Exxon Crewman Feared He Would Never ‘See the Sun Again’ : Captain Rocked Tanker Despite Danger, Mate Testifies

The captain of the Exxon Valdez apparently tried to work his stranded tanker off the rocks of Bligh Reef despite a warning from his chief mate that the ship was potentially unstable and should not be moved, testimony at the National Transportation Safety Board hearings disclosed Wednesday.

Chief Mate James Kunkel said he reported his findings to Capt. Joseph Hazelwood within about 30 minutes of the grounding on March 24 that led to the nation’s worst oil spill.

Kunkel told the panel that he based his recommendation on a preliminary inspection of the cargo tanks and a computer analysis of the effects of massive internal cargo shifts, seawater flooding and an almost instant loss of 5 million gallons of oil.

Made Recommendation

“I immediately relayed that to the old man (Hazelwood) . . . and at that time I made the recommendation to him that we not leave the area,” Kunkel testified.

If the ship capsized, the crew might have been killed and the supertanker might have sunk with more than 39 million gallons of oil still aboard, safety board documents released Tuesday said.

But Hazelwood nevertheless ordered the ship into a series of maneuvers that appeared designed to wiggle it free of the rocks--setting the engine at various speeds, including full ahead, and swinging the ship’s rudder radically from left to right, according to engine and deck logs.

An hour after the accident, Hazelwood told the Coast Guard traffic center in a tape-recorded radio call:

“We’re working our way off the reef. . . . We’re in pretty good shape right now, stability-wise, and, ah, trying to extract her off the shoal here.”

Coast Guard Caution

After Coast Guard Cmdr. Steve McCall cautioned him against making “any drastic attempt to get away” to avoid further damage to the ship’s bottom, Hazelwood added:

“We’re just kind of hung up on the stern here. We’re just, ah, we’ll drift over it.”

Ship documents show that Hazelwood did not shut down the engines and halt the rudder movements until shortly before 2 a.m., at about the peak of high tide.

Hazelwood has refused to testify at the hearings on the advice of his attorneys, who on Wednesday disputed the contention that the captain was trying to extricate the ship from the reef. Instead, according to Michael G. Chalos, Hazelwood was “trying to keep it on the rock to protect its stability.”

Chalos told reporters during a break in the hearings that Hazelwood would have tried to back the ship off the rocks if he wanted to free it, but engine logs show that no orders to reverse engines were ever given.

Kunkel said he had been unaware of Hazelwood’s maneuvering efforts because he was below in the control room while the captain was on the bridge.

In a sometimes emotional account of the moments and hours after the grounding, Kunkel told federal hearing officers Wednesday that he feared he would never “see the sun again” when he rushed to the bridge after the supertanker ran aground shortly after midnight.

According to testimony on Tuesday by Third Mate Gregory T. Cousins, who had been left in charge of the bridge by Hazelwood on the night of the accident, the Exxon Valdez left shipping lanes to avoid ice floes and then was unable to steer clear of Bligh Reef.

As the ship rocked on the shoals, the smell of hydrocarbon vapors was so strong, Kunkel said, that twice he thought about stopping to retrieve mechanical breathing equipment.

“At that moment, I knew my world would never be the same again. I feared for my life. . . . I wondered if I’d ever see my wife again.”

In one private moment, the chief mate said, Hazelwood mused: “Well, this is one way to end a career.”

Kunkel said he saw no sign that Hazelwood had been drinking. He said he talked to Hazelwood shortly after the wreck and smelled no alcohol on his breath. “At that time, the only scent in the air was crude oil vapors.”

Coast Guard investigator Mark J. Delozier, chief of the Marine Safety Office in Valdez and the first to board the tanker after the grounding, said Hazelwood’s breath “smelled like someone who’d been sitting in a bar drinking for some time.”

Delozier said he noticed the alcohol smell even though it seemed to him that Hazelwood was trying to conceal it by holding his hand over his mouth, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette.

After examining the deck and noting strong hydrocarbon vapors--which are potentially explosive--Delozier said he returned to the bridge to inform the captain that “it might not be prudent” to continue smoking.

Hazelwood was reluctant to submit to a urine test to detect alcohol consumption, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Falkenstein said.

In a Coast Guard summary of the statement made by Hazelwood three hours after the accident, Hazelwood said he had had three beers from lunch through the evening that day and had consumed two low-alcohol beers when he returned to the vessel. Hazelwood’s version conflicts with that of the ship’s radio operator, who told investigators that he, Hazelwood and the ship’s chief engineer bought each other one or more rounds of drinks on shore that day.

Hazelwood faces trial June 20 on several state misdemeanor charges stemming from the accident, including allegations of intoxication.