Image Source: MAHI Cruises. The pictured Hannah Glover is the passenger vessel identified in the Rockmore Company case.
What Was the Accusation?
The Rockmore Company, Inc., a Massachusetts passenger-vessel operator, faced federal criminal charges over the discharge of raw sewage from the P/V Hannah Glover, a 59-foot ferry and sightseeing vessel based in Salem. Federal prosecutors alleged that crew members had used the vessel’s sewage pump to discharge untreated human waste directly into Massachusetts waters. The government described discharges in Salem Harbor, near beaches in Marblehead and Beverly, and in the Charles River, including allegations involving the 2002 Fourth of July celebration. Sewage from the company’s restaurant barge, the P/V Rockmore, was also transferred to the Hannah Glover for disposal, according to federal allegations.
In January 2010, Rockmore agreed to plead guilty to two violations of the Rivers and Harbors Act involving two sewage discharges from the Hannah Glover in August 2006. The company disputed a number of the government’s broader allegations concerning earlier conduct. Its sentence included a $225,000 criminal fine, a $75,000 community-service payment to the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, three years of probation, and requirements governing future sewage disposal.
The case became notable because the punishment also required a public apology. Rockmore was ordered to purchase full-page newspaper advertisements acknowledging that it had discharged human waste into Massachusetts coastal waters and apologizing for the contamination. NPR highlighted the case in a report about “naming and shaming” corporations as a form of punishment intended to create reputational consequences in addition to financial penalties. The resulting statement was unusually direct for a corporate apology: Rockmore identified the environmental harm, acknowledged its guilty plea and fine, and ended with an explicit expression of regret.
Key Apologia Strategies
Mortification, Corrective Action
Video
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Transcript
The Rockmore Company’s court-ordered public apology ad (2010):
