Joseph Hazelwood
Encyclopedia
Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood (born September 24, 1946) is an American sailor
. He was the captain
of the Exxon Valdez
during its 1989 oil spill
. He was accused of being drunk at the time of the accident, though at trial he was cleared of this charge. Hazelwood was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service
. In 1999, the Exxon Valdez oil spill was listed as the 53rd largest spill in history.
, Georgia
, but was raised in Huntington
, New York, on the north shore of Long Island
. His father, Joseph, born c.1922, was a United States Marine Corps
torpedo bomber pilot turned airline pilot. His mother, Margaret, was born c.1920 in Georgia. Hazelwood was their first born son. He has one brother, Matthew, and two other siblings. He was married in 1969 to Suzanne and has one daughter, Alison (born September 7, 1975)
In 1964, Hazelwood graduated from Huntington High School
, where his IQ was tested at 138. As a youth he was an avid sailor and was a member of the Sea Scouts. In May 1968, he received a bachelor of science
degree in marine transportation from the State University of New York Maritime College
.
by Humble Oil and Refining Company, which later became Exxon Shipping Company. His first ship was the Esso Florence based in Wilmington, North Carolina
. Hazelwood climbed the ranks of the merchant marine
until he obtained a master's license
at age 31. By age 32, he was the youngest captain working for Exxon
when he took command of Exxon Philadelphia, a California-to-Alaska oil tanker, in 1978. In 1985 he was master of the Exxon Chester when the asphalt carrier ran into a storm during its New York to South Carolina trip. High winds damaged the ship's mast including radar and radio communications antennas. Though the crew was prepared to abandon ship, Hazelwood rallied them and guided the ship to safety. In 1987, he became the alternate master of Exxon Valdez which subsequently received Exxon Fleet safety awards for the year of 1987 and 1988.
Hazelwood's driver's license had been suspended or revoked three times by the state of New York for alcohol violations since 1984. At the time of the Exxon Valdez incident, his New York state driving privileges were suspended as a result of a driving under the influence
arrest on September 13, 1988. He entered a rehabilitation program in 1985 at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, New York
. Following rehabilitation he received 90 days of leave to attend Alcoholics Anonymous
, but it is not clear if he attended during that leave.
Exxon Valdez departed the port of Valdez, Alaska
at 9:12 p.m. March 23, 1989 with 53 million gallons of crude oil bound for California. A harbor pilot guided the ship through the Valdez Narrows before departing the ship and returning control to Hazelwood, the ship's master. The ship maneuvered out of the shipping lane to avoid icebergs. Following the maneuver and sometime after 11 p.m., Hazelwood departed the wheel house and was in his stateroom at the time of the accident. He left Third Mate
Gregory Cousins
in charge of the wheel house and Able Seaman
Robert Kagan at the helm with instructions to return to the shipping lane at a prearranged point. Exxon Valdez failed to return to the shipping lanes and struck Bligh Reef
at around 12:04 a.m. March 24, 1989. The accident resulted in the discharge of around 11 million gallons of oil, 20% of the cargo, into Prince William Sound
.
During Hazelwood's trial following the accident, Alaska state prosecutors failed to convince the jury that Hazelwood was intoxicated at the time of the grounding. By his own admission, Hazelwood drank "two or three vodkas" between 4:30 and 6:30 that same night, his blood alcohol content
was found to be .061. However, the defense argued that the blood samples were taken nearly ten hours after the incident and were mishandled. Most states, including Alaska, do not allow samples after three hours and a preservative required to halt fermentation was not added to the sample. Fermentation could have added to the amount of alcohol in the sample, making the result invalid. As a result of the accident, in 1991 the United States Coast Guard
suspended his masters' license for a period of nine months. Hazelwood was acquitted on all felony charges, but was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service
.
, hired him as a teacher aboard the T/S Empire State V the year after the incident with the Valdez. In 1997, he was working as a para-legal and maritime consultant with New York City's Chalos & Brown, the firm that represented him in his legal cases. He was residing on Long Island in Huntington
, New York in 1997.
