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A Handcrafted Tragedy: The Story of the SS Morro Castle

Tom Burley was having a busy night at work on September 8th 1934. As the radio station manager for WCAP out of Asbury Park, New Jersey it was his job to broadcast the goings on of the world in an accurate, timely manner and tonight there had been a great deal to report. At just after 7:30pm he moved to take a break from the strenuous evening when something caught his eye outside. Smoke, thick smoke, accompanied by a terrible red glow that defied the heavy rain pelting Convention Hall that night. It was headed directly for the building when 200 feet from shore there was a crash, screeching, and finally, and awful stillness with what looked like fire and brimstone blocking out Burley's office windows. As completely shocking as this was, Burley had an idea what he was looking at. He had been talking about it all night, a nightmare that only days before was a glittering paradise in the business of making dreams come true.

When she was new she was a marvel of both technology and luxury, crafted to withstand and protect, but also to inspire awe. The SS Morro Castle was built for the Ward Line of ocean vessels for the purpose of ushering vacationers between New York City and Havana,Cuba on excursions that were affordable while still promising memories to last a lifetime. The cruises ranged from $65 to $160 which made the vacationers range from students to professionals but once on board jobs and titles did not matter, everyone was treated equally. Passengers had their names printed on guest booklets and ornate invitations to the ships's many parties and special events. Stewards and pursers were on hand to carry out any task including being called on as dance partners or buying drinks off the $14 bar account they were each allotted specifically for that purpose. The surroundings were opulent in the styles of Italian Renaissance, Louis XVI era France, and grand old New York. Everything was shining, plush, crisp, sparkling, velveteen, velour, and varnish making everyone on board feel like they were the luckiest people in the world.

Morro Castle brochure (image from www.wardline.com)

One of the many staircases in the Morro Castle

The Morro Castle’s First Class Lounge

The Morro Castle Orchestra

The glamour was a rich coating for the bolts and steel holding it up and the Morro Castle was considered by some to be a structural marvel. She was constructed with a reshaped bow that would cut down on water resistance and streamlined rudders gave her the ability to travel at an unheard of 22 knots. Designer Theodore E. Ferris also designed a system of ducts that ran behind false wood panels allowing the Ward Line to advertise that the ship was "sea-cooled", a huge feature for passengers looking to escape the tropical air. The structure of the Morro Castle was unprecedented in terms of safety with the ship being built to the standards of the U.S. Navy. These specifications, while looking impressive, were not exclusively with the passengers in mind. In 1928 Congress had passed the Jones-White Act which offered shipping companies loans to build new liners provided that the ships would be built to specifications that would allow them to be quickly converted to warships or to be used for troop transport if needed. The ship was also built off the lessons of maritime disasters. As a result of the disaster of the Titanic the Morro Castle was built with nine watertight bulkheads and had enough lifeboats to accommodate 2,000 people, three times the amount of passengers it was designed to carry. The 1904 tragedy of the General Slocum ensured that the Morro Castle was equipped with fire detection technology with a web of tubes installed in the cargo hold, engine room, and staterooms that were used for smoke detection. One lesson that was not learned from the Titanic was not to exaggerate. The ship was advertised as being "the safest ship afloat" and it was claim that was proudly propagated by all members of the crew, especially the ship's captain, Captain Robert Renison Willmott, who could often be heard telling his passengers "There isn't a ship like her" and "you are safer on this ship than you are on 42nd Street and Broadway in New York.”

Captain Willmott had been with the Ward Line for over thirty years and he loved his job. After his appointment as captain of the Morro Castle his warm interaction with passengers and friendly demeanor elevated him to be yet another of the much anticipated attractions during the cruise. Travelers planned their vacations to make sure he was not away, they would meet him for drinks in his cabin and marvel at his many stories, and his entrance into the dining room every evening was a highly anticipated event. Eating at the captain's table for meals was a privilege and those lucky enough to grab a seat spent the time listening as Willmott told tales of his time at sea. One of his favorites was how a year earlier he had successfully brought the Morro Castle home after being trapped in a hurricane for two days. He showed everyone the watch he earned for the deed and would often comment how he and the ship were inseparable, their names were one in the same.

