SS ''Morro Castle'' was an American

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

that caught fire and ran aground on the morning of September 8, 1934, en route from

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Republic of Cuba, to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States, with the loss of 137 passengers and crew. On the previous evening, ''Morro Castle''s captain, Robert Willmott, had died suddenly, and his place was taken by Chief Officer William Warms as a strong northeast wind was developing under heavy cloud. At 2:50am, a fire was detected in a storage locker, which burned through electrical cables, engulfed the ship in flames and plunged it into darkness. Responses by the crew, the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

and rescue vessels were notably slow and inefficient, with lifeboats not loaded to their capacity. The decks were too hot to stand on, smoke made breathing difficult and passengers were forced to leap into ocean swells where swimming was impossible. By mid-afternoon ''Morro Castle'' was abandoned and the survivors were landed on the shores of

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

by an assortment of craft. The cause of the fire was never established, though an overheated funnel and certain points of cabin design and electrical circuitry were noted. A theory of

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

by a crew member has attracted support over the years, albeit without any concrete evidence. The high casualties are chiefly blamed on the crew's incompetent handling of the emergency.

Building

On May 22, 1928, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

passed the Merchant Marine Act of 1928, creating a $250 million construction fund to be lent to American shipping companies to replace old and outdated ships with new ones. Each of these loans, which could subsidize as much as seventy-five percent of the cost of the ship, was to be paid back over twenty years at low

interest rates An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, ...

. One company that availed itself of this opportunity was the New York and Cuba Mail Steam Ship Company, better known as the Ward Line, which had been carrying passengers, cargo and mail to and from

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

since the mid-19th century.

Naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture by occupation Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's rol ...

s were hired by the Ward Line to design a pair of passenger liners to be named ''Morro Castle'', after the stone fortress and lighthouse in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Oriente'', after Cuba's Oriente Province. At the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, work was begun on ''Morro Castle'' in January 1929. In March 1930 the ship was christened, followed in May by her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

''Oriente''. Each ship was long, measured and had turbo-electric transmission, with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

twin

turbo generator A turbo generator is an electric generator connected to the shaft of a turbine (water, steam, or gas) for the generation of electric power. Large steam-powered turbo generators provide the majority of the world's electricity and are also u ...

s supplying current to propulsion motors on twin

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

shafts. Each ship was luxuriously finished to accommodate 489 passengers in first and tourist class and 240 officers and crew. In a growing age of passenger ships having cruiser sterns, ''Morro Castle'' and ''Oriente'' were built with classic counter sterns. As built, ''Morro Castle'' was equipped with

direction finding Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a naturall ...

and submarine signalling equipment. Submarine signalling was becoming obsolete as a form of communication, so by 1934 it had been removed. That same year,

echo sounding Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth (coordinate), depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and ...

equipment and a

gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical Direction (geometry), direction automaticall ...

had been installed on the ship.

Career

''Morro Castle'' began her maiden voyage on August 23, 1930. She lived up to expectations by completing the 1,100+ mile southbound trip in just under fifty-nine hours, and the return trip took only fifty-eight hours. Over the next four years, ''Morro Castle'' and ''Oriente'' performed as workhorses, rarely out of service and, despite the worsening of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, able to maintain a steady clientele. Their success was in part due to

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, as such trips provided a relatively affordable and (more importantly) legal means for customers to partake in

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

. The Ward Line's reasonable rates attracted Cuban and American businessmen and older couples, making the ships a microcosm of America during the period.

Final voyage

Impending nor'easter

The final voyage of ''Morro Castle'' began in Havana on September 5, 1934. On the afternoon of September 6, as the ship paralleled the southeastern coast of the U.S., it began to encounter increasing clouds and wind. By the morning of September 7, the clouds had thickened and the winds had shifted to easterly, the first indication of a developing

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below) is a large-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. Typically, such storms originate as a low ...

. Throughout that day the winds increased and intermittent rains began, causing many to retire early to their berths.

Captain's death

Early that evening,

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Robert Rennison Willmott had his dinner delivered to his quarters. Shortly thereafter, Willmott complained of stomach trouble and, not long afterward, died of an apparent

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

. Command of the ship passed to the chief officer, William Warms, who was eating dinner with friends Samuel Hicks and Connor Schmutz at the time. During the overnight hours, the winds increased to over thirty miles per hour as ''Morro Castle'' plodded its way up the East Coast.

