An inquiry report into the fatal collision between Condor Vitesse and a French fishing boat in March this year carries a strong ‘health warning’ about its purpose.

It is not there to apportion blame, criminal responsibility or collective liability but to identify relevant safety issues and prevent similar accidents in the future. Using its findings for other purposes could lead to wrong interpretations.

That said, most lay people reading it will come to a single conclusion: the incident in which a French fisherman died was readily preventable. Had senior officers on the bridge looked at their radar screens, they would have seen that they were bearing down at high speed in thick fog on a vulnerable whelk boat.

Why they didn’t spot it and whether they were negligent are matters that a French court will take up if prosecutors decide to take matters further.

In the meantime, however, the accident investigation report does not paint a picture of the professionalism of the people running that ferry – or of their attitude towards their duties.

A transcript of the conversations on the bridge that day, even allowing for a questionable translation, suggests there was a party atmosphere even though the ferry was thundering through dreadful visibility in a known fishing area.

Far from worrying about whether they should slow in view of that or pay attention to the radar screens that were highlighting impending disaster, those engaged in the bridge banter were more concerned about sexy women and how much time had to elapse before illegal drugs could be detected in the body.

To hell with passenger safety and maritime prudence, it seems to say, we’re here to have fun.

The transcript implies that many women seeking jobs on board get dismissed because they fail drug and/or alcohol tests.

The ferry’s master regrets one sacking because she was so good looking, ‘…very, very beautiful’. Yes, agrees an unidentified male, ‘a drug-addict and beautiful, …what… a curriculum’.

Irrespective of any court case, the immediate issue for Condor is whether this sort of behaviour is common across its fleet or confined to a rogue crew.