Captain Robert Renison Willmott

Wilmott was a beloved captain who loved his ship but on the evening of September 7th 1934 a very different man was sitting in the captain's quarters, one that had been warn down by a string of issues with other crew members on board. The truth was that while the ship was a paradise for passengers, working behind the scenes was an entirely different scenario. The Morro Castle was consistently understaffed and the staff that was there was paid only $35 a month. The food was poor quality, the living quarters were cramped, and beginning your day at 5:30am meant no break until 2pm and then enjoying only a small window of time before launching into evening meals and plans. Upon arriving back home in New York the crew had to fly into action with only seven hours in between docking and leaving again with a whole new set of vacationers. It was mandatory that the ship be ready to leave New York city by 4pm, it doubled as a cargo ship with a contract to carry all U.S. mail. Signing off the boat to visit family was highly discouraged and normally cost you your job, the Depression was fresh in many minds and there was always going to be someone else eager to take your place on board. Even those working on the Morro Castle with very specific tasks were told that when they were not busy they were required to mop floors and polish brass. Most employees stayed silent, but on August 4th 1934 second radio operator George I. Alagna had decided he had enough. He wrote up a petition about their workplace treatment but only ended up tearing it apart when he failed to get enough signatures to bring the issue to Willmott. Alagna did not know it but word of his petition had already reached Willmott, and he was not pleased. The captain immediately contacted the Radio Marine Corporation of America and demanded that Alagna be fired upon their next arrival back home. Willmott left the ship in New York expecting to be rid of the abrasive radio operator but when he returned to the Morro Castle just before departure he was met by a Radio Marine Corporation representative who had to inform him that they were unable to find another radio operator, that he was stuck with Alagna, but that Alagna also refused to work. After two hours of deliberation with the Ward Line Alagna was back on board with two targets on his back, one from the Ward Line and one from Willmott who believed he had a dangerously unstable man on board.

Willmott had taken to confiding his concerns with his Chief Radio Operator George White Rogers who had only joined the Morro Castle crew the previous July. Rogers was regarded by many as an odd man. Standing at 6'2" and weighing 250lbs, he was not easy to miss but Rogers avoided people and could not have cared less about the Morro Castle's luxury. He was confident in his work to the point of arrogance and he spent his spare time in his bunk reading. Alagna had grown increasingly hostile to the point that Willmott had spiraled into paranoia. On September 2nd he pulled Rogers into his quarters lamenting about Alagna, "What's the matter with that second operator of yours? I think the man is crazy." He informed Rogers that Alagna was to be fired upon returning to New York but begged Rogers not to say a word because he feared what would happen if Alagna found out. He gave Rogers the key to the emergency room of the ship and told him to make sure Alagna had no access to the radio equipment inside. Now on the evening of September 7th Willmott's paranoia about Alagna reached an all new high. Rogers had spoken to him earlier and reported that he found two bottles of sulfuric acid in the radio room, but that he had saved the day by throwing them overboard. Now speaking with his first officer William Warms, the captain was predicting sabotage, telling him he could not leave his cabin, and that he had to keep the doors locked because he feared Alagna would burst in and throw acid on him. Willmott confided to Warms "I am afraid something is going to happen tonight, I can feel it."

William Warms

Warms left the captain without informing him about his own bizarre encounter with Rogers earlier that day. Smiling suspiciously Rogers confronted Warms saying he requested to speak with Captain Willmott, something he did not have to ask for being a ship's officer. When Warms asked what he wanted to discuss Rogers only smiled more and refused to tell him saying "Best I tell the captain first.” Warms was not the only crew member keeping an odd encounter with Rogers from the captain, the other was George Alagna. Alagna was asleep in his bunk the night before when he was awakened by Rogers approaching him. Rogers reached into a box above Alagna's head and then presented him with two small bottles of liquid. Rogers grinned at Alagna and asked coyly "What are you going to do with these, George?" before strolling away. Alagna had no answer for him. He had never seen the bottles before and he knew for a fact that they were not in the box above his bunk before Rogers entered the room that night.

George White Rogers

Unaware of what was going on with the crew were the many dinner guests seated in the dining hall although they knew something was definitely off that evening. It was the last night of the of their cruise, the Captain's Ball, and their beloved Captain Willmott had yet to make an appearance at 9pm. The passengers did not know what was going on but truthfully, neither did the crew. First officer William Warms had discovered Willmott slumped over his bathtub dead at 7:45 that evening.

