St. Joe
Today the U.S. Supreme Court reduced the $2.5 billion Exxon Valdez punitive damages award to just over $500 million. In doing a little Joe Hazelwood research today, I ran across this Outside magazine profile, The Captain Went Down with the Ship, from 1997.
An excerpt:
Somewhere beneath us, a subway rumbles toward Penn Station. Hazelwood lets it go. He stays on the bridge because eight years ago he didn’t stay. He stays on the bridge because he is in purgatory and in purgatory you can laugh, or cry, or protest your innocence, but the only thing that matters is reliving your sin over and over until either you or God is worn out. And that’s the other thing you learn about Joe Hazelwood: He’s served notice to God that it’s not going to be him.
“Welcome to my nightmare,” he says.