Morro Castle (ship, 1930)
 The drifting Morro Castle on the morning of the fire
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Morro Castle (II) was a luxury cruise ship of the US shipping company Ward Line , which entered service in 1930 and was used on regular liner services from New York City to Havana ( Cuba ) in the early 1930s . The Morro Castle was one of the most modern and luxurious passenger ships of its time and was very popular with wealthy customers because it could cover the New York – Havana route in just 59 hours.
In the early morning hours of September 8, 1934 , a fire broke out on the Morro Castle , which was on the way back to New York , which completely destroyed the ship and claimed 137 lives. Numerous other passengers were injured, some seriously, by fire, smoke, jumping from the ship and spending hours in the water. The incident on the Morro Castle led to the improvement of safety regulations and precautionary measures for fire fighting on modern passenger ships. The use of flame-retardant materials, fire-proof doors and fire alarm exercises introduced afterwards is a direct result of the Morro Castle disaster.
Construction, equipment and commissioning
In 1928, the United States Congress passed the Merchant Marine Act that created a $ 250 million shipbuilding fund. American shipbuilders were able to obtain bonds from this fund in order to scrap their outdated ships and exchange them for new, modern ones. These bonds, which subsidized the construction of a ship by up to 75%, were to be repaid over a period of 20 years at a very low interest rate. One of the first shipping companies to take advantage of this opportunity was the Ward Line (actually "New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company"), a New York-based shipping company that has carried passengers, freight and mail between New York and various ports in the city since 1841 Caribbean such as Nassau or Havana . The Ward Line's first Morro Castle (6,004 GRT) entered service in 1900 and was scrapped in 1926.
The Ward Line commissioned the Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Newport News ( Virginia ) with the construction of two identical sister ships. The result was the Morro Castle (construction number 337) and the Oriente (construction number 338). Construction of the two ships began in January 1929; on March 5, 1930, the Morro Castle was the first of the two ships to be launched. Ruth Eleanor Mooney, daughter of the Ward Line President Franklin D. Mooney, named the ship Morro Castle . The ship was named after the fortress of the same name at the entrance to the Bay of Havana , Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro , or El Morro for short, and Morro Castle in English . The launch of the Oriente followed on May 15, 1930. Both ships were 155 m long, measured 11,520 GRT and sailed at an average speed of 20 knots. They were the largest and most commercially successful ships the Ward Line ever built; both had cost $ 5.5 million each. The 12 lifeboats offered enough capacity to accommodate over 800 people.
The Morro Castle offered 16 suites and 142 cabins, which were distributed on five decks (A to E) and could accommodate a total of 532 passengers (437 first class, 95 tourist class). In contrast to the simple and rather practical style that prevailed on cruise ships at the time, the passenger accommodation and public spaces on the Morro Castle were elegant and comfortable. The ship had cabin telephones, elevators and the most modern heating and ventilation systems. The lounges on the various decks were designed in different styles. The largest room was the pastel-colored dining room, which stretched over two decks and was partially lined with gold leaf.
Another centerpiece was the two-storey, wood-paneled First Class Lounge, which was equipped with Corinthian columns, a fireplace, a piano and mother-of-pearl inlays . The steamer also had a kindergarten, a fitness room, glazed promenade decks, a large on-board library and several bars. The press quickly gave the two sister ships the nickname “millionaire yachts”.
period of service
On August 23, 1930, the Morro Castle in New York ran under the command of Captain Joseph Jones on her maiden voyage . The modern ship caused a lot of publicity for the Ward Line from the start and quickly developed into a crowd puller. When the ship called Havana for the first time at the end of its maiden voyage, a large banquet was held on board, which Gerardo Machado , the incumbent President of Cuba, also attended.
In her four years of service, the Morro Castle proved to be a reliable and popular ship, which seldom interrupted its regular schedule and was able to retain numerous regular customers. Several factors ensured that the Morro Castle was fully booked on almost every trip: The global economic crisis and alcohol prohibition drove the Americans abroad and were the trigger for large waves of trips to Cuba and the Bahamas, where alcohol is purchased cheaply and in large quantities could. In addition, alcohol was served on the ships that brought travelers to the Caribbean. At the same time, a phenomenon called "wanderlust" occurred. The progressive development of the earth by railways, steamships and now also by commercial flights made it possible for ever larger social classes to travel. The ever-falling prices for ocean crossings and cruises also contributed to this.