Fire

At around 2:50 a.m. on September 8, while ''Morro Castle'' was sailing around eight

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s off Long Beach Island,

, a fire was detected in a storage locker within the First Class Writing Room on B Deck. Within the next thirty minutes, the ship became engulfed in flames. As the fire grew in intensity, Acting Captain Warms attempted to

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

the ship, but the growing need to launch lifeboats and abandon ship forced him to give up his plan. Within twenty minutes of the fire's discovery (at about 3:10) the fire had burned through ''Morro Castle''s main electrical cables, plunging the ship into darkness. As all power was lost, the radio stopped working, so only a single

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

signal was sent. At about the same time, the wheelhouse lost its ability to steer the ship, as the hydraulic lines were severed by the fire as well. Cut off by the fire amidships, passengers tended to move toward the stern. Most crew members, on the other hand, moved to the

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...

. In many places, the deck boards were hot to the touch and breathing was difficult in the thick smoke. As conditions grew steadily worse, the decision became either "jump or burn" for many passengers. However, jumping into the water was problematic, as high winds churned up great waves that made swimming extremely difficult. Passengers and crew exhibited the full range of reactions to the disaster at hand. Some crew members were incredibly brave as they tried to fight the fire. Others tossed deck chairs and life rings overboard to provide persons in the water with makeshift flotation devices. Only six of the ship's twelve lifeboats were launched: boats 1, 3, 5, 9, and 11 on the

starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...

side, and boat 10 on the port side. Although the combined capacity of these boats was 408, they carried only 85 people, most of whom were crew members. Many passengers died for lack of knowledge of how to use the life preservers. As they hit the water, life preservers knocked many persons unconscious, leading to subsequent death by drowning, or broke victims' necks from the impact, killing them instantly.

Rescue efforts at sea

First responders were slow to react. The first rescue ship to arrive on the scene was ''Andrea F. Luckenbach''. Two other ships—'' Monarch of Bermuda'' and ''City of Savannah''—were slow in taking action after receiving the SOS signal but eventually did arrive on the scene. The fourth ship to participate in the rescue operations was , which launched a

motorboat A motorboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine; faster examples may be called "speedboats". Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the inter ...

that made a cursory circuit around ''Morro Castle'' and, upon seeing nobody in the water along her route, retrieved her motorboat and left the scene. The

vessels and positioned themselves too far away to see the victims in the water and rendered little assistance. The Coast Guard's aerial station at

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

, failed to send their float planes until local radio stations started reporting that dead bodies were washing ashore on New Jersey beaches, from Point Pleasant Beach to Spring Lake. In time, additional small boats arrived on the scene. Large ocean swells presented a major problem, making it very difficult to see people in the water. A plane piloted by Harry Moore,

governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The ...

and commander of the New Jersey Air National Guard, helped boats to find survivors and bodies by dipping its wings and dropping markers.

Recovery efforts on shore

As telephone communication and radio stations spread news of the disaster along the New Jersey coast, local citizens assembled on the coastline to assist the injured, retrieve the dead and try to unite families that had been scattered among different rescue boats that landed on the beaches. By mid-morning, ''Morro Castle'' was totally abandoned and its burning hull drifted ashore, coming to a stop late that afternoon in shallow water off

Asbury Park Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 15,188, a dec ...

, at almost the exact spot where the '' New Era'' had wrecked in 1854. Fires continued to smolder on board for the next two days and, in the end, 135 passengers and crew (out of a total of 549) were lost. ''Morro Castle'' was declared a total loss, and its charred hulk was finally towed away from the Asbury Park shoreline on March 14, 1935. According to one account, it later started settling by the stern and sank while being towed and had to be refloated. (Other accounts have it that the ship was towed without any issues). Regardless, it was towed to Gravesend Bay and then to

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

on March 29, 1935, where it was scrapped. In the intervening months, because of its proximity to the Asbury Park Boardwalk and the adjacent Asbury Park Convention Hall pier, from which it was possible to wade out and touch the wreck with one's hands, the wreck was treated as a destination for sightseeing trips, complete with stamped penny souvenirs and postcards for sale. Originally published in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

,'' November 17, 1934.

