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- THE WEEK, Page 24SOCIETYCaptain Joe Goes to College
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- The ex-skipper of the Exxon Valdez wins an appointment to teach
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- Ever since the loaded supertanker under his command foundered
- on Bligh Reef in April 1989 and unleashed an 11 million-gal.
- spill of Alaskan crude oil into Prince William Sound, Skipper
- Joseph Hazelwood has been a marked man. Last week, when the
- Maritime College of the State University of New York announced
- that it had hired Hazelwood to help teach cadets how to stand
- watch, environmental groups were quick to remonstrate. "This is
- truly amazing," said the Sierra Club.
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- Not really. Hazelwood had long been one of Exxon's most
- accomplished skippers and was acquitted of all major charges
- against him. Evidence presented at the trial suggested that the
- actions of the third mate on the bridge as well as the helmsman
- may have been responsible for the fatal course error. Unlike
- Hazelwood, who admitted to violating company drinking policy,
- both these men kept their jobs. Hazelwood, in fact, may be
- uniquely qualified as an instructor. No one has a more intimate
- -- or more painful -- understanding of the course material.
- Cadets should find him a teacher with something to say, as well
- as a sobering object lesson.
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