11-07-2007

I looked online for information about the 1934 fire on the American ship Morro Castle, described by Skryagin in his book, as promised, dear Editor. Regarding the detective component, no evidence of Skryagin's conjectures, except for the usual reporter's lies, could be found, but this, however, is completely uninteresting at a level above the philistine. Who today is interested in all sorts of dirty tricks of a detective nature that took place seventy years ago?

The captain of the ship was not poisoned, but died of a heart attack, as for arson, there is no convincing evidence of this. The fire started in a latrine next to the library, not in the library, and not from a mythical incendiary device, but from God knows what.

One of the credible articles about Morro Castle is on the Passenger History website http://www.garemaritime.com/features/morro-castle/01.php

In particular, it says:

"Stories of poisoning and intrigue later circulated, but Wilmott"s final recorded words ("could you mix me up an enema?" delivered by telephone) and the fact that he was found toppled over into his bathtub with his pants around his ankles strongly suggest that he died of a heart attack or a stroke while trying to force a bowel movement; the doctors who were summoned agreed that it most likely was a heart attack".

("There have been rumors of poisoning and a conspiracy, but Wilmot's last words on the phone "would you make me an enema" and the fact that he was found slumped in the tub with his pants down to his knees strongly support that he died of a heart attack or stroke while he was fighting with constipation; the doctors who were summoned concluded that it was most likely a heart attack.")

However, interesting information you can extract from the history of the fire at Morro Castle. There are three dubious points in this case: why the passenger ship, equipped with the latest technology, burned down like a sheaf of straw, why the crew, led by the chief mech, fled the ship, forgetting about the passengers, and why the passengers behaved like bestials, pushing them away from the lifeboats women and children.

As for the fire, there are no special secrets here. To some extent, designers are also swindlers, since the most important thing in design work is to sell the project. No, they did everything right - both automatic fire extinguishing and signaling, but "forgot" to tell the customer that all this iron is worthless without constant checks on the performance of fire fighting devices and without persistent training of the crew on what to do in case of fire. You can't call the fire brigade at sea. The phrase "penny worth" is the key here, since they could not evaluate their project with such an amount.

There is a curious circumstance associated with the assessment by designers of emergency situations during the operation of design objects. All such cases are divided into "design" and "beyond design". The instructions describe "design" situations, those that the designers consider more likely, the rest of the situations are considered "beyond design", and the designer simply keeps silent about them. A beyond design situation occurred on the Morro Castle, when smart passengers dropped the windows, creating the conditions for the ship to turn into a forge. The secret here is simple, and it lies in the area of ​​fartsovka (we will call “free market” and “market economy” for short). Almost everything can be foreseen, but it will cost a lot of money. then this is the tenth thing for a fartsovschika.

It is curious that when reading the descriptions of the death of the Morro Castle, I constantly had associations with the Chernobyl accident. This is far from accidental; almost the same causes underlie all misfortunes. At Chernobyl, the designers "forgot" to tell the reactor operators that, under certain circumstances, the reactor could be blown to shreds by an atomic explosion, or, in the language of these shy designers, "an uncontrolled prompt chain reaction could occur in the reactor."

There is another subtlety in the relationship "customer-designer-operator (ship crew)". Orders the project, of course, the customer, someone sitting in the office, and not on board the ship or at the nuclear power plant. His explosions-fires are of more theoretical interest, he will not have to burn or explode. Designers rarely die either, leaving this honorable right to the operators (team).
There is an unspoken opinion that the one who is the first to die will be able to figure out how this can be avoided. And indeed, where the operators are sane, they quite often find and, as best they can, correct the mistakes of the designers.

This brings us to question number two: what was the team at Morro Castle?

Based on the information gleaned from the network, I believe that the team consisted of people who were morally decomposed, who lost their human appearance due to their proximity to the same farce.

Prohibition on the mainland and the absence of it in Cuba, where the ship only went, created a very specific situation. The ship was like a floating brothel, transporting those who like to drink and copulate on the cheap. Everything-pro-everything cost $75, round trip (excluding gender discourse). Prostitutes were constantly present on the ship, but, mysteriously, they were constantly not included in the list of passengers. Moreover, the ship was sailing without interruption, as required by the laws of fartsovka, and if the sailor (the command staff was allowed leave) wanted to rest or visit relatives, he had to quit. The staff turnover was horrendous, so what fire drills are there!

Again, I recall Chernobyl, and the stories of one of the station managers about how fun they had, organizing religious trips to the Black Sea coast for employees, where almost everyone drank to the white beast. As for the moral character, the Chernobyl nuclear scientists dragged everything they could from the station. In June 1986, during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, I needed dosing pumps, which, as I assumed, must have been at the station. After an interrogation with prejudice of one of the engineers, who had to be intimidated by the KGB, he admitted that he had stolen the motor and gearbox from the dispenser in order to New Year rotate the Christmas tree in your apartment. The investigation failed to find the rest of the dispensers in my face.

The crew of the Morro Castle, from chief mech to last bilgeman, were preoccupied with the proceeds from smuggling and from the prostitutes they brought illegally to Havana on board the ship. They had no time for fire drills.

The crew of a ship, as well as a nuclear power plant, should consist of honest people with certain moral principles. otherwise the ship will sink and the station will explode. Not without help, and even the main role of owners and designers.

Finally, why were the passengers on the Morro Castle behaving like a pig? The reason here, I think, is clear to everyone - these were mainly pigs who decided to grunt on the cheap, to finally fulfill their American dream.

23.05.2011 - 12:41

Costs of Prohibition

In the 30s of the last century, the Ward Line company owned two of the most advanced turbo-electric liners of that time, one of which, the Morro Castle, was a real floating five-star hotel. If the owners of the company sent him to surf the world's oceans, then their competitors would quickly "went to the bottom." But the Ward Line bosses found an even better option: Twice a week, the Morro Castle left New York Harbor for Cuba.

