I have been doing professional photography since the '60's. This was beyond the enhancement that high ASA or ISO could help with. I used to do nighttime concerts handheld and get usable images with Tri-X, pushed to 1200 ASA.

Both he and we had tripods.

Visually, we were barely able to see the QM II. The digital camera was simply picking up the little available light and putting it to work better than the eye or film could. [Of course, it was a professional, top of the line unit.] QM II was only lit from her onboard lights, no spotlighting from shore or nearby vessels.