@SomaFMrusty the plume of black smoke you see very likely is the main engine going from slow ahead, what it would have been before the blackout, to full astern.
What irritates me is the heading. The ship drifts more or less on course, but turns to starboard as the engine goes full astern. Towards the bridge tower.
According to some weather data I checked on Windfinder it was flat calm, so cross wind seems to not have been a factor either.
@SomaFMrusty My hunch, and I'm far from firm on this, is that the rudder system was affected by the blackout, and didn't come back on. So the bridge team had communications, but no helm control.
I'm a shipbuilding engineer, and volunteer tallship sailor, not a professional mariner. And my experience is with ships that are orders or magnitude smaller. But if I put myself on that bridge, engine full astern would not have been my emergency maneuver of choice.
@PalmAndNeedle @SomaFMrusty@defcon.social
Assuming lack of helm control, what kinds of maneuvers would you consider?
@robryk @SomaFMrusty my instinct would be all astern and hard over, but that's not necessarily correct. Ship handling in these kinds of dimensions is neither trivial, nor intuitive.
@robryk @SomaFMrusty I phrased that poorly. If I had no helm, which I assume is what happened, I would have done the same. All astern, call a mayday, get my crew to clear the bow, and brace for impact.
With helm and main engine... tricky. Because it's very close quarters already when the power comes back on, and the ship still has 8 knots of boat speed. Whatever combination of power and helm I know from experience and simulator training will get the bow clear of the bridge and into the gap.