Interesting enough the Captain probably was not at the helm of the ship. Ports have independent Pilots that steer ships out of Port. Reports are that were two Pilots on board. See link
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_pilot
Captains and pilots don't usually steer ships at any time. When the pilot is conning a vessel, the pilot gives helm orders directly to a helmsman (usually an Able-Bodied Seaman or an experienced Ordinary Seaman). On Non-American-flagged ships, the rudder orders are either Port Rudder or Starboard Rudder (plus the number of degrees), Midships, or Steady (on a specified course). Although there are usually 2 steering pump systems, the steering pump(s) in use could either be one system or the other or both systems combined. My experience has been that one of the systems is powered by the Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) powered circuit, and the other one isn't. The one that isn't, is powered by a Ship's Service Diesel Generator (SSDG). Should the switches have been set to just the steering pump that only receives power from just the SSDG (and not both)...and the SSDG trips out, steering is lost temporarily until someone thinks about energizing the the other steering pump on the EDG-powered circuit. Should steering be lost during a helm command, the vessel will keep going in the direction the rudder is stuck on at that moment. Hopefully, steering will get restored before a disaster occurs.
When 2 pilots are onboard, one pilot is usually the senior pilot who either conns the vessel directly or observes the junior pilot as part of that junior pilot's training program. It is unknown which pilot was conning the vessel at the time of the allision with the bridge.