After 36 hours of parking, the liner returned safely back to the States. It would seem, what benefit can be from such a short flight? And the benefits were great. "Exhausted by narzan" during the period of "dry" law, American citizens enjoyed spending the whole day on the merry island at that time, reveling during this time to insensibility of Cuban rum in the company of swarthy, trouble-free women.

Thanks to the "drunk" flights, the Ward Line prospered. Four years huge liner without incident, he scurried like a shuttle between America and Cuba, and on September 7, 1934, he left Havana for New York on his already 174th flight.

A few hours before arriving home, the Morro Castle passengers traditionally went on their last spree. In the holiday, of course, purely formally, without allowing themselves too much, the officers of the liner, led by the captain, also participated. However, this time the tradition was violated in the most gloomy way: at first, the captain of the ship, Robert Wilmott, warned his subordinates that he would not go to the holiday because he was not feeling well. And after a while, when the alcohol was already flowing like a river, the steward found the captain lying in the bathroom in his own cabin. The captain was dead.

First call

The doctor stated serious poisoning. The music stopped and the passengers wandered off to their cabins to finish their rum alone. According to the rules, the senior officer, William Worms, took over as captain. He sent a telegram to the owners of the ship and began his new duties. It was three hours to the harbor.

At half past three in the night, the most sober of the passengers suddenly woke up from the smell of burning. Jumping out into the corridor, he found that the walls and lush carpets that covered the floor were burning with some strange bluish flame. The fire literally flowed down the ladders, capturing the lower decks and rushing straight into the hold.

An attempt to use fire hydrants did not lead to anything - there was no pressure in the pipes at all. Soon other passengers began to get out. Most of them, not yet sober, shied senselessly through the labyrinths of corridors, only increasing the panic. Finding no way out, they broke windows and jumped onto the deck, breaking their limbs. Following, others jumped on their heads ... And the liner was in full swing and the wind, penetrating through the broken windows, fanned the flames more and more ...

No one can say for sure, but there are suspicions that the sailors and officers of the liner that evening abundantly “commemorated” their deceased captain. Otherwise, how else can one explain the actions, or rather, the complete inaction of the Morro Castle team. The chief engineer, for example, instead of putting out the fire, together with a dozen sailors, calmly lowered the boat and went to the shore, since there were ten miles left before him.

The new captain himself, only half an hour after the start of the disaster, guessed to give the order to stop the cars so that the headwind would not fan the fire. True, this order came too late - half of the ship's mechanisms were no longer working.

There were also exceptions. For example, the head of the ship's radio station, George Rogers, honestly stood at his post, despite the fact that the paint on the walls of the radio room had already begun to burst from the heat. He was waiting for the command to send an SOS signal, which came from the bridge only an hour after the fire started. When the long-awaited order was received, Rogers managed to broadcast three cherished letters, but when he began to transmit the coordinates, the radio station's batteries exploded. Burnt by acid and fire, the radio operator was pulled onto the deck by his assistant.

Rogues and Heroes

Later newspapers described with gusto all the horrors that happened on the decks of the Morro Castle on that terrible night. Some passengers managed to escape by swimming to the shore, someone was able to get into the boats, but out of the three hundred who entrusted their lives to the “safest liner”, one hundred people died.

When the liner burned out completely, by some miracle there were still living people on it. They were removed by the approaching rescuer, and the liner was taken in tow. However, the cable broke and the giant, burnt-out skeleton of the Morro Castle was washed ashore by the waves not far from the city's beaches, where it immediately became the center of attention of the public, police and insurance agents.

After the trial, “one-night-captain” William Worms lost his navigational diploma and went to prison for two years. The senior mechanic also lost his diploma for his desertion and went to jail for four years. According to the claims of the victims, the owners of the burnt liner paid 890 thousand dollars.

There were heroes in this story. Morro Castle radio station chief George Rogers became a national hero and received a gold medal for bravery from Congress. Hollywood producers have already sat down to write the script for a new blockbuster about the tragedy of the liner, where Rogers' prototype was to appear as the savior of hundreds of people.

But soon the idea of ​​the script died out, Rogers himself, having basked in the rays of popular love, retired from the fleet, becoming the head of the radio workshop in hometown Bayonne, and the whole story, in the end, began to be forgotten. Till…

In 20 years…

In the summer of 1953, the town of Bayonne was rocked by the double murder of an elderly typesetter and his daughter. All evidence pointed to twenty-year-old national hero George Rogers, and the police were forced to take him into custody pending clarification.

When the notorious circumstances were clarified, the judges of the city fell into a real shock: the hero-radio operator, known throughout America, had, as it turned out, a unique "track record". From the age of 12, he was already attracted by the police - he was tried for theft. In 1923, he was discharged from the US Navy - again for theft.

Knowing perfectly well chemistry, electricity and radio engineering, he repeatedly experimented with time bombs. As the investigation found out, it was his "work" that was the explosion at the US Navy base in Newport in 1920; the fire of the radio company building on Greenwich Street, New York in 1929; fire in his own workshop in order to obtain insurance.

In 1938, Rogers was arrested for blowing up a police officer with a homemade bomb - fortunately, he survived. In order not to disgrace the "national hero", he was sent to work as a radio operator in the merchant fleet. After working, he returned to his city again, opened a workshop, and now ... the murder of a typesetter and his daughter, committed, as it turned out, to get rid of a large financial debt.

Further more. It turned out that the captain of the Morro Castle, Wilmott, and radio operator Rogers had been in serious conflict for a long time. The investigation managed to find out that after the poisoning of Captain Rogers, in order to hide the ends, he set fire to the Morro Castle with the help of time bombs. He turned off the automatic fire detection system and let fuel from the emergency generator tank from the upper deck to the lower ones. That's why the flame was blue and "flowed" down ...

On January 10, 1958, Rogers died in prison from a myocardial infarction, without confessing to his crimes ...