Factors contributing to the fire

The design of ''Morro Castle'', the materials used in her construction and questionable crew practices escalated the on-board fire to a roaring inferno that would eventually destroy the ship.

Construction materials

As far as the materials used in her construction were concerned, the elegant but highly flammable decor of ''Morro Castle''—veneered wooden surfaces and glued ply paneling—helped the fire to spread quickly.

Ship's structure and lack of safety features

The structure of ''Morro Castle'' also created a number of problems. Although the ship had fire doors, there existed a wood-lined, six-inch opening between the wooden ceilings and the steel bulkheads which provided the fire with a flammable pathway that bypassed the fire doors, enabling it to spread. Whereas the ship had electric sensors that could detect fires in any of the ship's staterooms, crew quarters, offices, cargo holds and engine room, there were no such detectors in the ship's lounges, dance hall, writing room, library, tea room or dining room. Although there were forty-two water hydrants on board, the system was designed with the assumption that no more than six would ever have to be used at any one time. When the emergency aboard ''Morro Castle'' occurred, the crew opened virtually all working hydrants, dropping the water pressure to unusable levels everywhere. The ship's Lyle gun, which is designed to fire a line to another ship to facilitate passenger evacuation in an emergency, was stored over ''Morro Castle's'' writing room, which is where the fire originated. The Lyle gun exploded just before 3 a.m., further spreading the fire and breaking windows, thereby allowing the near gale force winds to enter the ship and fan the flames. Finally, fire alarms on the ship produced a "muffled, scarcely audible ring", according to passengers.

Crew practices and deficiencies

Crew practices and deficiencies added to the severity of the fire. According to surviving crewmen, painting the ship had been a common practice to keep it looking new and to keep crewmen busy. Unfortunately, the thick layers of paint that resulted from this practice made the ship more flammable and strips of paint broke off during the fire, helping to spread the flames. The storage locker in which the fire started held blankets that had been drycleaned using contemporaneous technology, which utilized flammable fluids. Although the ship had fire doors, their automatic trip wires (designed to close when a certain temperature was reached) had been disconnected. None of the crew thought to operate them manually at the time of the fire. That said, it is unlikely that that would have made much difference, as the six-inch opening between the wooden ceilings and the steel bulkheads would have allowed the flames to spread even if the fire doors had closed. Many of the hose stations on the promenade deck had been recently deactivated in response to an incident about a month before, when a passenger slipped on a deck moistened by a leaking hose station and sued the Ward Line. Although regulations required that fire drills be held on each voyage, only the crew members participated. Captain Willmott did not require the passengers to attend the fire drills out of fear of inconveniencing them. For quite some time after the discovery of the fire, the ship continued on its course and speed—pointed directly into the wind. This no doubt helped to fan the fire. Later, in their attempt to reach passengers in some suites, crewmen broke windows on several decks, allowing the high winds to enter the ship and hasten the fire's fury. Because the wireless operators could not get a definitive answer from Acting Captain Warms, the SOS was not ordered until 3:18 and was not sent until 3:23. Within five minutes, the intense heat of the fire began to distort ''Morro Castle''s signal. Shortly thereafter, emergency generators failed and transmissions ceased.

Aftermath

Inquiries

In the inquiries that followed the disaster, there were criticisms of the response of Warms' handling of the ship, the crew's response to the fire and the delay in calling for assistance. The inquiries concluded that there was no organized effort by the crew to fight and control the fire or close the fire doors. Additionally, the crew made no effort to take their regular fire stations. Most damning was the conclusion that, with a few notable exceptions, the crew made no effort to direct passengers to safe pathways to the boat deck. For many passengers, their only course of action was to lower themselves into the water or jump overboard. The few lifeboats that were launched carried primarily crewmen and no efforts were made by these boats to maneuver toward the ship's stern to pick up additional survivors. Warms never left the wheelhouse to determine the extent of damage and maintained the ship's bearing and full speed for some distance after the fire was known. As systems failed throughout the ship because of power loss, no effort was made to use the emergency steering gear or emergency lighting. Warms,

chief engineer A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...

