SeaRiver Mediterranean
What was the name of Exxon Valdez from 1993 to 2005?
Exxon Valdez Oriental Nicety , formerly Exxon Valdez , Exxon Mediterranean , SeaRiver Mediterranean , S/R Mediterranean , Mediterranean , and Dong Fang Ocean , was an oil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground in Prince William Sound spilling its cargo of crude oil into the sea . On March 24 , 1989 , while owned by the former Exxon Shipping Company , and captained by Joseph Hazelwood and First Mate James Kunkel bound for Long Beach , California , the vessel ran aground on the Bligh Reef resulting in the second largest oil spill in United States history . The size of the spill is estimated to have been , or 257,000 to 750,000 barrels . In 1989 , the Exxon Valdez oil spill was listed as the 54th largest spill in history . Carrier . The tanker was 301 meters long , 51 meters wide , and 26 meters deep ( 987 ft x 166 ft x 88 ft ) , with a deadweight of 214,861 long tons and a full-load displacement of 240,291 long tons . The ship was able to transport up to 235,000 m³ ( 1.48 million barrels ) at a sustained speed of 16.25 knots , powered by a ( 31,650 shp ) diesel engine . Her hull design was of the single-hull type , constructed by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego , California . She was a relatively new tanker at the time of the spill , having been delivered to Exxon on December 16 , 1986 . Incident and accidents . Oil spill . At the time of the spill , Exxon Valdez was employed to transport crude oil from the Alyeska consortiums pipeline terminal in Valdez , Alaska , to the lower 48 states of the United States . At the time it ran aground , the vessel was carrying about 201,000 m³ ( 53.1 million gallons ) of oil . After the spill , the vessel was towed to San Diego , arriving on June 10 , 1989 , and repairs were started on June 30 , 1989 . Approximately 1,600 tons of steel were removed and replaced that July , totaling US$30 million of repairs to the tanker . Its single-hull design remained unaltered . The Exxon Valdez spill occurred under President George H . W . Bush , whose EPA Administrator William K . Reilly played a significant role in mobilizing presidential support for action to contain and clean up the spill . Litigation . Litigation was filed on behalf of 38,000 litigants . In 1994 , a jury awarded plaintiffs US$287 million in compensatory damages and US$5 billion in punitive damages . Exxon appealed and the Ninth Circuit Court reduced the punitive damages to US$2.5 billion . Exxon then appealed the punitive damages to the Supreme Court which capped the damages to US$507.5 million in June , 2008 . On August 27 , 2008 , Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the US$507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska . In June 2009 , a federal ruling ordered Exxon to pay an additional US$480 million in interest on their delayed punitive damage awards . Return to service . After repairs , Exxon Valdez was renamed Exxon Mediterranean , then SeaRiver Mediterranean in the early 1990s , when Exxon transferred its shipping business to a new subsidiary company , River Maritime Inc . The name was later shortened to S/R Mediterranean , then to simply Mediterranean in 2005 . Although Exxon tried briefly to return the ship to its North American fleet , it was prohibited by law from returning to Prince William Sound . It then served in Europe , the Middle East and Asia . In 2002 , the ship was again removed from service . In 2005 , it began operating under the Marshall Islands flag of convenience . Since then , European Union regulations have also prevented vessels with single-hull designs such as the Valdez from entering European ports . In early 2008 , SeaRiver Maritime , an ExxonMobil subsidiary , sold Mediterranean to the Hong Kong-based shipping company , Hong Kong Bloom Shipping Ltd. , which renamed the ship , once again , to Dong Fang Ocean ( ) , under Panama registry . In 2008 , she was refitted and converted from an oil tanker to an ore carrier . Hong Kong Bloom Shipping , is a subsidiary of Chinese Government owned company China Ocean Shipping ( Group ) Corporation ( COSCO ) . Collision with MV Aali . On November 29 , 2010 , Dong Fang Ocean collided in the South China Sea with the Malta-flagged cargo ship , Aali . Both vessels were severely damaged in the incident , and Aali was towed to Weihai and Dong Fang Ocean was towed to Longyan Port in Shandong . Retirement . In March 2012 , Dong Fang Ocean was purchased by Global Marketing Systems , Inc . for scrap at an estimated US$16 million and sailed under her own power to a ship breaker in Singapore . She changed hands again among scrap merchants ( a common occurrence ) and was eventually routed to Alang , India , under the ownership of Priya Blue Industries and at some point renamed Oriental Nicety . Before being beached , some tried to halt the action , arguing that the vessel was in breach of the Basel Convention . On 30 July 2012 , the Supreme Court of India granted permission for the owners of Oriental Nicety to beach her at Gujarat coast to be dismantled . She was then beached at Alang on 2 August 2012 . In popular culture . - On the 1990 comedy show In Living Color season 1 , episode 4 , Jim Carrey plays Hazelwood in a sketch titled The Exxon Family . - In the 1995 film Waterworld , the base for the villainous smokers is a ship called Exxon Valdez , prominently featuring a portrait of Joe Hazelwood , the captain of the real Exxon Valdez . - In the 1998 video game Fallout 2 , an alternate version of the Exxon Valdez called the PMV Valdez is used to get to an offshore oil rig . - The Futurama episode The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz is a parody of the Exxon Valdez oil spill , with the dark matter tanker named the Juan Valdez . External links . - nature.com article about ship