All of our theories and speculation are fun, but I would bet on much more simple and common mechanical failure. There is one thing that I would bet will be looked at by the investigating agencies...did the Dali take on fuel while in Baltimore? Of course we have no way of knowing, but there are many grades of marine diesel (Not like your diesel, it's a blend of diesel #2 and heavy fuel oil))...and moneywise of course, the owners buy the lowest grades and prices. It's up to the ships engineers to make the fuel work, by filtering, settling and or centrifuging. It's nasty stuff, often containing the dregs of the refinery or at least sediments from the bottoms of dirty storage tanks. Fuel contamination for a dollar Alex.
You have a very good point, flintlocke. Naturally, they will get a tankful there in Baltimore. Five minutes after the fill-up, the boat conks out. Quite the coincidence.
Pure speculation on my part, it may be even simpler than I suggested. Dirty fuel is the norm. It is customary to draw fuel from the ship's storage tanks, double bottoms, to what is called a 'day tank'...nothing more than a small tank quantity (maybe 40,000 gal) sufficient to operate for 36 hours, the day tank fuel is then drained of water, sediment and may be centrifuged, but always strained and filtered before it goes to the engines. That's normal...it's what they do. But, because of the solitary nature of seagoing life, crew is desperate to get off the ship for a few hours, and a good skipper and chief engineer make sure that happens whenever possible. In the confusion of juggling schedules, the ever present possibility that some crew will return to the ship unfit for duty (Exxon Valdez)....sometimes important schidt doesn't get done, or done by someone impaired. It happens. This is where I venture into fantasy...it's entirely possible the day tank was pumped full, but the fuel was not cleaned, and that was not noted in the engine room log...or was noted and missed by the engineer who had the duty when Dali departed. Big gulps of water or sediment overwhelmed the first filter bank, the engines (generator or main or both) died, the filter system was frantically shifted to the second redundancy bank, which promptly plugged and the second failure was the kill shot. This literally can happen in minutes. It has happened to me as chief engineer on a tug, when a split weld opened in the hull in a double bottom tank and all I could get was seawater into the day tank. Fortunately we had a cool head for a skipper, and he prepared for worst scenario immediately...no damage to vessels, crew other than embarrassment. And finally, my original assessment at the first hours, complete failure of the electrical system...whether at the main bus or switchgear. Rare but it happens.
Well this is a fine pickle we're in, should'a listened to Joe McCarthy and George Orwell I guess.