Though he was originally sentenced to assist with the clean-up of the oil spill, due to the lengthy appeals process, his community service was conducted in the Anchorage
, Alaska, area, beginning in June 1999 picking up trash from local roads then later moving to Bean's Cafe, a local soup kitchen
. His community service was conducted over five years with the Anchorage Parks Beautification Program. He paid the $50,000 fine in May 2002.
In 2009, Hazelwood offered a "heartfelt apology" to the people of Alaska, but suggested he had been wrongly blamed for the disaster: "The true story is out there for anybody who wants to look at the facts, but that's not the sexy story and that's not the easy story," he said. Investigative reporter Greg Palast
supports Hazelwood's contention and assigns significant blame to Exxon, writing, "Forget the drunken skipper fable. As to Captain Joe Hazelwood, he was below decks, sleeping off his bender. At the helm, the third mate would never have collided with Bligh Reef had he looked at his Raycas radar. But the radar was not turned on. In fact, the tanker's radar was left broken and disabled for more than a year before the disaster, and Exxon management knew it. It was [in Exxon's view] just too expensive to fix and operate." Yet Hazelwood said he felt Alaskans always gave him a fair shake. The apology appears in an interview in the book The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster by Sharon Bushell.
one of his excuses was, "I was just trying to scrape some ice off the reef for my margarita." He was featured in syndicated comic strips like The Far Side
strip, which showed him as a clumsy person who spilled in various stages of his life; as a baby (his cup), teenager (pen ink in his shirt pocket), and others. The six-picture single-panel strip ends with Hazelwood driving into a water tower.
The 1995 film Waterworld
anointed Hazelwood the patron saint
of the movie's villain "The Deacon," leader of the "Smokers." a band of scavenging raiders. They displayed his portrait prominently aboard their flagship, the Exxon Valdez. In 2001, the animated series Futurama
satirized Hazelwood in the episode, "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
." The episode had Bender as the captain of an intergalactic oil tanker who was, in an absurd parallel, not drunk enough (because some robots in Futurama require alcohol to function properly) and crashed the ship into a penguin
sanctuary
on Pluto
, spilling the whole load of Dark-matter-oil.
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
. He was the captain
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
of the Exxon Valdez
Exxon Valdez
Oriental Nicety, formerly Exxon Valdez, Exxon Mediterranean, SeaRiver Mediterranean, S/R Mediterranean, Mediterranean, and Dong Fang Ocean is an oil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground in Prince William Sound spilling hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil in Alaska...
during its 1989 oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused...
. He was accused of being drunk at the time of the accident, though at trial he was cleared of this charge. Hazelwood was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
. In 1999, the Exxon Valdez oil spill was listed as the 53rd largest spill in history.
Family and early years
Hazelwood was born in HawkinsvilleHawkinsville, Georgia
Hawkinsville is a city in Pulaski County, Georgia, United States. The population was 7,487 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Pulaski County.-Geography:Hawkinsville is located at ....
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, but was raised in Huntington
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, New York, on the north shore of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. His father, Joseph, born c.1922, was a United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
torpedo bomber pilot turned airline pilot. His mother, Margaret, was born c.1920 in Georgia. Hazelwood was their first born son. He has one brother, Matthew, and two other siblings. He was married in 1969 to Suzanne and has one daughter, Alison (born September 7, 1975)
In 1964, Hazelwood graduated from Huntington High School
Huntington High School (New York)
Huntington High School is a four-year, public secondary school located in Huntington, New York. It functions as the high school for the Huntington Union Free School District, serving students in Huntington...
, where his IQ was tested at 138. As a youth he was an avid sailor and was a member of the Sea Scouts. In May 1968, he received a bachelor of science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in marine transportation from the State University of New York Maritime College
State University of New York Maritime College
SUNY Maritime College is a maritime college located in the Bronx, New York City in historic Fort Schuyler on the Throggs Neck peninsula where the East River meets Long Island Sound...
.