As members of the crew gathered in Willmott's cabin Warms took it upon himself to take control, an appointment that technically belonged to Chief Engineer Eban Abbot but which went unchallenged. Cruise director Bob Smith was given the unfortunate task of informing the dinner guests of the unfortunate news and informed them that out of respect for their deceased captain, all evening programs were cancelled. While vacationers branched off into private parties refusing to let their last night of vacation go to waste, Warms took position on the bridge of the Morro Castle and faced a difficult evening in front of him. Not only had his friend died unexpectedly but he was made aware that a hurricane was brewing south of them and they were heading directly into a nor'easter. In telling of his triumph of navigating the Morro Castle of of a hurricane Willmott had always joked that the only damaged sustained was "a few wet towels.” Warms could only hope he would have the same luck as his friend with these storms.

He could not have ever imagined what the upcoming hours would bring.

Rogers ended his shift in the radio room after what became a very busy evening by telling the 3rd radio operator Charles Maki that he was off to bed, but not before going for a little walk. He was one of the few people on board who was thinking of sleep with many still awake at their mini private soirees and others observing how much the winds were picking up around them. When a passenger approached steward Daniel Campbell asking about the smell of smoke just before 3am Campbell was not overly surprised. It was probably a cigarette thrown into a garbage can, no big deal. He walked into the First Class Lounge where the smell grew strong but only found some drunk passengers. He continued through the lounge to the doors ahead of him, one being the Library and the other being the Writing Room. It was inside the Writing Room where Campbell found smoke, lots of smoke, more smoke than could have come from a cigarette in a garbage bin. It was coming from the inside of a storage locker that normally held blankets, cleaning supplies, and paper. The handle was hot to the touch. Just as he opened the door Arthur Pender, a night watchman entered the Writing Room as well. He had seen the smoke coming out of a ventilation shaft and his investigation brought him to Campbell as he opened the locker door. Flames. Huge tongues of fire leaped from the inside of the locker launching themselves out to consume the fresh sea air. Campbell slammed the door shut and the men ran to alert the crew. Pender later said that what struck him was that the flames were not orange, they were blue, the telltale sign of a chemical fire.

The Writing Room of the Oriente (identical to the Morro Castle)

Within minutes the entire Writing Room was engulfed in flames and nearby crew were throwing buckets of water at the fire attempting to put it out with no luck. Not everyone on board was aware there was a catastrophe brewing. Warms walked into the ship's wheelhouse and casually ordered crew members to investigate the engine room to see if there were any problems. Alagna was woken from his sleep by the sounds of people screaming. As soon as he stepped out onto the deck he saw the horrifying glow and knew immediately what was wrong, the Morro Castle was burning up. He went back to the bunks and shook Rogers telling him there was a fire but he did not respond. Only when the 3rd radio announcer came in and softly said "Get up Chief, the ship's on fire" did Rogers suddenly spring from his bunk. Alagna ran to the radio room and was putting on his headset when Rogers burst into the room and shoved him aside taking the headset and telling Alagna to go to the bridge and get orders from Warms. Warms was giving orders, but they were still in the vein of telling crew members to go to the lounge and "take charge.” He had no idea how big the blaze had grown but the realty of the situation quickly hit him and Quartermaster Samuel Hoffman like a fright train. The Derby fire detection system on board was state of the art with a control panel with a small light representing each state room. If a room got over 160 degrees the light turned red and suddenly, all at once, the entire board went red. Smoke engulfed the entire ship and the port side was an inferno but still Warms was not worried, it had not even been fifteen minutes, there were multiple people fighting the fire, and he believed that the amount of smoke increased as fires were extinguished. Clearly the blankets of black air meant his crew was doing a good job. He could not have been more wrong. It was not until 3:05am that he sounded an alarm that went unheard by almost everyone. The only sounds were the screaming of passengers, the roaring of the flames, and the hurricane winds whipping the fire and smoke into an unstoppable force of destruction.

