Wow. You probably saved their lives, esp if no one knew they were missing. Were they Vietnamese?
Shrimpers, shrimp at night and sleep in the day time. There was probably a captain on the boat, he would have missed them, maybe already had. We were maybe 30+ miles from shore, getting close to dark, they had no lights on their skiff. Their skiff was under water, any rough water and they could not have stayed on top of it.
One kid was exhausted and had to have help swimming back to the main boat. We defiantly saved their lives. I am so glad we were curious about what we saw in the water and investigated.
There can be anything floating out there that you can hit and wreck your boat. We would usually leave the dock at 3 am and get back after dark.