William Murphy, an expert ship's pilot had been hired to steer the ship through the Valdez Narrows. Joe Hazelwood, the captain, and helmsman Harry Claar were also in the wheel house. Claar was steering. After successfully guiding the ship through the Valdez Narrows, Murphy left the vessel and Captain Hazelwood took over the wheel house. There were icebergs in the shipping lanes, so Captain Hazelwood ordered Claar to steer the Exxon Valdez out of the shipping lanes to go around the icebergs. He then handed over control of the wheel house to the third mate, Gregory Cousins, with specific instructions to return the ship back into the shipping lanes when the tanker reached a certain point. Claar was then replaced by Helmsman Robert Kagan. Cousins and Kagan failed to make the turn back into the shipping lanes at the point the captain had indicated. The mistake was noticed too late and at 12:04 AM the ship ran aground on Bligh Reef.

The cleanup effort, at its peak time, included approximately 10,000 workers, around 1,000 boats and about 100 airplanes and helicopters. Hundreds of people lined up along the beaches and sprayed the oil into the sea. During the first months they used scalding hot water, as it worked better to move the oil. It was discovered that the hot water was killing all of the small life on the beach and was doing more harm than good. Cold water was used thereafter. Once the oil was back in the sea it would be collected in several layers of booms using boats and barges. It was then either sucked up, scooped out, or sopped up using special oil-absorbing materiel. Many beaches were sprinkled with a special type of bacteria that eat the hydrocarbons found in oil. This method was successful on those beaches with lesser amounts of oil. Some chemicals and solvents were used also, but mainly for the birds and other wildlife. Hundreds of thousands of birds, mammals, and fish died as a result of the Exxon Valdez spill. Oil would get in fur and feathers, destroying the insulation and allowing for water to soak in. Once a birds feathers were soaked with oil and water, it could not fly because of the added weight. The birds would then either clean their feathers, dyin

Some common words found in the essay are:
Exxon Valdez, Mate Cousins, Cousins Kagan, Gregory Cousins, Valdez Narrows, Harry Claar, Captain Hazelwood, exxon valdez, William Murphy, Alaska Pipeline, Bligh Reef, shipping lanes, valdez narrows, oil spill, wheel house, oil sea, gallons crude oil, gallons crude, crude oil, lanes captain, ship valdez, shipping lanes captain, ship valdez narrows,
Approximate Word count = 844
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)