The scene on the decks of the Morro Castle was turmoil. Passengers in various stages of panic exited their cabins looking for an answer as to what to do next. Chief engineer Abbott dressed in his formal uniform and instructed crew members to go into the engine room and see what was going on while he went to the bridge. The chief engineer's primary job was to ensure that the engine room was running because it was the nerve center for the steering of the ship, the electricity, and the operation of the fire pumps. Instead, he headed to the bridge. Another crew member headed to the bridge was Alagna. He had attempted to get to Warms but could not get through the smoke so he returned to the radio room where Rogers sat defiant. Despite the ranging fire engulfing the ship, the heavy smoke, the thrashing winds, and the desperate chorus of screams Rogers flat out refused to send and S.O.S. signal until he got the official order from Warms to do so telling Alagna he had to "play by the rules.” On his second attempt Alagna reached Warms at the bridge and told him Rogers awaited his order. Warms remembered what Captain Willmott had told him about Alagna and all of the trouble he had caused so he opted to ignore him and stalked away without giving the official order. Alagna bolted back to the radio room and yelled at Rogers "They're a bunch of madmen up there!" Rogers calmly turned to Alagna and remarked "Cheer up, it'll turn up all right." Alagna's continued urging to do something about the fire was only met by Rogers telling him "We wait for orders. That's what the regulations say and that's what we'll do." It had been ten minutes since the alarm was sounded and there was still no S.O.S. signal sent. Alagna ran back toward the bridge.

Warms was finally having to admit to himself that the Morro Castle was not going to make it back to New York. The fire, smoke, water, turbulence, screaming, darkness, and paint being blown off the ship created an extremely grim picture for the acting captain but he decided the one thing he could do was try to reposition the ship to cut down on the wind feeding the flames. By now the steering and electricity were gone but he believed he could maneuver the propeller in a way to force the ship to turn. Alagna was back in Warm's ear begging for an order to give to Rogers when he suddenly asked if the Captain's body could be moved to a lifeboat. This request made no sense to Warms who believed Alagna was the man who murdered Willmott. Where was Abbot? The two men pawed through the smoke and found the chief engineer hunched over on the floor near the wheelhouse, wringing his hands and muttering to himself "What are we going to do?" over and over. It was moments later that the quartermaster yelled over at Warms to tell him his plan to turn the ship had failed during the attempt and now the ship was broadside with the wind allowing it to pour through the portholes and windows that had exploded from the heat. The new air only strengthened the fire consuming the ship, this was the worst case scenario.

When Alagna burst back into the radio room at 3:12am Rogers greeted him with an unbelievable message, that he had been sitting and listening to other ship’s communications asking about smoke and if anyone knew if a ship was on fire, but he never interrupted, never told them it was the Morro Castle, and still had not sent an S.O.S. signal. "They're asking about a fire" he said "but we have no orders.” He and Alagna wrapped wet towels over their heads and Alagna ran back out while Rogers continued to listen with his feet resting on the bottom rung of his chair. He could not put his feet on the floor, the heat was melting his shoes. Soon after the remaining electricity went out and the ship screamed into the darkness in response.

Names and pleading screams cut through the air trying to reach faces that could not possibly hear them. Walls of fire and smoke were everywhere, ribbons of paint flew through the air, dangerous winds pummeled the burning ship and people scrambled for a way off. For some it was hopeless, they were rendered blind by the smoke and the glue used on the decks was melting trapping some people to the burning ship by their bare feet. Many chose to jump into the thrashing ocean below thinking they might have better luck with water than with fire. Those lucky few that were able to secure life vests were not guaranteed safety, there were specific instructions on how to use them in each cabin that went unread by many. Unaware that you had to hold the vest down as you hit the water many were knocked unconscious and drowned when the vest hit their chins while others had their necks broken instantly.

A life vest from the Morro Castle sold by Kaminski Auctions

Alagna once again found Warms and begged for Roger's order but it was not until he told him that Roger's heard other ship communications about the possibility of a ship being on fire that he finally gave the official words to send an S.O.S. At 3:25am the signal went out and it was picked up by the Andrea S. Luckenbach and partially by the Monarch of Bermuda despite the intense heat interfering with the transmission signal. Batteries exploded, wires melted, and Rogers began to slip out of consciousness. It was 3:40am when Alagna, dragging the semi-conscious body of Rogers out of the radio room, made their way toward the wheelhouse where they saw Warms and and other crew members fleeing over the bridge to the forecastle, an area inaccessible to passengers. The wheelhouse had finally caught fire and before evacuating Warms set the engines to STOP and dropped the anchor. Alagna and Rogers could hear glass shattering and wood breaking all around them but were able to find a ladder to climb up to the forecastle and join Warms and a dozen other officers. Warms handed Rogers a flashlight and told him there was a ship out there and he should try to get their attention. Rogers flashed a quick S.O.S. and was answered by the Luckenbach asking if they needed assistance. Rogers signaled that they needed help immediately and the Luckenbach responded saying they would send ships. Rogers turned to everyone and declared "We'll all be safe soon. I got off the S.O.S."

