Word: seamen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...claim he was not. A test given about ten hours after the grounding found that his blood-alcohol level was a little more than half the 0.1% drunk-driving limit set by the state of Alaska and 50% higher than the 0.04% limit set by the Coast Guard for seamen operating a moving ship. Some toxicologists have suggested that Hazelwood may have had a severely high 0.22% blood-alcohol level when the ship struck the reef. A more plausible theory is that he was drinking in the hours after the accident occurred...
...though fellow seamen insist it did not seem to impair his performance, Hazelwood began to drink heavily on board, in violation of company rules. Moreover, he was not discreet about his growing problem, and invited fellow crew members to join him. "It was almost like Joe was trying to get caught," says a fellow seaman who remains a close friend. "He'd close his door, but everyone knew what went on. He always said that everything was fine, but then why was he drinking? The guy was begging for help, but he kept it all inside...
...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...
...until after the grounding, nearly an hour later. Nor did it track the tanker by radar. The Coast Guard has cited possible weather conditions, poor equipment and the change-of-shift preoccupations of a watchman to explain why the ship was not picked up on radar. More important, although seamen insist they rely heavily on Coast Guard monitoring in the entire sound, Coast Guard officials maintain they are not technically required to track ships as far as Bligh Reef...
...merely strayed into Soviet airspace. The admiral emphasized that the tragedy had to be viewed against the background of the growing hostilities in the gulf over the past two years. He cited the May 1987 engagement in which an Iraqi missile hit the U.S.S. Stark and killed 37 American seamen and the subsequent incidents in which the tanker Bridgeton and the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts, a frigate, were damaged by Iranian mines. Those attacks made U.S. commanders in the area determined not to be caught with their guard down. Said Crowe: "A decision was made early in the commitment...