99006 Competence of Officers - Where Are We?

Competence of Officers - Where Are We?
Report No. 99006

Own ship, a refrigerated gearless container ship en route from Rotterdam to Fremantle received the following distress message from France telecom on Sat-C. At time of the receipt we were 100' SSE of Cape Town.

LES 321 - MSG 1485 - General Distress Call to Area: All - PosOK
LES21 FRANCE TELECOM CROSSA 740846F 22-OCT-1998 09:44:36 109648
This is MRCC Etel (France): phone: 33 2 97 55 35 35 telex: 42 950519 fax: 33 2 97 55 49 34. Local sailing vessel ''ARANTA'' from Madagascar with 175 passengers is unable to estimate her position during transit between Nosy Be / Anjouan. (psn 1320s 4815e / 12s 4430e) all ships in vicinity are requested to keep a sharp look out, to contact ''ARANATA'' on 6216 khz, to propose assistance and to report to Mayotte Island.

The question I ask myself is, what are the supposedly qualified OOW/Master doing taking 175 passengers to sea when they have no idea about D/R's, E/P's etc. Perhaps I am mistaken and there is more to this than meets the eye, but with today's falling standards it could be very true.