During her active service, the Morro Castle also made negative headlines. Over time, rumors of drug and weapon smuggling to and from Cuba increased, and there were also reports of illegal immigrants and Cuban revolutionaries being transported . The excessive consumption of alcohol, gambling and the presence of call girls in the high season ensured that the Morro Castle was referred to as a "floating bliss" by the responsible regulatory and port authorities.
In September 1933, the steamer got into a severe storm and was hit by a monster wave . The wave caused a serious list to port, leaving several departments of the ship fill up and ripped the radio mast with it, making the Morro Castle was cut off from the outside world and could not call for help. Over 70 people were injured. The Morro Castle arrived in New York on September 18, two days late. Since the ship could not be reached for over 48 hours, rumors were already spreading that it might have sunk.
In November of the same year, the Morro Castle in the port of Havana got into hostile clashes between rebels and the Cuban military. The fortress of Atarea suddenly opened fire on two armed boats in the harbor basin on which members of the rebel ABC troops were. The Morro Castle was in the line of fire and immediately raised anchor to escape. Parts of the aft bridge and rigging were shot away, the superstructure was damaged by several bullets. The passengers were ordered into the lounge, where the on-board orchestra, Happy Days Are Here Again , began to drown out the noise of the battle.
The last tour
On Saturday, September 1, 1934, the Morro Castle departed from Pier 13 in New York for a Labor Day cruise to Havana. It was her 174th trip in total. In addition to 231 crew members, there were 259 passengers on board. After passing the American east coast and briefly in Havana, the Morro Castle began her return journey to New York at 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday, September 5, 1934, where she was supposed to arrive at around 7 a.m. on September 9th. The ship was under the command of 55-year-old Captain Robert Renison Willmott, who had worked for the Ward Line for 31 years. He had commanded Morro Castle since its eleventh voyage. In Havana another 59 passengers had boarded, so there were now a total of 549 people (318 passengers and 231 crew members) on board.
Passengers
Among the 318 passengers who were on board when the Morro Castle left Havana on September 5, 1934, were a large number of women and children. The number of passengers did not use the entire capacity of the ship, but there were significantly more travelers than on the previous trips. Most of them were US Americans, but there were also a large number of Cubans on board. Most of the passengers came from the New York area and the neighboring states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania .
The total number of travelers was composed of the social classes and groups customary for a cruise at the time. Many of the passengers were American tourists on their way home, students who had spent the summer in the Caribbean returning to college, retired couples, honeymooners, a group of members of the Concordia Choral Society from East New York , a number of doctors and surgeons, sometimes with families, several clergymen, but also business travelers such as bankers, lawyers and entrepreneurs.
The passengers on this trip included:
- Reuben A. Holden, American professional tennis player (survived, lost his wife)
- Abraham Cohen, manager of the Grand Department Store in Hartford, Connecticut (survived)
- Anthony Lione, insurance salesman and architect from Sunnyside ( Queens ) (died)
- Herman H. Torborg, former New York State Senator (survived)
- Dr. Governor Morris Phelps, prominent New York surgeon (survived)
- Dr. Charles Stites Cochrane, division manager at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, New York (survived, lost sister)
- Dr. Theodore Luther Vosseler, New York physician and physicist (survived)
- Dr. Francois Busquet, chief radiologist at the Emergency and Polyclinic Hospital in Havana (died)
- Renée Méndez Capote, daughter of the Vice-President of Cuba, Brigadier General Domingo Méndez Capote (survived)
- Father Raymond A. Egan, pastor of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx (survived)
- Rev. Hiram Richard Hulse, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Havana (survived)
- Agnes M. Prince, society reporter for The Pottstown Mercury magazine (survived)
- Camilla E. Conroy, Secretary to the Public Prosecutor and Politician Herbert O'Conor (died)
- Eleanor C. Brennan, Senior Buyer for Macy’s Main Office in New York's Herald Square (died)
- Dolly Davidson, stage and screen actress and model ( The Enchanted Garden , Ziegfeld Follies , Doin 'Things ) (survived)
- Matthew L. McElhenny, General Manager of the New York and Long Branch Railroad (survived)
The passage
The passage initially proceeded as usual. The passengers enjoyed the amenities of the orchestra, the varied meals and the Caribbean climate. Tennis and shuffleboard were played. The evening events were particularly popular. The Fancy Dress Ball took place in the ballroom on Monday evening, September 3, and the Elimination Dance took place on Thursday evening, September 6. The only unusual thing was the fact that Captain Willmott was in poor health. He appeared pale and nervous and hardly took part in life on board. The ship's doctor , 53-year-old Dr. Dewitt Clinton Van Zile, suspected food poisoning . Willmott stayed away from the bridge most of the time and did not attend any social events.
