G.M. Taximan, sounds like her Main Engine was/is Bridge Controlled, ( presume a lot of clapping was involved after the incident occurred:D), unfortunately Bridge Control is not the panacea that " Ships Managements " think it is as failures can and do occur ( just look at some of the Ships crashing on Utube
) Something I have experience of.
I enjoyed my time on No1, no crashing squealing and banging of the Buckets going over the Top Tumbler being a Suction Dredger she was relatively quiet along with her Triple Expansion Engines of which they were four, two propulsion, one Suction Pump and one cutting which was apparently mounted on her Suction ladder Aft along with the shafting to a Cutter mounted above the Suction Head. I write apparently it had been removed before I was aboard.
No1 being an unusual "Boilers in the Bow" vessel the worry was as you are aware the Fireman who ran the Stokehold (two Boilers) singlehanded, fortunately the Deck Crew kept an eye on him as he was not a young chap when I was aboard. She carried a Chief Eng, a Second (Gerry ?) and an Engineman who ran the fully enclosed Crankcase Triple Expansion Suction Pump Engine. One of my memories was a large Stone Jar water purifier in the "Officers Mess" if you wanted drinking water something I usually saw on Foreign going Vessels.