Eban Abbott and Ward Line vice president Henry Cabaud were eventually indicted on various charges relating to the fire, including willful negligence; all three were convicted and sent to jail. However, an appeals court later overturned Warms' and Abbott's convictions, deciding that a fair amount of the blame could be attributed to the deceased Captain Willmott. In the inquiry that followed the disaster, Chief Radio Operator George White Rogers was made out to be a hero because, having been unable to get a clear order from the bridge, he sent a distress call of his own accord amidst life-threatening conditions. However, suspicion was later directed at Rogers when he was convicted of attempting to murder a colleague in the

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Gateway Region on Bergen Neck, a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York ...

, police force with an incendiary device. Additionally, his crippled victim, Vincent "Bud" Doyle, spent the better part of his life attempting to prove that Rogers had set the ''Morro Castle'' fire. In 1954, Rogers was convicted of murdering a neighboring couple for money, and died three and a half years later in prison.

Liability claims

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported the end of the inquiry on March 27, 1937, with an order by Federal Judge John C. Knox affixing liability at $890,000, an average of $2,225 per victim. About half the claims were for deaths. The order reportedly included agreement by 95% of the claimants. The order also barred further claims against the Ward Line and its subsidiary, the Agwi Navigation Company, operators of the vessel. Several months' work remained in deciding each claim individually by the lawyer members of the Morro Castle Committee. Damages were fixed under the Death on the High Seas Act.

Causes

Officially, the fire's cause was never determined. In the mid-1980s,

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

aired a televised dramatization of the fire in an episode of their ''Catastrophe'' series, titled "The Mystery of the Morro Castle". The dramatization starred

John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He rose to prominence in television before becoming an acclaimed and popular film actor. Goodman has received List of awards and nominations received by John Goodman, various acc ...

as George Rogers and blamed Rogers for causing the fire. In 2002, A&E produced a television documentary about the incident. Both the HBO dramatization and the A&E documentary reawakened speculation that the fire was actually

committed by a crew member. Other theories included a

short circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) is an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit ...

in the wiring that passed through the rear of the locker, the spontaneous combustion of chemically treated blankets in the locker or an overheating of the ship's one functioning funnel, situated just aft of the locker. William McFee, a well-known writer of sea stories who had served as an engineer on oil-fired steamers, wrote in 1949 that "if the burners were neglected... helong uptakes which lead from the furnaces to the funnel would become dangerously overheated", as he once found on another ship, whose "funnel was glowing red-hot just above the uptakes". ''Morro Castle''s funnel was clad in flammable material where it passed through the passenger quarters, and several people had noticed smoke as early as midnight. The ship was making 19 knots against a 20-knot

headwind A tailwind is a wind that blows in the direction of travel of an object, while a headwind blows against the direction of travel. A tailwind increases the object's speed and reduces the time required to reach its destination, while a headwind has ...

and simply overheated, according to McFee, but the high loss of life was caused by the crew's incompetent handling of the emergency. Renée Méndez Capote, a Cuban writer who was aboard ''Morro Castle'' when the tragedy happened, was trapped in her cabin as the ship became engulfed in flames but was rescued by crew members. Because of her corpulence, she had to be removed through a hatch. American steward Carol Prior gave Capote his flotation device, thereby saving her life. Upon her arrival in

, she was interviewed by the American press. Because she expressed sympathy with the Cuban communist party, Capote was accused of being a "

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

agitator" who was responsible for destroying the ship. Capote later declared, “That fire is—undoubtedly—the worst memory I've ever had."

Burials

Some victims of the fire are buried in the Mount Prospect Cemetery in Neptune, New Jersey, along the coast.Alt URL
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Call sign

The ''Morro Castle''s radio

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

, KGOV, is still registered to the ship by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

nearly ninety years after her demise, and is therefore unavailable for use by terrestrial broadcast stations.

Memorial

On September 8, 2009, the first and only memorial to the victims, rescuers and survivors of the ''Morro Castle'' disaster was dedicated on the south side of Convention Hall in Asbury Park, very near the spot where the burned-out hull of the ship finally came aground. The day marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the disaster. ''Morro Castle'' ship's bell is now at SUNY Maritime's Fort Schuyler.