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The liner "Morro Castle" ("Morro Castle"), the liner of the company "Ward Line", was the latest word in science and technology. Its turbo-electric installation provided an economical run of 25 knots. "Morro Castle" without much effort could compete with the German liners "Bremen" and "Europe" - winners of the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic. The owners of Ward Line expected that new ship will bring them a good profit on the so-called "drunken line" New York - Havana. Thousands of Americans, who were hard pressed by Prohibition, flocked to Cuba for its near-free rum and affordable women. The famous cabaret "La Tropicana" and three thousand bars scattered around Havana were especially popular with them.

From January 1930 to the fall of 1934, Morro Castle made 173 super-profitable flights to Cuba. Every Saturday afternoon, a thousand passengers left New York Harbor. The liner headed for Havana and exactly two days later and 36 hours of laying in the Cuban port returned to New York again. Such a traffic schedule for four years has never been violated even by the famous West Indian hurricanes - the true scourge of navigation in the Caribbean.

On that flight, the liner was commanded by the most experienced captain of the World Line company, Robert Wilmott, who faithfully served its owners for three decades.

On the evening of September 7, 1934, the Morro Castle was completing its 174th flight en route Havana - New York. In five hours, abeam the Ambrose lightship, it will lay on a new course and approach the Ward Line pier. But first, the captain had to give a traditional banquet for passengers in honor of the end of a fun voyage.

However, Wilmott did not honor the passengers by his presence in the cabin at the captain's table. "Watchman! Let them announce at the banquet that the captain is not feeling well and offer his sincere apologies. Dinner is served to my cabin. Call me when we're abeam Scotland."

These were the last words of Robert Wilmott. An hour later, the ship's doctor De Witt van Zyl declared his death from poisoning with some strong poison ... The captain was found half-dressed in the bath.

The news of the captain's death spread throughout the ship. The music stopped, the laughter and smiles on their faces disappeared. The banquet was canceled, and the passengers began to disperse to their cabins.

The senior assistant, William Worms, took over as captain. For 37 years spent at sea, he went from cabin boy to captain. In addition, he had a diploma as a pilot in New York Harbor. Worms decided to remain on the bridge until the ship arrived at the port, since from the weather forecast received by radio it followed that the Morro Castle near the Scotland lighthouse would enter the band of an eight-point storm and meet two or three strong squalls from the mainland.

The ship's clock showed 2:30 a.m. when John Kempf, a 63-year-old firefighter from New York, woke up to the smell of burning. He ran out into the corridor. The ship's library was on fire. The metal cabinet where writing instruments and paper were stored was engulfed in some strange blue flame. Kempf tore off a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher hanging from the bulkhead, unscrewed the valve and directed a stream of foam at the half-open cabinet door. The flame, changing color, escaped from the closet, singeing the fireman's eyebrows. Then Kempf rushed to the nearest hydrant, unrolled the hose and unscrewed the valve, but there was no pressure in the line. Kempf rushed to wake the sleeping second-class passengers. The lower deck corridor was also engulfed in flames. The fire always spread from the bottom up, but here, on the ship, it almost instantly rushed down ...

The silence of the night was suddenly broken by heart-rending cries. People, choking on the smoke, jumped out into the corridors in a panic. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the cabins, where the smoke had not reached, were still sleeping. And when fire alarms rang out on all decks of the liner, it was already too late - the corridors and passages were engulfed in flames. The exit from the cabins was cut off by a curtain of fire. Those who did not have time to leave their cabins involuntarily found themselves in salons, the windows and portholes of which overlooked bow liner.

The fire continued to pursue those who were driven into the salons of decks "A", "B" and "C". The only chance to escape is to break the windows and jump onto the deck in front of the ship's superstructure. And people smashed the thick windows of the square portholes with their chairs and jumped down onto the deck.

The Morro Castle continued to run at twenty knots. The longitudinal corridors of both sides of the liner now looked like a wind tunnel. 20 minutes after the start of the fire, the flames were buzzing throughout the liner.

The ship was doomed. But this was not yet understood on the navigation bridge and in the engine room. For unknown reasons, the fire detection system and the automatic fire extinguishing system did not work. Although Captain Worms was immediately alerted to the fire, he thought more about the impending difficulties of mooring in the cramped harbor of New York and was confident that the fire would be put out.

For the first half hour of the fire, Worms was in a state of some strange stupor, and only the failure of the autopilot forced him to change the ship's course and turn away from the wind.

The court report in the case of the fire on the Morro Castle, which was later heard in New York, noted that the behavior of Captain Worms and his assistants resembled the game of tragic actors who created panic and confusion by their actions. It was also strange that Chief Engineer Abbott, called by telephone from his cabin, did not appear on the bridge. They did not see him in the engine room either. It turned out that at that moment he organized the descent of a lifeboat from the starboard side. In it, journalists saw him (albeit with a broken arm) when a few hours later the boat reached the shore.

For unknown reasons, Worms did not assign any of his assistants to direct the firefighting. The fire was extinguished by the passengers themselves. Panicked, they unrolled hoses, opened hydrants, and poured water into the smoke. But the fire was advancing - people had to seek salvation. Thus, almost all the hydrants were open, and although the mechanics had already turned on the pumps, there was almost no pressure in the main fire main. There was nothing to put out the fire.

In the meantime, Worms sent commands to the mechanics by machine telegraph. For ten minutes, the Morro Castle kept changing course, zigzagging, circling, spinning in place until the wind turned the fire into a giant raging bonfire.

After the last command, the diesel generators were stopped, and the liner plunged into darkness ... The engine room was filled with smoke. It was no longer possible to stay there. Mechanics, mechanics, electricians and oilers left their posts. But few of them managed to find salvation on the upper decks of the ship...

Warms ordered to transmit a signal SOS Distress signal only fifteen minutes after he was informed that the fire could not be extinguished. At this time the Morro Castle was twenty miles south of the Scotland Lighthouse, about eight miles from the coast.

