Incidents · sinking

Distress signal received from 47 meter M/V rabaul queen, 350 persons on board, vicinity 06-28.8S 147-58.5E

Solomon Sea · HYDROPAC 277/12

What this record establishes

Archived notice · 2012-02-02 01:39Z

This notice comes from the historical archive. Its archived status does not establish when or how the reported situation ended.

Source and dates: NGA MSI broadcast-warn JSON (archive, frozen 2024-05) · AUSSAR 797/12 012214Z FEB 12.. Issued 2012-02-01 22:56Z. First collected 2026-08-17 13:38Z; last seen in collection 2026-08-17 15:46Z. Collection dates record ingestion, not a new incident or a fresh field observation.
Location covered: Solomon Sea. The parsed report position is -6.480, 147.975. It is a position in the source message, not a live location. Check the original wording for limits and qualifications.

Original warning text

PAPUA NEW GUINEA.
VITIAZ STRAIT.
DISTRESS SIGNAL RECEIVED FROM 47 METER
M/V RABAUL QUEEN, 350 PERSONS ON BOARD,
VICINITY 06-28.8S 147-58.5E. VESSEL
POSSIBLY SINKING. VESSELS IN VICINITY
REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT, ASSIST
IF POSSIBLE. REPORTS TO RCC AUSTRALIA,
PHONE: 612 623 06811, FAX: 612 623 06868,
E-MAIL: RCCAUS@AMSA.GOV.AU.

Reading this warning

Distress signal received: A rescue centre has received an alert — from a beacon, a radio call or a satellite terminal — and is asking ships to look.
Persons on board (POB): The number of people reported aboard a vessel in distress, overdue or missing.
Position (degrees and minutes): How warnings write positions: degrees, a hyphen, then minutes, with N/S and E/W — 49-40.8N 003-43.8W.
Keep a sharp lookout: A request to every ship in the area to watch for the vessel, people or object described.
Assist if possible: The second half of the standard rescue request: ships able to help are asked to do so.
RCC / JRCC (Rescue Coordination Centre): The centre that organises search and rescue in its region; warnings ask ships to send their reports there.

All warning terms →

Collected reports in this area · distress & casualty cases (archived)

145 within 180 nm since 2000 · 0 in the last 12 months · 0 listed in force now

Counts include repeat notices about the same situation. NGA archive coverage ends 2024-05; live collection began 2026-08-17. The period between them is incomplete. An empty year is not evidence that no hazards occurred.

Month of issue in the collected archive

All available years combined. Uneven collection and repeat bulletins affect these counts; this chart does not measure the seasonality or probability of incidents.

Nearby notices listed in force · within 120 nm

All ships transiting the bismarck sea in vicinity of cape gloucester are requested to maintain a sharp…Wrecks · 87.3 nm

Worldwide in the collected sources

0 distress & casualty cases (archived) listed in force · see all

Record snapshot 2026-10-02 04:02Z; source collection times vary.

Incidents

Search-and-rescue broadcasts, published only once a case has been closed for 30 days: groundings, sinkings, capsizes, fires, man overboard, overdue vessels. Nothing here is live. All current distress & casualty cases (archived) →

Not for navigation. This is a re-rendering of an official navigational warning for awareness; mariners must use official NAVAREA broadcasts and their national MSI service.