Exxon Valdez Captain: Was He Villain Or Victim?

Copyright 1999, The Seattle Times Co.

The man cast as the villain in the nation's most notorious environmental disaster is emerging a decade later as a victim and corporate scapegoat in the eyes of some government investigators and regulators.

As captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez, Joseph Hazelwood was vilified as a drunk who abandoned his post, and thus was to blame for one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history.

Ten years later, Hazelwood has never been never convicted of anything more than a misdemeanor in the accident, and still holds a valid captain's license.

But the damage to his career has been as enduring as the damage to some of Alaska's coastline wildlife: No shipping company will risk bad publicity by hiring him.

"They get me as the anti-Christ," said Hazelwood in a rare interview with The Seattle Times.

Hazelwood was the master of the largest ship ever built on the West Coast until that fateful midnight in March 1989, when his third mate and his helmsman missed a simple dogleg turn and drove his 214,000-ton tanker onto the shoals of history.

As the anniversary of the disaster approaches, Hazelwood still denies that drinking impaired his judgment that night. And he is reluctant to take blame for the missed turn.

But he said it doesn't really matter how the ship ran aground.

"I apologize," he said. "I'll take responsibility for that because that goes with the territory."

Until the infamous spill, Hazelwood had enjoyed tall stature in the close-knit world of American tanker captains. He had a new ship, a six-figure income and was living his childhood dream.

Today, he is a bookish, balding paper pusher, stepping every morning from a Long Island commuter train and trudging up 42nd Street and Second Avenue, where he works as a glorified clerk in a midtown Manhattan law firm.

The same law firm has represented him in a series of unending civil- and criminal-court cases - suits and claims that have spilled gallons of blame and denial into Alaskan courtrooms.

So he makes do as a claims adjuster and consultant for the maritime-law firm, at significantly less pay than a ship's captain makes.

"Blackballed"

Hazelwood's yearning to return to the bridge has been futile. On occasion, he is hired to deliver yachts for private parties. But a chance to be a ship pilot in Hawaii fell through. He worked briefly as an instructor at the merchant-marine academy where he'd graduated, but he left the job when the press found him there; he said he wanted to save the school from embarrassment or funding cuts.

"There's been a couple of offers over the years, and then they get mysteriously retracted," he said. "I would assume there's pressure from somewhere."

Other captains have been grounded after accidents, including Pastrengo Rugiati of the infamous tanker Torrey Canyon, which spilled its cargo on the coasts of Britain and France in 1967.

But Hazelwood holds a rare dual status of villainy and respect.

His name is linked with a wreck that spread nearly 11 million gallons of North Slope crude along 1,500 miles of stunning Alaska coastline. The spill killed an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles and as many as 22 killer whales. Only two of the 28 species injured in the spill are considered to be recovered.

"As far as I'm concerned, he committed mass murder by his negligence," said Seattle oceans environmentalist Fred Felleman. " He didn't intentionally kill anything, . . . but I don't feel comfortable with him navigating the Juan de Fuca Straits."

But even as forgiveness for his actions is withheld, Hazelwood has retained the admiration of colleagues in an elite industry, and of investigators who studied the disaster.

`Basically being blackballed'

The 52-year-old skipper deserves another ship, said Paul Larson, a retired U.S. Coast Guard commander who investigated and prosecuted Hazelwood during his license-revocation hearing.

"I spoke to people from pilot organizations up and down the coast, at different ports," Larson said. "Without exception, everyone I talked to indicated he was highly skilled, highly qualified.

"He's basically being blackballed."

National Transportation Safety Board accident investigator Bill Woody agreed: "We talked to many, many people and no one had anything negative to say about (Hazelwood's) seamanship. Some were even, you might say, glowing."

Hazelwood has granted few interviews in the past decade - to Connie Chung, Outside Magazine, Life Magazine and recently, "60 Minutes." He began a series of talks with The Seattle Times in January, stating his version of history.

"Prior to this, you know, I was just kind of a normal, run-of-the-mill guy," he said. "Not altogether unsophisticated, but certainly not prepared for stardom."

The story he tells is a decade old, but no less harrowing for the passage of time. Hazelwood recounts that his ship hit the rocks so hard, he vomited from fear. He remembers the ghastly fumes in the first few seconds of the spill, and the danger to the crew in the aftermath, when no one knew whether the ship would capsize, break apart or explode.

But he denies that he was drunk - a claim that is wedded to the Valdez legend but has never been proved in court.

Hazelwood acknowledged in court testimony that he sometimes drank heavily without feeling "blotto," and that his bosses at Exxon Corp. knew about his drinking patterns.