The assistant chief of the ship's radio station, George Alagna, rushed to the radio room, which was located not far from the ship's bridge. But the flame blocked his path, then Alagna shouted into the open porthole of the cabin to the radio operator to transmit the signal SOS Distress signal. The head of the ship's radio station, George Rogers, did not have time to transmit the distress signal to the end - spare acid batteries exploded in the radio room. The cabin filled with acrid fumes. Choking from sulfur fumes and almost losing consciousness, the radio operator found the strength to once again reach out to the key and transmit the coordinates and a message about the tragedy that had unfolded at sea.

At 0326 hours, the watch radio operator of the English liner Monarch of Bermuda, who was nearby, tapped out the message received through the headphones: “СQ, SOS Distress signal, 20 miles south of the Scotland Lighthouse. I can't send anymore. There is a flame below me. Help immediately. My walkie-talkie is already smoking."

Alagna managed to get into the burning radio room. Both radio operators made their way across the half-burnt bridge and went down the right ladder to main deck. From there, the only way to escape was the way to the tank. It was already crowded there: almost all the officers and sailors of the Morro Castle were looking for salvation there. Among them was Captain Worms...

The next day, September 8, 1934, the national newspapers of the United States came out with special editions - the events of the previous night on board the Morro Castle were in the spotlight. Sailor Leroy Kesley spoke of helpless passengers who "resembled a line of blind men desperately looking for doors." Kesley explained to reporters why on many boats, when descending from the Morro Castle, the hoist jammed, told how the liner, which still had a course, towed the boats behind it, how huge pieces of thick glass of the saloon windows bursting from the heat fell into the water with a hiss, how they cut the people in the boat in half ...

Later, the sailor recalled: “From the boat I saw a terrible sight. The burning vessel continued to leave... Its black hull was engulfed in orange flames of fire. Women and children, closely clinging to each other, stood on its stern. We heard a cry, plaintive, full of despair... This cry, similar to the moan of a dying man, will be heard by me until my death... I could catch only one word - "goodbye."

Eyewitnesses of the disaster among the rescued passengers wrote that those who took refuge in the stern of the ship had no chance to leave the burning liner on boats. Only those who looked down without fear could be saved, where 10 meters below the cold water ocean.

During the investigation, it turned out that about twenty people managed to escape from the burning liner by swimming, overcoming 8 nautical miles of the raging sea. The sixteen-year-old Cuban cabin boy succeeded without a life jacket.

By dawn on September 8, a small group of crew, led by Captain Worms, remained on the already completely burned out and still smoking liner. Rogers was also there with his deputy - the second radio operator George Alagna.

To stop the ship drifting downwind, they gave up the right anchor, and when the rescue ship approached the Morro Castle Navy Navy US "Tampa", towing had to be abandoned. Only by 13 o'clock those remaining on the liner were able to cut the link of the anchor chain with a hacksaw. Captain of the third rank Rose ordered a tugboat to be brought to the tank of the liner to deliver the burnt ship to New York. But by evening, the weather deteriorated sharply, a northwestern storm began. Soon the tow cable burst and wound around the propeller of the Tampa. The Morro Castle began drifting with the wind until it was stranded off the coast of New Jersey, three dozen meters from the beach at Ashbury Leisure Park. It happened on a Saturday at 8 pm when there were a lot of people there.

The news of the tragedy has already spread around New York and its suburbs, and latest news, broadcast over the radio, attracted thousands of people to this unusual incident. The next morning, 350,000 Americans gathered in Ashbury Park, all the highways and country roads were clogged with cars. The park owners charged $10 for the right to board the still-smoldering liner. Thrill-seekers were given respiratory masks, flashlights and fire boots so that they could enjoy visiting the burned-out Morro Castle “without risk to life”.

The Governor of New Jersey was already making plans to turn the ship's wreck into a permanent "horror attraction." But the firm "Ward Line" responded with a categorical refusal. She chose to sell the burned-out Morro Castle, which had cost $5 million to build, for $33,605 to a Baltimore firm for scrap metal.

The investigation into the death of the Morro Castle, conducted by experts from the US Department of Commerce, who published 12 volumes of this case, found the following: the first three boats launched from the burning ship could take more than 200 passengers. These boats were to be operated by 12 sailors. In fact, they turned out to be 103 people, of which 92 were crew members. Everyone knew for certain that the liner left Havana with 318 passengers and 231 crew members on board, that out of 134 dead there were 103 passengers.

In addition to the dead, hundreds of people, having received severe burns, remained disabled for life ... America was shocked by the cowardice, mediocrity of Worms and the meanness of Abbott. The new captain of the Morro Castle, Worms, lost his sailing license and received two years in prison. Abbott, a mechanic, was stripped of his mechanical engineering degree and sentenced to four years in prison.

For the first time in the history of American shipping, a court passed judgment on the indirect culprit of the fire, a person who was not on the ship. It turned out to be the vice-president of the Ward Line, Henry Kabodu. He received a year of probation and paid a $5,000 fine. According to the claims of the victims, the owners of Morro Castle paid 890 thousand dollars.

But this tragic story also had its own heroes - the sailors of the Monark of Bermuda, City of Savana and Andrea Lakenbach steamships, the Tampa tugboat, and the Paramont boat, who saved about 400 people. And, of course, the main character of the described events was the radio operator George Rogers. In his honor, the mayors of the states of New York and New Jersey gave sumptuous banquets. The U.S. Congress awarded Rogers the Gold Medal for Bravery.

In the homeland of the hero - in the small town of Bayonne, New Jersey - a parade of the state military garrison and the police took place on this occasion. In Hollywood, they thought about the script for the film "I'll save you people!" Rogers triumphantly swept through many states, where he spoke to the American public with stories about the drama at Morro Castle.

In 1936, Rogers left the Navy and settled in his hometown. There he was gladly offered the position of head of the radio workshop in the city police department.