Early career
Following college, on June 10, 1968 he was hired as a Third MateThird Mate
A Third Mate or Third Officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The third mate is a watchstander and customarily the ship's safety officer and fourth-in-command...
by Humble Oil and Refining Company, which later became Exxon Shipping Company. His first ship was the Esso Florence based in Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
. Hazelwood climbed the ranks of the merchant marine
United States Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...
until he obtained a master's license
Master mariner
A Master Mariner or MM is the professional qualification required for someone to serve as the person in charge or person in command of a commercial vessel. In England, the term Master Mariner has been in use at least since the 13th century, reflecting the fact that in guild or livery company terms,...
at age 31. By age 32, he was the youngest captain working for Exxon
Exxon
Exxon is a chain of gas stations as well as a brand of motor fuel and related products by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to 1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard....
when he took command of Exxon Philadelphia, a California-to-Alaska oil tanker, in 1978. In 1985 he was master of the Exxon Chester when the asphalt carrier ran into a storm during its New York to South Carolina trip. High winds damaged the ship's mast including radar and radio communications antennas. Though the crew was prepared to abandon ship, Hazelwood rallied them and guided the ship to safety. In 1987, he became the alternate master of Exxon Valdez which subsequently received Exxon Fleet safety awards for the year of 1987 and 1988.
Hazelwood's driver's license had been suspended or revoked three times by the state of New York for alcohol violations since 1984. At the time of the Exxon Valdez incident, his New York state driving privileges were suspended as a result of a driving under the influence
Driving under the influence
Driving under the influence is the act of driving a motor vehicle with blood levels of alcohol in excess of a legal limit...
arrest on September 13, 1988. He entered a rehabilitation program in 1985 at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, New York
Amityville, New York
Amityville is a village in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. The population was 9,441 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. Following rehabilitation he received 90 days of leave to attend Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
, but it is not clear if he attended during that leave.
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez departed the port of Valdez, Alaska
Valdez, Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
at 9:12 p.m. March 23, 1989 with 53 million gallons of crude oil bound for California. A harbor pilot guided the ship through the Valdez Narrows before departing the ship and returning control to Hazelwood, the ship's master. The ship maneuvered out of the shipping lane to avoid icebergs. Following the maneuver and sometime after 11 p.m., Hazelwood departed the wheel house and was in his stateroom at the time of the accident. He left Third Mate
Third Mate
A Third Mate or Third Officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The third mate is a watchstander and customarily the ship's safety officer and fourth-in-command...
Gregory Cousins
Gregory Cousins
Gregory Cousins , of Tampa, Florida, was third mate at the time of Exxon Valdez oil spill. He was left in control of the vessel, but failed to maneuver it to the required lane, when it struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound...
in charge of the wheel house and Able Seaman
Able Seaman (occupation)
An able seaman is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles.-Watchstander:...
Robert Kagan at the helm with instructions to return to the shipping lane at a prearranged point. Exxon Valdez failed to return to the shipping lanes and struck Bligh Reef
Bligh Reef
Bligh Reef, sometimes known as Bligh Island Reef, is a reef off the coast of Bligh Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was the location of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. After the incident, US Code 33 § 2733 mandated the operation of an automated navigation light to prevent future...
at around 12:04 a.m. March 24, 1989. The accident resulted in the discharge of around 11 million gallons of oil, 20% of the cargo, into Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound is a sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System...
.
During Hazelwood's trial following the accident, Alaska state prosecutors failed to convince the jury that Hazelwood was intoxicated at the time of the grounding. By his own admission, Hazelwood drank "two or three vodkas" between 4:30 and 6:30 that same night, his blood alcohol content
Blood alcohol content
Blood alcohol content , also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes....
was found to be .061. However, the defense argued that the blood samples were taken nearly ten hours after the incident and were mishandled. Most states, including Alaska, do not allow samples after three hours and a preservative required to halt fermentation was not added to the sample. Fermentation could have added to the amount of alcohol in the sample, making the result invalid. As a result of the accident, in 1991 the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
suspended his masters' license for a period of nine months. Hazelwood was acquitted on all felony charges, but was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
.
