I made lot of random drills/tests of emcy stop( weather & safety , schedule & engine crew attitude 
permitting) as well as simulated blackouts in order to check with my own eyes , what exactly is supplied by emcy gen , what by bateries on the bridge and what lights on superstructure and on deck ( mostly to verify if it is as per description and regs and to check if such lights as a/m are properly marked with red paint as emcy lights) - i did it mostly after joining ship and after engine officers changes .
Emcy steering drills were done acc to USCG requirements/flag etc which was every 3 months. These were always announced with all officers and crew gathered in the steering gear room, revs where taken down from full sea revs 90% MCR to full meneuvering revs and even less to SAHD and before anything was touched, the emcy phone communication was established and tested with responsible engineer and then with the helmsman, who was fitted with headphone and mike. VHF com was as back up but due to noise , distance and steel obstructions , it was not always reliable.
As far as I remember, the procedure description for the engineer in the steering gear room was to switch to no.2 (port side) steering pump after bridge reported midship and on the bridge main steering stand NFU mode was activated.
The helmsman in the S.G.room opereted using red/green pushbuttons or levers repeating first commands from the bridge and confirming execution( close loop comm) . After simple commands to port/stb or whatever, course to steer was given as I always had ships with gyro repeater in the S.G. room . All including deck officers had to practice steering in this mode.
Regarding rudder movements during such experiments 28 sec was always maintained ( 1 PUMP NO.2 running) . The M/E was running then the supply i think was from Aux.d.gens .
But after your lectures here i am not sure now . I do not recall hearing emcy gen starting during such dril. Now I have a dillema , i did not know what the hell was going on during these drills -technicaly wise
Now .During blackout tests emcy gen was supplying as per technical description and as per label on emcy switch board S.G. pump no. 2 and operation and ruder movements were checked on the bridge - i did not notice to be honest any apprieciable slowing down of rudder movement from port to stb in comparison with normal operation.
Regarding other things . Navigation in pilotage, restricted waters in general ALWAYS two S.G. pums were running ( abt 14-15 secs from side to side) ,the bowthruster was always powered up in such a way that it could be used immediately or with few secs delay irrespective if pilot needed it or not especialy in areas I was not familiar with (first time navigating) according to rule, that shit happens combined and even turbo charged by Murphy’s law. Sorry but I hate the question : capt pls explain why …
Cheers