Since the accident, he says, he has sworn off alcohol, mostly to avoid being photographed with a drink in hand.

"I didn't feel like having my picture on the cover of some supermarket tabloid any more," he said.

He churns over the big screw-ups and hairbreadth errors that led to the grounding. There was the 10-degree turn his third officer failed to make in time - a "no-brainer" so simple that some maritime schools have stopped using the accident scenario as a testing example on ship simulators.

There also was his decision to leave the third mate in charge that night, while he did paperwork below deck. Hazelwood is loath to admit it was a bad call: The ship was maneuvering around a flotilla of icebergs, something he and the mate had done together before.

"The breakers weren't crashing," he said. "It wasn't one of those sea monsters and mawing-reef kind of things. It was just a routine maneuver." Hollywood's treatment

Nothing since has been routine for Hazelwood. Even Hollywood has taken its shot: In "Waterworld," Kevin Costner's blockbuster flop, futuristic pirates worshipped Hazelwood's fading picture from the rusting hulk of the Exxon Valdez.

"The patron saint of the bad guys," Hazelwood said. "Kind of dopey."

The Coast Guard suspended his license for nine months because he had left the bridge. But both courts and the Coast Guard rejected the more serious charge of drunkenness. Hazelwood is licensed today to sail any ship on any ocean.

The NTSB separately criticized Hazelwood for drinking in the town of Valdez before the voyage, as well as for leaving the bridge; that agency's conclusion was that Hazelwood's judgment was impaired by alcohol.

But the transportation board extended blame to the ship's owner, Exxon Corp., for not adequately staffing its ship crews, and to the Coast Guard for failing to provide proper guidance to ships leaving Prince William Sound.

Dan Lawn, an environmental inspector and the first Alaska state official to board the vessel after the grounding, levels his harshest criticism at Exxon. He notes that, despite the catastrophic spill, Exxon now is negotiating a merger with Mobil that could make it the largest corporation on the planet.

Hazelwood "was just a pawn," Lawn said.

Tom Cirigliano, Exxon spokesman, said the company will not comment regarding Hazelwood.

When all the criminal charges finally played out, Hazelwood was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service on a misdemeanor conviction for the wrongful discharge of oil. He will spend the next five summers in Alaska cleaning up litter for no pay.

"This was the most heavily litigated misdemeanor in the world," said his lawyer Tom Russo.

Hazelwood loved his job at Exxon and still has close friends at the company. He watched the cleanup of Prince William Sound on television and says he is impressed by the money the company spent.

Exxon has paid more than $3 billion so far to mop the spill areas; in the immediate aftermath of the spill, one study estimated that the company cleaned, fed and re-released 222 sea otters, at a cost of $80,000 per animal. The firm also paid $900 million in settlement claims to state and federal governments for wildlife and parks restoration, and fines of $125 million.

Hazelwood and Exxon continue to be linked in an odd partnership, as co-defendants in massive civil suit filed by fishermen, Indian tribes and Alaska residents. Exxon was ordered to pay $5 billion, and Hazelwood $5,000, for environmental and economic damages resulting from the spill. That verdict is on appeal.

Medical records released

But Hazelwood resents that he was fired, and that Exxon released his medical records, which show he had undergone counseling and treatment in 1985 for depression and alcohol abuse.

Blaming the accident on his alcohol use became the "party line," he said. "You take alcohol out of this, and it's another grounding. There's no sex, drugs and rock-and-roll."

He reads a lot these days - books, newspapers and an industry publication that tracks maritime accidents. The latter comes with the job, sitting at a computer screen in a 10-by-12-foot office, settling claims on cargoes lost at sea, including oil.

Ship masters who get in trouble contact him for advice. He tells them it "only seems like the end of the world" and then turns them over to his employers, who specialize in maritime law. Russo, his lawyer, said criminal prosecutions of ship masters have been on the increase since Exxon Valdez.

Hazelwood paid close attention this past month when the freighter New Carissa grounded on the Oregon coast. He scoffed at news reports that mistakenly described the wood-chip ship as a tanker. And he wondered whether the Coast Guard should have torched the Exxon Valdez to burn its oil, as it did the New Carissa.

"In retrospect, would a big fire have been better than the oil washing up on the shores?" he said. "I would have to say yes."

Two to four drinks

Hazelwood's last voyage for Exxon began at 9:12 p.m. on March 23, 1989.

It ended nine minutes after midnight when the ship strayed at an angle across the inbound and outbound shipping lanes and mounted the rocks of Bligh Reef.

The landlocked captain folds and unfolds the memories in his mind like a tattered Dear John letter.