Nineteen years later, Rogers was once again the number one sensation. In July 1953, former Morro Castle radio operator George Rogers was arrested by the police on suspicion of the brutal murder of 83-year-old typesetter William Hummel and his adopted daughter Edith. The hero of America ended up in the investigative chamber of the prison. After 3 hours and 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The investigation determined that Rogers - former employee American police - the most dangerous person for society, a murderer, a swindler, a thief and a pyromaniac. During the investigation, unexpectedly, facts began to emerge that shocked not only the inhabitants of Bayonne, but the entire United States. It turned out that the "national hero" was now credited with poisoning Captain Wilmott and setting fire to the Morro Castle.

During the investigation of the case, after analyzing a number of circumstances that preceded the fire, interviewing witnesses and eyewitnesses, the experts recreated the picture of the Morro Castle disaster. An hour before the liner left Havana, Captain Wilmott, seeing the head of the radio station carrying two bottles of some kind of chemicals, ordered him to throw them overboard. The police learned that Wilmott and Rogers had a long history of feuding. The fact that the captain was poisoned did not arouse doubts among the experts, although there was no direct evidence (the corpse burned down during the fire).

Shipbuilding experts and chemists have suggested that Rogers set fire to the ship with time bombs in two or three places. He turned off the automatic fire detection system and let gasoline from the emergency diesel generator tank from the upper deck to the lower ones. That is why the flame spread from top to bottom. He also took into account the location of the storage of signal flares and rockets. This explained the rapid spread of fire on the boat deck. The arson scheme was thought out professionally, with skill...

Morro Castle made its first flight in August 1930 and spent four years carrying passengers from New York to Havana and back.

Named after the fortress that guards the Gulf of Havana, the luxurious 508-meter ocean liner accommodated up to 489 wealthy clients who had the opportunity to dilute their depression due to Prohibition in the US with unlimited amounts of alcohol.

On September 5, 1934, Morro Castle left Havana and headed for New York, hoping to be there in about 58 hours. Heading north, the ship encountered strong northerly winds. After dinner, on the evening of 7 September, Captain Robert Wilmott complained of stomach pains and was found dead in his cabin soon after. Presumably, death was due to a heart attack.

Chief Lieutenant William Worms took command. Just a few hours later, at approximately 2:50 am on 8 September, a fire broke out in a storage locker on B Deck. Strong winds fanned the flames and spread them across the ornate wooden interiors while the inexperienced crew attempted to extinguish the flames and broadcast an SOS signal.

It soon became clear that the fire could not be stopped and most of the crew abandoned the ship, leaving untrained and panicked passengers to fend for themselves. Many failed to find a lifeboat, and to escape the fire, people jumped into the rough seas. Some broke their necks, and lost consciousness after the jump.

September 8, 1934. Members of the Coast Guard rush to pull the surviving passenger Morro Castle out of the surf in Spring Lake, New Jersey, USA.

Ships in the area were reluctant to respond to the SOS signals, but as soon as the news reached the shore, people in small ships sailed into the raging waters to rescue the survivors.

The next morning, an empty, burning ship ran aground on a beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey, just a few hundred meters from the pier.

September 8, 1934 A temporary shelter was set up for survivors at the Spring Lake, New Jersey fire station.

September 9, 1934. Smoke from the burning middle part of the ship drifting towards the shore.

September 9, 1934 Morro Castle on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

September 9, 1934

September 12, 1934. Firefighters try to put out the still smoldering ship.

September 1934. New York Daily News photographer Larry Froeber returns to shore after falling through a smoldering deck while filming.

September 1934. Men board the ship to search for bodies.

Of the 549 passengers and crew on board, 86 passengers and 49 crew died.

While the smoldering ruin instantly became a tourist attraction, authorities launched an investigation.

The ship itself, as it turned out, was very vulnerable in the event of a fire. Virtually every surface was either covered with wood veneer or combustible paint. The fire doors were ineffective. The water supply system did not have enough pressure to run for more than a few minutes. The fire alarm was almost inaudible.

The reaction of the crew to the fire was inconsistent. Decision and.about. the captain's not leaving the bridge and supervising the firefighting process from there has been criticized. The passengers were not trained in emergency procedures, and only six of the twelve lifeboats were on board. Also, many considered the almost simultaneous death of the captain of the ship and the ship itself to be mystical.

September 9, 1934. Deck where passengers played shuffleboard and tennis.

September 9, 1934. Deluxe cabin on deck B.

September 9, 1934

Investigators found that many of the crew members were unhappy with the poor working conditions and that the captain was too unbalanced.

For a long time after the disaster, the focus was on George W. Rogers, the chief radio engineer. Rogers was hailed as a hero for being one of the few crew members to stay aboard the ship to help the passengers. At the same time, his colleagues found him strange and unsettling, and for good reason. He was fired from his previous job for stealing equipment, and he was also considered the prime suspect in a mysterious fire that broke out shortly before he boarded the Morro Castle.

After Morro Castle, Rogers opened a radio repair shop, but even here evil fate pursued him. His workshop also burned down under suspicious circumstances.

December 15, 1938. George W. Rogers holds his wife's hand after being sentenced to prison for attempting to assassinate his superior in the Bayon, New Jersey police department.

He then took a job with the Bayon Police Department as an assistant at a radio station. His boss, Lieutenant Vincent Doyle, began to suspect Rogers of involvement in numerous fires and began probing him with questions about Morro Castle.

In March 1938, Rogers installed a heater outside Doyle's aquarium. When Doyle turned it on, it exploded, nearly killing him.

Rogers was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 to 20 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1942 to pay his debt to his homeland in World War II, but few wanted to see him as a brother in arms.

In 1954, he was found guilty of killing a friend who had lent him money. He died in prison four years later.

December 20, 1934.

March 14, 1935. The burned-out ship is towed for scrapping, six months after the fire.

As a result, no evidence of Rogers' guilt was found. Some believe that Rogers poisoned the captain and started the fire. Others suggest that the death of the captain was pure coincidence, and Rogers was hired by the owner of the steamer to burn the ship and collect insurance.

