dinh, which is also on the central coast, said Friday.

The captain of M/V Fortune Iris called the Nha Trang Coastal Radio Station in Khanh Hoa on Thursday night to inform his ship had rescued the trio.

Le Minh Don, 20, Phan Quoc Quy, 35, and Vo Van Hoai, 35, are reported to be in stable health condition despite spending three days stranded at sea.

They told the crew of M/V Fortune Iris that of the 14 on their boat, two died right after it sank while they do not know about the rest.

Local authorities are working with the Hong Kong vessel to receive the three.

On Tuesday evening, Do, also captain of his boat, sailed to Nha Trang to take shelter as Storm Molave, the most powerful to hit Vietnam in the last 20 years, approached the central coast.

However, the boat sank more than 300 km (190 miles) from the coast.

Around two hours before that tragedy, another fishing boat from Binh Dinh also sank en route to shelter, and its 12-member crew are still listed as missing.

Two ships and a hydroplane belonging to the Navy have been deployed to search for the 23 missing men.

Molave made landfall on Wednesday morning before weakening into a tropical depression. It killed at least 21 people including 19 victims of landslides in Quang Nam Province, and left 42 others missing. Nearly 230 houses collapsed and some 88,600 others had their roofs blown away.

Before entering the East Sea, it had wreaked havoc in the Philippines, killing at least three people and leaving dozens missing, the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.