On September 6, 1934 around noon the weather worsened. The Morro Castle , which ran parallel to the American east coast and was within sight of the land, was faced with a rough, windy and misty sea. These were the first signs of an approaching storm from the northeast . On the evening of September 7th, the Morro Castle was only hours away from her arrival in New York City. It was getting rainier and windier; Morro Castle's tour guide , Robert Smith, tried everything to keep the passengers happy. That evening the big gala with a captain's dinner and dance was to take place, which was always held on the last evening of the voyage and was the social highlight of every crossing. The passengers gathered in the lounge and waited for the captain to appear. However, a number of passengers were seasick because of the bad weather and stayed in the cabins.
Shortly after Captain Willmott was served dinner in his cabin, he called the ship's doctor and complained of stomach ache. A short time later he was found dead in the bathroom of his cabin. The ship's doctor, Dr. Van Zile, examined the body and assumed a heart attack in connection with a stomach ailment. The dead captain was laid out in his cabin for a more detailed autopsy in New York . Command passed to the first officer, William Ferdinand Warms. The passengers who were waiting in the lounge for the start of the festivities were the paymasters of the Morro Castle informed Robert Tolman, the fact that the captain just passed and the show was canceled due to recent events. Meanwhile, after dark, the storm had increased in proportions, enormous waves lashed against the hull of Morro Castle and the ship rolled in the troubled sea. Despite this location, there were parties with music and drinks in many of the cabins and common rooms.
The fire
At around 2:45 a.m. on September 8, a passenger in the smoking room asked steward Daniel Campbell if he could smell smoke . After a brief search for the cause, Campbell discovered a fire in the first class writing room on the B-deck, which was starting from one of the locked cupboards. At first, no one assumed a major disaster, not even when billows of smoke spread into the smoking parlor and ballroom on the B-deck. Most assumed that it was just a burning carpet or wastebasket that would be quickly put out.
However, the fire spread rapidly and soon had the superstructure of the Morro Castle engulfed in flames and smoke. The paint on the ship went up in flames everywhere. The strong wind kept the fire going. Within a few minutes, the luxury liner was a "burning torch", as eyewitnesses later described it. Corridors and stairwells were filled with thick smoke, making orientation and breathing difficult. The railing was after a short time too hot to hold on to. As the heat increased, the large glass windows in the halls and promenade decks began to burst; Glass showers rained down on the fleeing passengers. Sometimes fireballs and flashes of flames developed. As the fire spread, heavy rain fell on the ship.
Many passengers were already asleep, seasick or drunk and could not react quickly. No instructions were given to the travelers by the crew , so most of them did not know what was happening or how to behave. Many were killed directly as a result of the fire because they could no longer leave their cubicles, others suffocated in their sleep. Most of the passengers, who were already asleep, were awakened by the noise of fleeing people, the screams and shouts, and the rushing footsteps in the corridors. Many survivors later reported that pots and pans were beaten together to wake sleepers.
