Exxon in Crisis | The Accident | 1
Business Movers
Wondery
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground off the coast of Alaska. More than ten million gallons of crude oil gushed out of its shattered holds into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound. It was an environmental disaster which caused the death of thousands of wild animals and scarred the beautiful landscape for years. The damage was equally deep to the reputation of the tanker’s owner and operator, the oil giant Exxon.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey prime members, you can listen to business movers, add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. |
| 0:23.5 | It's midnight on March 24, 1989. |
| 0:27.5 | Off the south coast of Alaska, a super tanker plows through the still dark waters of Prince William Sound, away from port and toward the open sea. |
| 0:36.5 | In the captain's cabin, just below the ship's bridge, Joe Hazelwood, the 42-year-old in charge of this super tanker, |
| 0:43.5 | scribbles his signature on the bottom of yet another company for. |
| 0:47.5 | Joe's ship, the Exxon Valdez, is enormous. |
| 0:51.5 | As wide as a football field and three times as long, the ship carries more than 50 million gallons of crude oil in its vast holds. |
| 1:00.5 | But this giant is manned by a crew of just 20 people, which means there's a long list of duties and tasks that fall to the captain. |
| 1:07.5 | For Joe, the most tedious and time-consuming is the paperwork. |
| 1:11.5 | Joe crushes a cigarette into an ash tray that's already half full, pulls another from the pack on his desk. |
| 1:19.5 | He reaches for another file needing his signature when the telephone on the wall rings. |
| 1:26.5 | Joe purchases his cigarette on the edge of the ash tray and picks up the phone. |
| 1:31.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:32.5 | Sir, this is the bridge? |
| 1:34.5 | Earlier, when Joe left the bridge to finish this paperwork, he put third-mate Gregory Cousins in charge. |
| 1:40.5 | It's officially against company policy for the captain to leave the bridge before the tanker clears Prince William Sound, but Joe trusts his third mate. |
| 1:49.5 | Gregory's only in his mid-20s, but he's an experienced crewman who sailed through these waters dozens of times. |
| 1:55.5 | Yeah, everything okay up there, Gregory? |
| 1:57.5 | Yes, sir. |
| 1:58.5 | Then why are you calling? |
| 1:59.5 | Well, I, sir. |
| 2:01.5 | The waters of Prince William Sound are full of dangerous icebergs this time of year. |
... |
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