It had an Indian crew. In general, they are in the top half of competencies.
It appears a generator failed, and then the backup generator failed. He said there have been issues with "green" diesel. He also said the generators might not have been tested properly, as they are not allowed to run generators more than a couple minutes while moored, they need to hook to the port electric asap upon docking, and can only start the generators up right at departure, due to air pollution concerns.
The smoke could have been from a "full astern" order.
The 8-9 knots it was going was normal. The ship is actually easier to steer at higher speeds. Also, it is unlikely that the ship would have any internet connection to the stuff that failed.
This is lifted from a co-worker on his FB page: vessel leaving port should have two generators on line and have the steering gear in operation able to powered by the emergency buss. I’ve seen folks test gear and place the running steering gear leaving the nonemergency powered unit on line for departure. If done correctly the emerg generator should have powered the steering gear when they lost the plant.
So anyway, I share this because it was nice to hear from people that actually do this for a living.
Thanks for the “insider” info.!