Word: exxon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Exxon refuses to discuss Hazelwood, including stories about his ship- handling feats. In 1985, for instance, Hazelwood was captain of the Exxon Chester, an asphalt carrier, as it headed from New York to South Carolina. Offshore of Atlantic City the ship ran into a freak storm. High winds snapped the ship's mast, and it toppled, along with the ship's radar and electronics gear. With 30-ft. waves and 50-knot winds overpowering the vessel, several sailors grabbed life jackets and prepared to abandon ship. But Hazelwood calmed the crew and rigged a makeshift antenna. After radioing shore...
...1980s, however, Hazelwood's drinking problem had become so obvious that seamen on other Exxon ships knew of it. "Ever since I had known of Joe, I heard he had alcohol problems," says James Shiminski, an Exxon chief mate until 1986. "He had a reputation for partying, ashore and on the ship." In 1984, while off duty, Hazelwood was arrested for drunken driving in Huntington, and later convicted. Police say he was leaving a parking lot of a tavern where he had been attending a bachelor party for his brother Joshua, when his van smashed into a car. Hazelwood left...
Nine months later, he was confronted by his boss and close friend, Captain Mark Pierce, an Exxon supervisor in Baytown, Texas. He urged Hazelwood to seek treatment before he "got into trouble." In April 1985 he entered a 28-day alcohol rehabilitation program at a Long Island hospital. A doctor at the time found the skipper "depressed and demoralized...
...fact was that Hazelwood had resumed drinking heavily, but the return to old habits had somehow escaped Exxon's notice. In a letter to a Senate investigating committee, Exxon chairman L.G. Rawl stated that from the time Hazelwood returned to work after his rehabilitation, he "was the most closely scrutinized individual in the company." According to Exxon, in keeping with company policy designed to encourage employees with substance-abuse problems to volunteer for treatment, he was not penalized but closely monitored. Rawl claims that Exxon supervisors paid an average of two visits a month to Hazelwood for two years after...
...state's harbor pilot, following routine, departed from the ship at Rocky Point. Soon thereafter Hazelwood radioed the Coast Guard to say he would move the vessel from the outbound shipping lane to the inbound shipping lane to avoid ice. It was the last maneuver of Hazelwood's Exxon career...