As Warms, Alagna, Rogers, and the rest of the crew looked out before them they were greeted with a churning sea of horrors where water was replaced by bodies. The Morro Castle was equipped with enough lifeboats to carry 800 people, over 200 more people that were actually on the boat that night but where were they? What happened to them? Why were there so many heads bobbing in the waves? The widespread flames were partially to blame with many people not being able to get to some of the lifeboats through the fire. Other boats burned still attached to their rigging, others stuck together from the heat. The boats on the port side simply would not launch, some of the mechanisms were painted over during the last paint job preventing the boats from releasing. Some of the launching gear was constructed in a way so that the boats could only be lowered manually from a deck, a procedure put into place in order to avoid boats being launched in a panic. It was now an impossible task. The boats that could be seen were practically empty after being haphazardly launched and most of those on board were not paid passengers. Of the first ninety-eight people to escape on a lifeboat, ninety-two of them were members of the Morro Castle crew. Bodies bobbed in the frothy water while those still with breath grasped onto to them like life preservers, people clung desperately to ropes hanging off the side of the ship, passengers dived off of decks thirty feet in the air and fell like rain while other squeezed out of portholes to escape the fire. And yet, most of the lifeboats did not go back to help. One of the crew members moving away from the scene on a nearly empty lifeboat was Chief Engineer Abbot. Huddled at the foot of the boat he urged the rowers to move away from the burning ship, but said he could not help, that he had cut his hand.

One of the Morro Castle lifeboats making it to shore

Forty-five minuted after the Luckenbach was alerted and turned to help the Morro Castle other ships in the area began to contact it asking if they had reached the burning ship. They reported that they had, and help was desperately needed. The first boat to arrive at the disastrous scene was a 26ft surfboat from the Coast Guard stationed in Sea Girt, New Jersey and they were followed by the Luckenbach, the Monarch of Bermuda, the City of Savannah, the President Cleveland and several more boats from the Coast Guard arriving just after dawn. Throughout all the chaos George Rogers stood with the small cluster of crew members seeming almost pleased with his surroundings. Upon seeing someone preparing to jump he would slowly feign a reaction until they hit the water at which time he would say what a shame, he was just about to leap to their assistance. He repeatedly assured Alagna that they had nothing to worry about, they had kept their heads in the face of disaster. The scene was unprecedented but the rescuing ships worked quickly. They had to, the hurricane that had been in back of the Morro Castle was rapidly catching up to them. Meanwhile, the lifeboat carrying Abbott was approaching shore and when it finally hit the land Abbott warned everyone not to speak to the waiting reporters, "They would never understand.” He tore the insignia off of his uniform, marched up the beach and got into a waiting car which took him to the police.

At 8am the Coast Guard cutter Tampa arrived on the scene and asked Warms if he wanted the Morro Castle towed back to shore. The stand-in captain agreed and the rescuing crew began fighting off the now 12ft waves in order to attach a towline to the hollow and still burning shell. Suddenly, Warms realized that the ship could not be towed anywhere, he had dropped the anchor during his failed attempt to reposition against the winds. There was no power to raise it up. The chain was going to have to be cut. With each link being three inches thick and only having access to a small hacksaw, it was going to be a long project where time was quickly running out. Warms, Rogers, Alagna, and the crew took turns on the chain with Rogers gloating the entire time about his "heroic acts" and how God had singled them out for greatness. When he was not declaring himself a hero he would randomly ask about the fire, why had it spread so quickly? When night watchman Pender told him that the flamed he saw were blue indicating a deliberate chemical cause Rogers said "Guess I was too busy sending out the S.O.S. signal to notice the color of the flames." While the chain was being cut bodies continued to wash up on local beaches and be tossed into the waves. The captain of the Tampa was not aware there were still active rescues taking place and he was not informed of this for two hours after his arrival. Horrified, he quickly sent available boats out hoping it was not too late for some. The chain was finally broken at noon and it took another hour before the crew was loaded into the Tampa and the two ships began to move. Their time had run out, the second hurricane was upon them.

