When you click the three lines above the queued messages, does it show the option to board? That area is where the boarding button is usually located

It was the second boat (the Swiss- Neutral) on the 3rd tutorial mission. I put one torpedo in it for 100% damage (Han Solo: I didn't hit that hard must have had some kind of self destruct) so when I get close to sinking boat the tutorial commander pop up says "board the boat" but there is no helmet to click on to board the boat (the helmet boarding button didn't trigger because the boat was already destroyed), I had to go back further to an earlier save and found out you are not suppose to destroy the boat before boarding, just board the boat and plant explosives in their engine room. It's not hard to glitch the tutorial that's for sure. There was another attempt, I hit it with a torpedo but was close enough to board, but I spent to much time searching for loot on the boat that four crew members went down with the ship. It took and hour but I got through it with all crew members accounted for.

Make sure you stop your boat before boarding. You can drift away accidentally and lose the crew

You're not supposed to torpedo the second ship. You are supposed to sail towards it, radio it, send some of your crew to it, talk to the crew on the ship, investigate it etc.
You can't do that once you have torpedoed it as the crew leaves the ship.

https://youtu.be/ggBbxb2Jcdk