The people streamed on deck, many still in evening wear, but most only in nightgowns, bathrobes or underwear. Most of the passengers ran to the stern , where large crowds quickly formed. However, since the wind drove the flames and the clouds of smoke towards the stern, it was difficult to breathe there after a short time. The passengers standing at the back pushed further and further and a scramble broke out because they could not reach the railing. The ship's orchestra leader, Hyman Koch, animated them to jump so that people gradually climbed and jumped over the railing. Later, heaps of shoes, handbags and clothes were found on deck, which the passengers had got rid of before the jump. Deck chairs, lifebuoys and life jackets were thrown overboard to serve as buoyancy aids in the water.
About 20 minutes after the fire was discovered, the lights went out all over the ship because the cables were burnt. At the same time the machines failed. Attempts by the ship's command to strand the ship failed; the Morro Castle was completely incapable of maneuvering and drifting rudderless in the current. Because of the flames, the heat, the darkness and the confusion on board, the lifeboats could not be properly manned and lowered into the water. Only six of the twelve lifeboats (No. 1, 3, 5, 9 and 11 to starboard , No. 10 to port) could be successfully launched and although they could carry 408 people together, only 85 were on board and these were almost exclusively crew members. Only one woman was among those who escaped on the boats. This subsequently led to great hostility and accusations from the crew and the shipping company. For most of the passengers, jumping into the water was the only way to rescue them. However, this was very difficult due to the storm, the people were thrown against the side of the ship and drowned in the heavy seas. Many broke their necks jumping off the boat deck because they put on their life jackets incorrectly. Others landed on rubble or other passengers and sustained serious injuries. In an attempt to save lives, a number of women and children were grabbed and thrown overboard, which in most cases led to their drowning. Most of the victims suffered from dying of exhaustion after hours in the freezing water .
The rescue
Although the Morro Castle was in distress only a few nautical miles from New Jersey and was sighted by many eyewitnesses on land, it took a long time for rescue ships to arrive at the site of the disaster. Only after dawn did the first ships reach the scene of the accident, including the British luxury liner Monarch of Bermuda , the freighter Andrea F. Luckenbach , the American liner City of Savannah and the steamer President Cleveland of the Dollar Line. Each of the four ships took in survivors. Meanwhile, Morro Castle's lifeboats had reached the New Jersey coast and were stranded on the beaches, where they were met by rescuers, reporters and onlookers. Other passengers had swum all the way from Morro Castle to the bank. Dozens of survivors suffered from shock , hypothermia , exhaustion and injuries and were taken directly to local hospitals. Many of those who were rescued complained that, despite their requests and cries for help, they had not been taken into the lifeboats by the crew members while they were in the water.
Two Coast Guard boats , the Tampa and the Cahoone , didn't get close enough to see the swimmers in the water and turned away again. The Coast Guard's auxiliary aircraft in Cape May did not come into use until the first dead were washed up on the coast of New Jersey. In the meantime a number of smaller ships had already arrived, but the still stormy sea made any rescue attempt difficult. Acting New Jersey Governor Harry Moore boarded a private plane and helped rescue the castaways by spotting swimmers from the air and setting markers to help rescue ships locate survivors in the high waves.
The ship was evacuated around noon on September 8th. News of the catastrophe had spread rapidly via radio and telephone, leading to a crowd of relatives, onlookers and press representatives on the coast of Monmouth County . The burned-out, maneuverable wreck stranded on the beach promenade of Asbury Park and was declared a total loss by the shipping company. Of the 549 people on board, 137 were killed, including around 100 passengers. Many women and children were among the victims. Improvised morgues were set up to give bereaved relatives a chance to identify their dead loved ones dragged from the sea all over the area. One of the survivors was the 17-year-old cabin boy Herbert Saffir , who later helped develop the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale . In the months that followed, the wreck became a tourist attraction and a destination for excursions, around which souvenir stalls and postcard stands clustered. In March 1935 the wreck of the Morro Castle was cleared for scrapping. To date, the incident is one of the greatest disasters in the history of civil shipping in the United States.
consequences
The disaster was followed by several official investigations, the task of which was to determine the cause of the accident and to understand the course of the accident. The investigations revealed that the easily flammable materials and the poor condition of the fire fighting equipment such as fire extinguishers, alarm systems and fire hoses made a significant contribution to the scope of the disaster. There had been no emergency drills on Morro Castle , as in the past a passenger had slipped through extinguishing water during such an exercise and the Ward Line had successfully sued for damages . As a result, Captain Wilmott stopped conducting any sort of rescue or fire alarm drill.