Regardless of the cause, the fire led to tighter maritime safety standards, from the use of fire retardant materials and improved fire doors to more stringent crew and passenger training.

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In the world history of navigation, the tragic events associated with the fire on the American cruise ship"Morro Castle" in September 1934, stand alone. Among the disasters of passenger ships, this incident, it seems, does not fall into the number of outstanding ones - on the Titanic, Lusitania or Wilhelm Gustlov, thousands of people found a terrible death in the abyss (moreover, the gloomy list of "record holders" is far from being exhausted by the three mentioned ships ). However, unlike the vast majority of tragedies at sea, the story of what happened on the Morro Castle over the past seven decades has not only not received an exhaustive explanation, but, on the contrary, has become utterly confused.
It cannot be said that the history of "Morro Castle" was not known to the inhabitants of the Soviet Union. An emotional, albeit very tendentious article about the tragedy of this ship was published in the most popular magazine "Technology-Youth", this liner was talked about at shipbuilding institutes, citing as an example all sorts of engineering miscalculations and erroneous actions of the team in an emergency. However, as we shall see from what follows, such accusations are not entirely correct, and the very picture of the tragedy in its "Soviet edition" sins with bias and bears little resemblance to reality. The Soviet Agitprop, exposing the "kingdom of the almighty dollar", solved its ideological tasks, as always, cynically and rather clumsily.
Laid down in January 1929 at a shipyard in the US city of Newport News, the Morro Castle, like its twin Oriente, symbolized a real breakthrough in the field of passenger shipbuilding. The general designer of both ships, Theodore Ferris, based their project on a truly revolutionary concept - all passengers were to have cabins with portholes. If earlier even on the most luxury liners, hundreds of "third class" passengers were forced to huddle in miserable multi-seat cells of a smaller area than a railway compartment and, moreover, below the waterline, then according to Theodor Ferris's concept, all passenger cabins of the new ships were moved to the surface. It was an unprecedented step forward in the global cruise shipbuilding industry. The very concept of "classiness" now lost its meaning in many respects - instead of the classes "luxury", "first", "second", "third" and "without class", only two remained on the "Morro Castle" and "Orient" - "first" and "tourist". The difference between them was reduced only to the area of ​​​​the premises, while the equipment of the cabins was almost identical. On the one hand, the ships did not have the flashy luxury of "luxury" rooms, and on the other, the shameful wretchedness of the "third" class disappeared. The passenger cabins were designed in the style of minimalism, typical for the interior design of the 1920s. of the last century, the furniture was comfortable, functional, white color prevailed in the design of passenger rooms. Some of the first class cabins had baths, some did not. Although the American press immediately dubbed both ships "millionaires' yachts", such a name was hardly fair - "Morro Castle" and "Oriente" turned out to be very democratic, balanced in their accessibility to the entire range of services offered, convenient and comfortable. All the trappings of glamorous cruising life - gym, swimming pool, mini-golf course, restaurants, bars and ballrooms on three decks - were equally available to all passengers. On the same dance floor, a billionaire and the most ordinary stenographer could meet. Moreover, they even had cabins on the same deck.

"Morro Castle" at the moment of launching. A very good photo that allows you to see the relative position of the passenger decks: "A" (aka boat), "B" (promenade, so named due to the presence of glazed galleries on both sides), "C" and "D" with developed balconies in the aft parts. Below deck "D" were three more decks, one of which (deck E) had a small number of the cheapest passenger cabins. The "passenger" and "service" zones of the ship were strictly demarcated, mutual passage from one zone to another was prohibited and was possible only with the approval of senior officers who had the keys to the corresponding doors. We will have to talk about this design feature of the Morro Castle - it is very important for a correct understanding of the tragic events that occurred on board the ship in the autumn of 1934.

With a length of 155 m and a displacement of 11,520 tons, the Morro Castle developed a speed of 20 knots (37-38 km / h). The ship was not originally conceived as transatlantic liner, and therefore he did not need to achieve high speed at all. "Morro Castle" was to be operated on Caribbean routes, the average duration of which did not exceed a week. The ship had the most advanced turbo-electric propulsion system for that time: turbo-generators fed by boilers generated voltage from which electric motors were powered, which directly rotated propeller shafts. This scheme was considered economical in terms of fuel consumption, significantly improved maneuverability in all modes of travel and controllability of the vessel, and at the same time significantly reduced the noise and vibration of the propulsion system at full speed. The latter was especially important in terms of passenger comfort.

Photo on the left: a painting depicting "Morro Castle" in the open ocean (the author, unfortunately, is unknown). Photo on the right: "Oriente" - a complete twin of "Morro Castle" - in the parking lot in Havana. A beautiful photograph that allows you to judge the size and proportions of the liner. Agree, you can admire such a ship!

The nominal capacity of the ship was 489 passengers of both classes and 240 people. commands. "Morro Castle" went into operation in August 1930 (only a little more than a year and a half after the laying), and its counterpart "Oriente" - in December of the same year. Both ships were owned by the large American shipping company Ward Line, which had existed since 1841.
It was decided to use the ship on the New York-Havana-New York line. Morro Castle set off on her first commercial voyage on August 23, 1930, covering the distance to Havana in 59 hours. This was not a record, the larger Mauritania, for example, once "went to Havana" in less than 50 hours, but we repeat, speed records were not at all the goal of the designers, builders and owners of Morro Castle. The latter was positioned as a new word in the established tradition of marine recreation, and that is why the interest in the liner was huge. Upon the arrival of "Morro Castle" in Havana, representatives of the "Ward Line" company arranged a solemn reception, to which not only the passengers of the first flight were invited, but also the first persons of the state, among them - Cuban President Gerardo Machado y Morales.
Morro Castle tours quickly became popular among Americans. The reasons for this popularity we will have to deal with in this essay especially - they are not as obvious as one might think at first - but it was officially believed that people were attracted to the Morro Castle by the comfort and availability of services. The cheapest 6-day tour in a "tourist" class cabin cost only $65, and this, mind you, includes a replenished minibar! A regular "first" class tour cost about twice as much - $ 125, and a cabin with a bathroom another $ 65 more. But the latter was already a full-fledged housing area of ​​​​15 sq.m. By American standards, it was quite inexpensive, especially if we take into account the replenished minibar in each cabin (we must not forget that until December 1933 the "dry law" was in force in the United States, which, however, immediately ended behind the customs control line and did not acted on board the ship). Thanks to a reasonable pricing policy, Morro Castle and Oriente surprisingly well endured all the hardships of the "Great Depression" and downturns in consumer activity.

