Dozens of passengers rescued from a sinking ship that was traveling to notorious Thai death island Koh Tao.

Official said 92 tourists were aboard the Sandee Maneesap 111 night boat travelling from Surat Thani province to Koh Tao island when the vessel began taking on water due to a broken pump at dawn on Friday morning, December 22.

Two boats were dispatched to evacuate the tourists - both foreign and Thai - in batches. The vessel later sunk four nautical miles from the shore.

Authorities said they had all arrived on Koh Tao. The first batch was taken to Koh Tao at 9:30 am, and by 11 am, all the passengers were safely on land.

Noppadol Khaomali, Koh Phangan District Chief, said a help centre was set up to assist the tourists and transport them back to their hotels.

The Regional Harbor Office, Koh Phangan Branch has issued warnings to passing boats about the sunken ship as divers prepared to salvage it for investigations.

Captain Natthaphon Sinpoonphon, deputy commander of the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command in the province, said authorities received a distress call from boat crew at 6 am as the Sandee Maneesap 111 started to sink some 15 nautical miles off Koh Tao.

The ship weighing 115 tonnes was eventually submerged about four nautical miles offshore.

Koh Tao police said they were investigating the incident.

The Surat Thani Meteorological Station today said 30 per cent of the southern Thai province will be hit with thunderstorms and northeasterly winds reaching 20 to 40 kilometres per hour.

Waves were forecasted to reach up to three metres high.

Koh Tao was dubbed Death Island following the murders of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in 2014. Previous cases of tourists deaths emerged and there have been a number of unexplained deaths of tourists since.

Authors, documentary makers and researchers have blamed corrupt Thai police and a powerful clique of local families that control the island for covering up the murders.