I really like the description underneath the latest page.
Although the term "list" is technically a bit questionable, its fitting enough that assuming a far future society adapted it to space-faring vessels isn't that far-fetched.
List in traditional sea-faring vessels means the vessel is not sitting upright in the water but is "listing" to one side. That means all decks are tilted to that side by the list angle, and if the list is severe enough, you can have significant difficulties walking. Also cargo and other objects will tumble to that side (and by such make that side heavier, thus increasing the list)
A spacecraft technically cannot list in orbit, as there is no stationary gravity and - in the absence of thrust or artificial gravity, as would be the case in a disabled craft - everything on board is experiencing weightlessness.
As mentioned in the description, any rotational moment imparted to the vessel before it was disabled - either by deliberate maneuver or by impact - is kept theoretically forever, since there's no forces acting to counter it. Or in lay-mans terms. Objects that are spinning remain spinning. (Newtons laws of mechanics, conservation of momentum and energy)
(in practice, in orbit around a planet, small tidal forces from the planet will slowly slow the craft down until it is tidally locked with the planet, but that takes months if not years to happen, especially with large ships)
A rotating ship of course means there is an apparent centrifugal force acting on anything inside it. In fact this is the simplest form of artificial gravity. The downside is. It"s not pointing downwards to the deck, but always outwards, away from the axis of rotation and towards the outer hull plating, which is now "the floor"
so very much like a listing ship, everyone and everything inside is pulled to one side - the outside. How much so depends on how fast the ship is rotating. After a collision, these forces could even be greater than 1g and make movement near the outer hull near impossible, up to being so strong they rip the ship apart (one reason why capital ships - possibly hundreds of meters long - cannot turn on the spot too fast. The forces become too great for hull, passengers or inertial dampeners to handle)
As such, applying the term "list" to a ship that is rotating and lost inertial compensation - although not physically accurate - is IMHO quite a good choice of term. I like that a lot.
An important difference though. Unlike a seafaring vessel where all the crap that tumbles to the listing side will make the list worse, in a rotating space ship any mass accumulating further outside due to centrifugal forces will actually slow the rotation down a bit. (Since the moment of rotation remains constant, if the mass is further out, the speed must go down. This can be seen really nice in the video of the Space rocket booster tumbling towards the water, and slowing down its spin just before water impact as it "throws" the legs out - much like a ballerina doing a pirouette and then extending her arms)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf0cqROzuPI
By the way, stopping the rotation is currently one of the major challenges in robotic "space debris removal missions" as planned by NASA and ESA. You cannot efficiently dock or link up with a craft unless you either stop its rotation, or you approach it directly in the axis of rotation. As such derelict satellites that might be tumbling are very tricky and even dangerous to approach.
Docking with a derelict craft, as our heroes just have done is not a trivial process, although one would assume that a spacefaring society as advanced as this has mastered this process long ago and would have routines for it in any ships nav/guidance computer
