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Joseph Hazelwood, Captain of the Exxon Valdez, Is Dead at 75 –

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Captain Hazelwood had not been on the bridge when the accident occurred. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the ship’s third mate had failed to properly maneuver the vessel because of fatigue and excessive workload, and that Captain Hazelwood had failed to provide a proper navigation watch because he was impaired by alcohol. The Exxon Shipping Company and its Exxon Corporation subsidiary were found to have failed to provide a fit master and a rested and sufficient crew.

In June 1999, as the legal case dragged on, Mr. Hazelwood was taking time off from his job at a New York law firm and heading to Alaska to begin his community service, picking up trash in the city of Anchorage’s parks, when he told The New York Times in an interview, “As master of the vessel, I accept responsibility for the vessel and the actions of my subordinates.” He added: “I’ve never tried to avoid that. I’m not some remorseless oaf.”

“But,” he continued, “the crime I was convicted of is a B misdemeanor. There’s no lower crime in the State of Alaska. The judge had to come up with a sentence. I can understand it. I don’t have to agree with it.”

Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood was born on Sept. 24, 1946, in Hawkinsville, Ga., a son of Joseph and Margaret Hazelwood. His father was an airline pilot. He graduated from Huntington High School and received a Bachelor of Science degree in marine transportation from the State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx in 1968.

By age 32 he was the youngest captain working for Exxon. According to The Anchorage Daily News, at the time of the Exxon Valdez spill his New York State driver’s license had been suspended after an arrest for driving under the influence in September 1988.

The maritime college hired Mr. Hazelwood as a teacher aboard the training ship Empire State V a year after the Exxon Valdez spill. While living on Long Island, he later worked as a paralegal and maritime consultant for Chalos & Brown, which had represented him in his legal cases.

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