Morro Castle had everything you need to drink, get drunk, exercise, have sex... and drink again... and get drunk again. From left to right: dining room in the bow saloon (aka restaurant), gym, dance floor on deck C (photos from the advertising brochure of the company "Ward-line").

The advanced construction and modern design of the ships were perfectly combined with excellent seaworthiness. The latter were especially pronounced during the famous storm in mid-September 1933, during which the Morro Castle met with a giant killer wave about 20 m high. Such waves are very rare and for a long time stories about them were perceived only as sea tales, causing skepticism even experienced sailors. Nevertheless, such anomalous waves do exist and a meeting with a killer wave can destroy even a very large ship (now space satellites are involved in their timely detection, capable of scanning large areas of the sea surface and the necessary selection in automatic mode). On September 16, 1933, the killer wave hit the port side of the Morro Castle, passed over it and went further into the ocean, tearing off the bow mast with a radio antenna. The impact of the wave broke part of the glazing of the promenade deck and several hundred tons of water got inside the ship. In the passenger cabins on decks B and C, the water was ankle-deep, their inhabitants numbering about 140 people. in search of a dry place, they gathered in the aft saloon. Cheerfulness and calmness of tourists was supported by one of the passengers, Gwendolyn Taylor, who played classical works on the piano for many hours. Gwendolyn's self-control was especially noted by the captain of the ship, Robert Wilmott, who told reporters about the events on the ship during the storm. Wilmott himself remained on the bridge for more than three days, until the Morro Castle passed the storm zone. Although the storm delayed the ship's arrival from the cruise by two days and caused some damage, it must be admitted that the Morro Castle successfully passed the test of the elements and demonstrated excellent strength and buoyancy.
This September storm did a pretty good job of shaping the image of the Ward-Line company, whose representatives could now advertise their cruises not only as exotic and romantic, but also completely safe.
In general, summing up brief digression in the history of the creation and operation of the Morro Castle and its counterpart Oriente, we can say that these ships were in demand and brought their owners a good profit.

This continued until September 7, 1934, when tragic events claimed the lives of dozens of people and forever secured the Morro Castle's place in the world history of maritime disasters. That day the ship was en route from Havana to New York. The flight - the 174th in a row - was safely approaching its completion, which was supposed to follow in the early morning of September 8th.
On the evening of September 7, the captain of the ship, Robert Wilmott, who had commanded the liner since its construction, did not come out for dinner. I must say that the tradition of the company "Ward Line" ordered the captains of the ships to invite the most famous or interesting passengers to their table - according to the management, this strengthened the company's reputation as democratic and attentive to customer requests. On the evening of September 7, for the last dinner before arriving in New York, the newlyweds Sydney and Dolly McTigue (McTigue) were invited to the captain's table, but the captain's place remained unoccupied - Wilmott pleaded unwell and did not leave the cabin.

Newlyweds Sydney and Dolly McTiggy, returning from their honeymoon, were supposed to dine at the captain's table on the evening of September 7, 1934. However, they never saw the captain. The story of the McTiggy couple aroused considerable interest among newspapermen for two reasons - because of its happy end and the possible awareness of the newlyweds about the hidden background of the captain's actions. However, hopes for the latter did not materialize, Sydney and Dolly had no idea what exactly and why happened to Captain Wilmott.

