Ong Soo Hin is a

Malaysian Chinese Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian po ...

businessman and head of a salvaging company in south-east Asia. He was born to Chinese parents in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. He was business partners with marine salvor Mike Hatcher. In 1996, Ong Soo Hin teamed up with

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

archaeologist

Mensun Bound Mensun Bound (born 4 February 1953) is a British maritime archaeologist born in Stanley, Falkland Islands. He is best known as director of exploration for two expeditions to the Weddell Sea which led to the rediscovery of the Endurance,BBC News, ...

to work with Vietnam's National History Museum in excavating the Hoi An Wreck site off the coast of Hoi An,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. The project took four years and cost an estimated $14 million. Over 250,000 intact examples of Vietnamese ceramic were recovered.

External links

New York Times article on Ong Soo Hin's salvage operation
Malaysian businesspeople Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Malaysia-bio-stub