Thread by @cybergibbons

The ship has a full blackout for over a minute before impacting the bridge, followed by a second shorter loss of power.

Just after the lights come back on, you can see heavy soot which would likely be one of the main diesel generators being brought up.

A blackout at this point in time is about a worst case situation. You'd lose the rudder, main engine and bow thrusters, leaving you unable to do anything.

The 440V emergency generator would be first to start, but this would only restore power to the steering gear immediately.

The steering gear will run off 440V emergency generator but only one of the two hydraulic pumps (normally port) will be running, hence you have half the displacement.

Regulations generally say the emergency generator must start and be online in under 45s.

I suspect they were on the emergency generator at the end of the first blackout. It's only a small engine - 500kW or less - and generally the exhaust is not out of the main uptake.

The next step is to bring up one of the main diesel generators. This would have been the soot.

The second blackout - which is very brief - could have been the first main diesel generator coming back online.

That could very briefly interrupt power, but normally the emergency switchboard would keep continuous power to the steering gear.

You really need two diesel generators online before considering starting the main engine.

I'm not a deckie, but in this situation you'd probably be making the call between just using the rudder to avoid an incident, and getting the main engine back.

If you have forward speed, the rudder will still be working.

You can also attempt to use the bow thruster(s) but these are normally 2MW+ and need more than one diesel generator running to work.

There is a battery system onboard, but this will generally only power control systems and essential bridge equipment. You don't get any rudder or propulsion from it.

In a situation where you are maneuvering (and they were, as pilots were onboard), you'd normally have at least three of the diesel generators running. If one stops, you should still have enough power to keep everything running.

Why do ships blackout?

There are many reasons. I have to say, it's pretty rare that a full blackout would happen with multiple diesel generators running.

We had one ship that just had a really troublesome power management system (PMS), and it would sometimes make decisions that made no sense - but this only caused issues when we were on one generator (normally the shaft generator, powered by the main engine).

Another trigger, once, was a control air leak. The control air pressure dropped and dropped and then the main engine and all diesel generators stopped within a minute of each other.

But we were in the middle of the ocean - it was no worries.

So just to be clear, recovering from a full blackout is:

1. Start emergency generator (battery start, should be automatic)
2. Start one diesel generator (normally air start, hopefully you have air in the tanks, should be automatic)
3. Start more diesel generators.

4. Start ancillery systems (lube oil system, seawater cooling, low temp cooling, high temp cooling, fans)
5. Start main engine (always air start, hopefully air in the tanks.

A lot to get done!

All of the above is speculative based on a single video. But I doubt it was someone just turning the external lights on and off :(

Another thing that may not be clear to all - there would have been a local pilot onboard who will have been navigating the vessel at this point in time.

There would still have been officers from the ship on the bridge, including the officer of the watch, who had ultimate control

Probably worth a few corrections:
* Deckies have pointed out that the rudder is much less useful without prop wash, to the point of useless.
* At least one anchor was dropped.

And
* The master would have been in control, not the officer of the watch.