Third mate Gregory T. Cousins telephoned Hazelwood when it was obvious the ship was in trouble. The skipper remembers he was somewhere on the stairs when the ship hit the rocks with a massive grinding sound, muffled by the 55 million-gallon cargo.

"It was like being kicked between the legs real hard," Hazelwood said.

He threw up, then took over on the bridge. He maneuvered the ship to stabilize it and avert an even worse disaster - actions for which he was later commended.

At first, Hazelwood balked when asked if he erred in leaving the bridge before the ship had made it out of Prince William Sound. He said his decision fit within common practice.

But his defiance crumbled under criticism from retired senior Exxon captain Howard McCartney, whom Hazelwood considers a mentor and role model.

McCartney called Hazelwood "an excellent officer" and said his admiration for the captain has never flagged.

"But he never should have gone below," McCartney told The Seattle Times. "And he knows it."

McCartney's blunt assessment prompted an admission from Hazelwood: He made a mistake; the paperwork could have waited.

He also admits drinking that day at a Valdez bar, but denies he was drunk. "Vodka on the rocks," he said. "I don't recall how much. I think the testimony to the best of my recollection was two. Somehow the plaintiffs extrapolated that into 16."

In an interview with "60 Minutes," to be broadcast tonight, Hazelwood said he had at least three drinks. And Larson, of the Coast Guard, said his investigation indicated that the captain may have had four.

But Larson said he believes Hazelwood was sober.

"His last drink was more than four hours before the grounding, and I don't think his drinking had anything to do with it," Larson said.

Condition in dispute

Hazelwood's condition at the time will remain in dispute, in large part because of key missteps in the way alcohol tests were handled after the crash. The botched tests have been used by critics to claim Hazelwood skirted the truth, and by Hazelwood to claim he's been a victim of unsubstantiated charges.

Several reports confirm that an Alaska state trooper was dispatched to the ship to test Hazelwood but didn't bring a Breathalyzer machine. And Larson believes a blood sample taken by a Coast Guard technician 10 hours after the accident was mishandled and, therefore, unreliable - a charge the Coast Guard disputes.

"I don't think Hollywood, on its best day, could have scripted a scenario where the handling was more screwed up," Larson said.

Larson's investigation indicated that Hazelwood may have had something to drink in his quarters after the grounding - a claim the captain denies.

"But I probably would have entertained the notion if something was available," Hazelwood said.

The former captain declined to say if he ever drank on board ship. "If I were to say yes, I'm sure I wouldn't be the first to ever do so," he said. "Some shipping companies have it on board as a policy."

Life in the third person

The mystery that continues to haunt Hazelwood involves the failed 10-degree turn.

Cousins, the third mate, said in court testimony that he had ordered the turn, as directed by Hazelwood. But Cousins couldn't remember where the ship was when he gave that order. The ship's electronic course recorder indicated the turn was initiated six minutes later than it should have been.

The recorder shows that helmsman Robert Kagan Jr. compounded the problem by understeering the ship by at least 6 degrees. If he had varied a degree one way or the other, he might have missed the reef on the outside, or slipped through a gap on the inside.

Cousins is now a second mate on a U.S.-flagged bulk ship. Kagan retired from Exxon ships in 1995 and recently served as a crew member aboard an oil-spill cleanup vessel.

The other person on the bridge that night was Maureen Jones, the lookout, who was licensed as an officer but sailing as a regular crew member. She was the first to sound an alarm when she noticed a buoy light in the wrong position.

Jones now sails as an officer.

Coping with notoriety

For the first four days after the crash, Hazelwood walked freely around Valdez, his face not yet familiar to the news crews that swarmed the coast. But when he got to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, to catch a connecting flight home, his picture was staring back at him from the front page of The New York Times.

"I started living my life in the third person," he said. "It was a picture of me, but it really wasn't me. This couldn't happen to me."

Death threats came by mail and phone to his Long Island home. Hearings and trials followed in a blur.

Now he commutes home by train, an hour each way. On a winter's day, when the trees are bare, he and his wife of 29 years can see Long Island Sound a half-mile away. Though Georgia-born, he grew up nearby and the sea has long been a good friend.

Since navigating Long Island Sound as a child, Hazelwood has been a sailor. He started with Exxon in 1968, as a third mate, fresh out of the state maritime academy. If a decent company came calling, he would be happy to sail again as a regular officer.

Friends say he is a careful skipper. In 1979, off Vancouver Island, furious seas swamped his fully loaded tanker. Green water flattened fire stations and broke through the windows on the bridge.

Hazelwood steadied the ship without spilling a drop of cargo.

Eric Nalder's phone message number is 206-464-2056. His e-mail address is: enalder@seattletimes.com