At 20:45, the officer of the watch, Howard Hanson, called the captain's cabin and asked if he would like to have dinner brought to him? Wilmott refused and, as soon as it turned out, called the ship's doctor, Dewitt Van Zile, in turn. His request turned out to be intimate, but still quite trivial - Wilmott asked the doctor to prepare a laxative enema. The captain was constipated and Van Zile knew better than anyone how to help him. After about 10-15 minutes, the steward went with an enema to the captain's cabin, but no one opened it for him. This caused bewilderment and some commotion, the steward turned to the officer on duty and at 21:12 Howard Hanson, in the presence of Chief Officer William Warms, unlocked the door of the captain's cabin with spare keys. An extremely unpleasant sight opened up to those who entered - the captain was lying with a blue face in the bathroom and showed no signs of life. Pants and underpants lowered to the ankles indicated his intention to sit on the toilet, located right next to the bathroom, but apparently, having lost his balance, the captain rolled over the side of the bathroom and landed his head in its cast-iron rim. It was difficult to determine the extent of his injury by eye, but it seemed that he was no longer breathing.
The ship's doctor was immediately called to the cabin. Dr. Van Zile quickly determined that there was no one to provide medical assistance - Wilmott was dead. According to the ship's doctor, the cause of death was a seizure. How serious the injury could be when the captain fell into the bath and whether it could affect the onset of death, the doctor could not say - this required examining the corpse in the morgue and taking x-rays. During the transfer of the body from the bathroom to the bed, Worms and Hanson independently noticed the captain's strange bluish complexion, Hanson later expressed himself very figuratively about what he saw: "the face turned black before the eyes." The appearance of the corpse seemed so strange to those present that Hanson asked the doctor if the death was caused by poisoning. Van Zile replied that similar symptoms are observed in people who have died from acute heart failure or a heart attack, and he does not see anything like poisoning. However, the doctor agreed that the death of the 55-year-old captain required special investigation and there was work for the coroner. However, before arriving in New York, there were already a few hours left, and there both the coroner and the forensic doctor could board the Morro Castle.
While the officers were busy in the captain's cabin (in addition to carrying the corpse, they also tidied up the clothes of the deceased), Eban Abbot, the ship's chief engineer, appeared on the threshold. He still did not know anything about the death of Captain Wilmott, the purpose of his visit was purely business - one of the boilers of the main power plant and the captain's permission was required to turn it off. William Worms, as taking command of the ship, allowed Abbott to turn off the boiler and, to compensate for the drop in power (and, as a result, a decrease in speed), ordered to reduce the water pressure for domestic consumers. Now no one on the Morro Castle could take a shower, the pressure of the water was barely enough for it to flow in a thin stream.
It was the first order from the new captain. As we shall see from what follows, it had fatal consequences...
Finally, all the officers present in the captain's cabin, as well as the doctor and the steward, left it. It happened at about 21:30, perhaps a little later.
However, the people did not disperse. For a short time they moved to the cabin of the senior officer William Worms, located next to the captain's. The steward served whiskey, those present drank for the dead, each saying a few words, which he considered appropriate to the moment. Everyone was struck by the phrase of Dr. Van Zile, uttered with a strange smile that did not fit the tragic moment. The ship's doctor was surprisingly flippant and even cynical, saying something along the lines of "Who's going to be next?" This moment was subsequently recalled independently by everyone who heard the doctor - it sounded painfully strange and ominous. Van Zile's remark acquired a special meaning in the context of his own imminent death, which had a rather unusual character, which we will have to say more about.
Some time later, the ship's broadcast announced the sudden death of Captain Wilmott, followed by an appeal to the passengers as a sign of respect for the deceased to refrain from fun and entertainment that evening. In the bars and restaurants on all decks, the music stopped, the attendants began to see the visitors out. Usually the last day of the cruise was always the craziest - no one went to bed, people finally had a break as they could and knew how. Therefore, not everyone obeyed the request to remain silent. Although the bars and restaurants were closed, groups of passengers with bottles of rum and whiskey in their hands settled into chairs and sun loungers in the promenade galleries along both sides of the B deck, where they continued to drink. The stewards kept order and tried to reason with the loudest tourists, but this did not always work. Even the rising roughness of the ocean and seasickness couldn't stop some of the merry fellows from getting drunk on the last night of the cruise. For others, the last hours of life were passing and, thinking about it, it is difficult to refrain from the essentially mystical conclusion - disrespect for someone else's death sometimes predetermines one's own.

Photo from the advertising booklet of the company "Ward-line". On wide, like a street passage, glazed promenades along both sides of deck B were placed sun loungers and passengers could admire the view of the ocean. It was possible to make an order and the stewards from the nearest bar brought drinks. And it wasn't always milkshakes...

From the moment the captain's death was declared, his assistant, senior officer William Worms, became the main person on the ship. Professionally, this man was hardly inferior in anything to the deceased captain. Worms had 4 years more sailing experience than Wilmott, and in addition, he was the owner of a New York port pilot's certificate, which the deceased did not have. Thanks to this, the Morro Castle could enter New York Harbor without standing in line waiting for a pilot. William Worms has several times been the captain of various ships, but each time he was removed from his post at the request of the ship inspection of the US Department of Commerce for flagrant violations of ship operation and safety regulations. Worms came to Morro Castle less than a year ago, just after the famous storm, which was described above. His very first actions as first mate provoked a serious scandal, but this specific topic will have to be considered in more detail elsewhere.
Worms reacted very responsibly to the burden that had fallen on his shoulders and first of all called the treasurer to the bridge. He dictated to him an order on his own assumption of the position of captain and ordered to make appropriate changes to the ship's list (a summary list of all persons on board the ship, indicating the position held). After that, the newly-made captain made a radiogram to the Ward-Line head office, in which he reported on the events of the last hours and assumed the duties of the captain of the ship. The radiogram was immediately broadcast.
On the night of September 7-8, Worms decided not to go to bed at all, especially since the wind was getting stronger and reached a speed of 15 m / s by midnight, and in the New York area the liner could fall into the band of an 8-point storm. This decision of William Worms should be addressed Special attention, because very soon accusations of almost all mortal sins will fall on the head of this person.
Somewhat later - at 2 am - the captain released Howard Hanson from the bridge, the latter's watch had long ended, but the excitement associated with the events of the last hours still did not allow the officer to go to bed. Worms told him to rest, admonishing him with the words: "If you can't sleep at all, you can make a detour on the promenade deck, see if everyone has calmed down there." Hanson went around... By a strange twist of fate, this man found himself at the very epicenter of the sinister events that took place on board the ship, so his memories of the events of that night are especially important.
So, around 02:15, Howard left the pilothouse and moved along the promenade deck on the port side to the stern. Outside, rain lashed and the wind howled, but it was warm and dry here - huge windows covered the deck, wide as a street passage. At the far end of it, a company was entertaining, skimping on the declared mourning - several men and women drank alcohol and laughed out loud. Not far from them were several stewards, who watched the actions of the revelers, not without condemnation, but did not interfere in what was happening. After making sure that the situation was under control and that the drunks were under proper supervision, Howard passed the company and ended up at the very end of the promenade deck, after which he turned left and found himself inside the superstructure on deck B.
There he smelled a burning smell. The officer quickly established that the source of the smell was located in the so-called. "room for stationery". It was a special room in which passengers could sign a "cruise" postcard and postmark the post office "Morro Castle" on it. Upon arrival in Havana, a postcard could be sent to any addressee, even to oneself, thus leaving the memory of an exotic voyage for life. It is clear that these same writing materials were kept in the writing room - large bundles of writing paper, reams of postcards, pens, ink, etc. In general, there was a lot of flammable material there. And that's not to mention chairs, tables, carpet on the floor, wood paneling on the walls and fabric curtains on two windows.