The account is not very detailed, but
many of the crew are probably low paid hotel staff, rather that professional sailors.

Inspite of the passenger speaking to an officer, it may actually have been a "hotel supervisor", and there may have been a language issue too ? Possibly the message never did reach a "real" ships officer ? From the sounds of it, they needed good binoculars to spot the fishing boat, and by the time they spoke to the "officer", they may have passed further away.

I'm not making excuses for anyone here !

The bridge should have had radar and they would have known about the boat.

Even if the Captain was unable or unwilling to stop himself, his duty should have directed him to notify maratime safety - especially if he suspected piracy (as some folk have suggested).

A prudent capatin could even have reported it as a "... I didn't see anything but a passenger saw ... " and then left it to maratime safety to do a fly past and check it out properly.

The absolute minimum would have been to enter it into the ships log !