Anchor

In September 2023, ''Morro Castles five-ton Baldt anchor was recovered from the water in Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey.

In media and popular culture

In film and television

Despite the tragedy and mystery of the ''Morro Castle'' disaster, no film for theatrical distribution nor even a television movie was made of the story, excepting the aforementioned HBO dramatization and A&E documentary. Shortly after he was hired by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

following his emigration from Germany to the United States in 1934,

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

collaborated with Hollywood scriptwriter Oliver H. P. Garrett on a screenplay about the disaster entitled ''Hell Afloat'', but it was never filmed. However, there have been references to it: * Movietone News Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI0wWSEe3t0 * A fire aboard a ship making the New York-Cuba run, an evident allusion to the ''Morro Castle'', is shown in the film '' Exclusive Story'' (1936). * At the end of the

Spencer Tracy Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the ...

film ''

Dante's Inferno ''Inferno'' (; Italian for ' Hell') is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century narrative poem '' The Divine Comedy'', followed by and . The ''Inferno'' describes the journey of a fictionalised version of Dante himsel ...

'' (1935), a gambling cruise ship (resembling the ''Morro Castle'') is completely ablaze. * In the film ''Boy Meets Girl'' (1938),

James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and maj ...

(in dictating a letter to Pat O'Brien regarding what a third person is supposed to be saying to his missing wife) says, "I did not go down on the ''Morro Castle''!" * In the early moments of the film, '' Doomed to Die'' (1940, one of six Monogram releases featuring the fictional Mr. Wong), film footage of the burning ''Morro Castle'' is shown, although for the film's plot it is referred as the ''Wentworth Castle''. * An exploitative mention is also made in the detective film '' The Man Who Wouldn't Die'' (1942): one suspect was assumed to have perished on this ship but survived, unbeknownst to another. * The movie '' Minstrel Man'' (1944) features the fire and sinking of the ''Morro Castle''. * In the film ''The World Was His Jury'' (1958), Edmond O'Brien portrays an attorney defending a ship's first officer on trial for negligence after the ocean liner he has taken command of (following the sudden death of the original captain during the voyage) burns to a hulk off NY/NJ, killing a great many passengers. Most of the case's points closely mirror those of the ''Morro Castle''. * Newsreel footage of the disaster opens '' The Untouchables'' TV episode "The Underground Court", in which a fictitious character in the episode is an apparent survivor of the tragedy. * The sinking was featured in an episode of '' Mysteries at the Museum'' (2013). * The documentary ''The Cruise From Hell: The Burning of Morro Castle'' recreates the events the disaster, explaining the events up to the disaster, the subsequent fire, and aftermath and recovery.

In music

* The first artists to remember the tragedy of the ''Morro Castle'' were the members of the Trio Matamoros of Santiago de Cuba, with the song "El desastre del Morro Castle" (1934). * The ''Morro Castle'' disaster occurred when the musical '' Anything Goes'', a comedy set aboard an ocean liner, was about to open. Under the circumstances, the producers decided that going ahead would be in bad taste, and cancelled the opening. The musical was then subjected to several rewrites before finally opening later in 1934. * In 1970, the West Coast music critic Philip Elwood described the early

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

-led, and Asbury Park-based,

Steel Mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

as "the first big thing that's happened to Asbury Park since the good ship ''Morro Castle'' burned to the waterline of that Jersey beach in '34".

In literature

* The ship is referenced in

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's novel '' Murphy'', published in 1938. * The ship provided inspiration for William Burroughs' "Twilight's Last Gleamings", a version of which was published in his '' Nova Express''. *The ship is referenced in William H. Gass’s novel ''The Tunnel''. *The ship is the main focal point in Chanel Cleeton’s novel ''The Cuban Heiress''. *The ship disaster is covered in the article ''"Pleasure Cruise for 137 Corpses"'' "Sheldon Lord" ( Lawrence Block) published in REAL MEN November 1958.''The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines, May 2023''

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morro Castle, SS 1930 ships Maritime incidents in 1934 Ship fires Ships of the Ward Line Shipwrecks of the New Jersey coast Turbo-electric steamships 1934 in New Jersey Passenger ships of the United States