It was also found that the crew had acted negligently. The team were accused of negligence and negligence. The passengers were not properly awakened and brought to the lifeboats, which is why they were largely left to their own devices. Many witnesses later reported that they were not attended to and that no one of the crew was seen. The lifeboat stations were not properly manned, the fireproof doors were not closed, and the passengers were not instructed how to behave. Most of them only had to jump from the ship into the troubled sea.
The ship's command under the newly appointed Captain William F. Warms had failed to call for help, which means that rescue ships did not arrive until hours after the ship was completely burned out. Warms also did not leave the bridge during the accident and did not find out about the extent of the fire and the damage. Captain Warms, Chief Engineer Eban Starr Abbott, and Ward Line Vice President Henry Edward Cabaud were sentenced to varying terms in January 1936 on charges of negligence, negligence and other charges. The safety precautions on passenger and cruise ships were re-regulated and improved as a result of the tragedy, which resulted in a higher safety standard on modern ships.
Arson rumors
After the Morro Castle incident, the ship's chief radio officer, 33-year-old George White Rogers, Jr. from Bayonne, New Jersey , was hailed as the hero of the disaster because he independently radioed SOS and thus other ships and the coastal stations on the burning Dampfer had drawn attention. This had taken place under life-threatening conditions, as the ship's radio house was in the center of the fire and the system was already beginning to melt while Rogers was still at work. Rogers received national attention and gratitude and became the subject of widespread media coverage.
Only later did the radio operator's criminal past become known, which included many cases of theft, fraud and, above all, arson . Rogers had also received repeated psychiatric treatment from his youth; he has been attested to be a sociopath and pyromaniac . He had specialized in building incendiary bombs with time fuses and after the outbreak of fire to take care of the fire, in order to be considered a savior.
Rogers then boasted to several people that he had started the fire on Morro Castle . When police officer Vincent J. Doyle was investigating the case and tried to convict Rogers, who he knew personally, of the arson, Rogers carried out a bomb attack on him. Doyle survived seriously injured. In 1954, Rogers committed a double homicide in his neighborhood for financial reasons, for which he was eventually jailed. He died in custody on January 10, 1958 as a result of a cerebral haemorrhage . Since the accident, several authors and experts have dealt with the theory of the arson by George Rogers, but his fault for the disaster has never been clearly established.
literature
- Rudolf Van Wehrt : Morro Castle. The hour of a ship's death . Ullstein, Berlin 1935, DNB 578864657 .
- Thomas Gallagher: Fire at Sea. The Mysterious Tragedy of the Morro Castle . The Lyons Press, Guildford, Connecticut 1959. (2003, ISBN 1-58574-624-X )
- Gordon Thomas , Max Morgan-Witts: The Strange Fate of Morro Castle . Edition Sven Erik Bergh in Ingse Verlag, delivery Econ Verlag, 1973, ISBN 3-430-19099-1 .
- Günter Prodöhl : "Criminal cases without example (Volume 2)". The New Belin, 1967.
- Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan-Witts: The journey of death of the Morro Castle . From the English by Ingeborg Schauer. Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1973, ISBN 3-404-60046-0 .
- Hal Burton: The Morro Castle: Tragedy at Sea . Viking Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-670-48960-3 .
- Brian Hicks: When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and its Deadly Wake . Free Press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-7432-8008-3 .
- Gretchen F. Coyle, Deborah C. Whitcraft: Inferno At Sea: Stories of Death and Survival Aboard the Morro Castle . Down The Shore Publishing, 2012.
- Peter H. Bock: Ocean liner in flames - "Fire in the ship"! . In: Schiff Classic , magazine for shipping and marine history eV of the DGSM , issue: 6/2020, pp. 28–35.
Movies
- SOS - Morro Castle. TV-FRG 1966, 2 parts, director: Frank Wisbar , with Wolfgang Kieling as George Rogers.