The Exxon Valdez, one of the newest tankers in Exxon Shipping Co.'s fleet, ran aground shortly after midnight on Bligh Reef, about 25 miles from the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. shipping terminal.
Navigation charts show the reef to be about three miles from the outbound shipping lane.
As far as we could tell, everything on the ship was operational. There was no rudder failure. There was no power failure. The fully laden tanker was on its way to a refinery in Long Beach, Calif., when it struck the reef, which Valdezarea boaters call the bestknown hazard in the sound. By sundown Friday, people who had flown over the ship estimated the oil slick to be roughly eight miles long and four miles wide, stretching southwest into the middle of the Sound.