Post-Exxon Valdez
Captain Hazelwood never had his masters' license revoked and it remains valid to this date, but he has been unable to find long-term work as a captain after the spill. In a show of solidarity his alma mater, SUNY Maritime CollegeState University of New York Maritime College
SUNY Maritime College is a maritime college located in the Bronx, New York City in historic Fort Schuyler on the Throggs Neck peninsula where the East River meets Long Island Sound...
, hired him as a teacher aboard the T/S Empire State V the year after the incident with the Valdez. In 1997, he was working as a para-legal and maritime consultant with New York City's Chalos & Brown, the firm that represented him in his legal cases. He was residing on Long Island in Huntington
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, New York in 1997.
Though he was originally sentenced to assist with the clean-up of the oil spill, due to the lengthy appeals process, his community service was conducted in the Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, Alaska, area, beginning in June 1999 picking up trash from local roads then later moving to Bean's Cafe, a local soup kitchen
Soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...
. His community service was conducted over five years with the Anchorage Parks Beautification Program. He paid the $50,000 fine in May 2002.
In 2009, Hazelwood offered a "heartfelt apology" to the people of Alaska, but suggested he had been wrongly blamed for the disaster: "The true story is out there for anybody who wants to look at the facts, but that's not the sexy story and that's not the easy story," he said. Investigative reporter Greg Palast
Greg Palast
Gregory Allyn Palast is a New York Times-bestselling author and a freelance journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation as well as the British newspaper The Observer. His work frequently focuses on corporate malfeasance but has also been known to work with labor unions and consumer...
supports Hazelwood's contention and assigns significant blame to Exxon, writing, "Forget the drunken skipper fable. As to Captain Joe Hazelwood, he was below decks, sleeping off his bender. At the helm, the third mate would never have collided with Bligh Reef had he looked at his Raycas radar. But the radar was not turned on. In fact, the tanker's radar was left broken and disabled for more than a year before the disaster, and Exxon management knew it. It was [in Exxon's view] just too expensive to fix and operate." Yet Hazelwood said he felt Alaskans always gave him a fair shake. The apology appears in an interview in the book The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster by Sharon Bushell.
Pop cultural references
Immediately following the Exxon Valdez incident, Hazelwood was ridiculed by talk shows and late night television. For example, according to one of David Letterman's Top Ten listsLate Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
one of his excuses was, "I was just trying to scrape some ice off the reef for my margarita." He was featured in syndicated comic strips like The Far Side
The Far Side
The Far Side is a popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world,...
strip, which showed him as a clumsy person who spilled in various stages of his life; as a baby (his cup), teenager (pen ink in his shirt pocket), and others. The six-picture single-panel strip ends with Hazelwood driving into a water tower.
The 1995 film Waterworld
Waterworld
Waterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds and co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy. It is based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it. It was distributed by Universal Pictures...
anointed Hazelwood the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of the movie's villain "The Deacon," leader of the "Smokers." a band of scavenging raiders. They displayed his portrait prominently aboard their flagship, the Exxon Valdez. In 2001, the animated series Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
satirized Hazelwood in the episode, "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
"The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" is the fifth episode in the third production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on March 4, 2001 as the ninth episode of the third season. The episode was written by Dan Vebber and directed by James Purdum...
." The episode had Bender as the captain of an intergalactic oil tanker who was, in an absurd parallel, not drunk enough (because some robots in Futurama require alcohol to function properly) and crashed the ship into a penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
sanctuary
Animal sanctuary
An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and be protected for the rest of their lives. Unlike animal shelters, sanctuaries do not seek to place animals with individuals or groups, instead maintaining each animal until his or her natural death...
on Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
, spilling the whole load of Dark-matter-oil.
External links
- The Captain - Anchorage Daily NewsAnchorage Daily NewsThe Anchorage Daily News is a daily newspaper based in Anchorage, Alaska, in the United States. It is often referred to colloquially as either "the Daily News" or "the ADN"...
index of stories about Joseph Hazelwood - Radio call by Joseph Hazelwood reporting to the Coast Guard that the Exxon Valdez had "fetched up hard aground" and was "evidently leaking some oil."
- Thinkquest - Hazelwood Biography