The second storm thrashed so wildly that all rescue attempts had to be called off at 2:30pm despite the fact that people were still washing up all along the edge of New Jersey. The Tampa was only two miles off the coast and they had to be extremely careful not to run aground while dragging the still-burning wreck of the Morro Castle behind them. On the journey back a doctor found Alagna and commented that the resting Rogers was in bed delirious, ranting, semi-conscious, and weak. This made no sense to Alagna who had just spent hours next to Rogers while he stalked about singing his own praises. Alagna entered the room and upon seeing him Rogers launched into rambling tirade about how "they are leaving everything to George and me" before dramatically pretending to pass out. Alagna left the room undoubtedly exhausted but the disaster was not over yet. At 6:12pm the towline dragging the Morro Castle snapped and wound itself around the propellers of the Tampa. There was no choice, the Tampa's anchor had to be dropped and as it stopped the people on board gazed out watching the Morro Castle drift away from them and out into the open storm with absolutely nothing to stop it.

News about the unbelievable disaster of the Morro Castle was all over the headlines and radio stations with people trying to desperately come up with answers, names of survivors, names of the dead, causes, and the fire of the ship quickly became part of everyone's thoughts. One person who had been covering the tragedy was Tom Burley of WCAP in Asbury Park. Before he went on break that night the glowing monster he saw coming out of the fog straight for him was none other than the ship he had been reporting on all day. The Morro Castle was charging at Convention Hall and Burley yelled into his microphone "My God! She's coming in right here!" before the ship hit a jetty 20 feet from shore, turning her sideways, and blocking Burley's windows in Convention Hall with the brightly burning, smoking, screaming side of the Morro Castle. Reporter Thomad Tighe witnessed the crash and described it as "She came toward the shore with fire belching from every porthole. With rain beating down in torrents and a northeast gale blowing, she was a ghost coming out of the night. Fire and smoke drove in sheets over Convention Hall as she came to rest.” The journey of the Morro Castle was finally over, and by the time it ended 134 people were dead.

On the morning of September 8th the Coast Guard arrived in Asbury Park, New Jersey and made their was to the wreck of the Morro Castle. They were not the only ones crossing the beach that day, overnight thousands and thousands of people gathered on the beach to view the still smoking skeleton of what had once been a thing of dreams. For five hours the Coast Guard searched the wreckage and were met with nothing but horror. Decks were strewn with furniture, clothing, purses, shoes, skeletons, and piles of soot that may have been a person only a day before. Some rooms were torched to the point that only black and white walls remained. When Coast Guard director R.W. Hodge touched a railing it burned his hand. By the afternoon the number of people viewing the ship reached nearly 100,000, guided by signs along all the main roads guiding tourists to the spot and lured by the opportunity to pay a small price to go out and touch the wreckage. The same day the Tampa was finally docked in Staten Island, New York after a twelve hour delay due to the tangled towline. The press was waiting for them and they snapped photos and wrote quickly as Rogers was escorted out and away on a stretcher to a hospital. He smiled and waved at the reporters the entire time.

People gather on the Asbury Park boardwalk to view the wreck

All over the country people were asking the same questions, what happened to the Morro Castle? Everyone except the Ward Line who had their lawyers inform the ship's officers that they were not to speak to reporters and that what happened was "entirely an Act of God.” Despite the warning from the Ward Line, the public hearings showed the crew member's true feelings with multiple accounts all stating that they believed what happened that night was a deliberate attack. When asked about the fire Warms said "It was incendiary. I think someone put something in that Writing Room." Officers told how it moved unnaturally fast, that there was a chemical smell, the color of the flames, but it all fell on the deaf ears of The Ward Line and the Steamboat Inspection Service who scrambled for other causes stretching to to even blame spontaneous combustion, faulty wires, lightning strikes, and quickly dropped stories of Communist conspiracy.

Causes were cloudy but what became very clear was the astronomically unsafe conditions on board Captain Willmott's ship. The image of luxury was of utmost importance on the ship and some of the tasks asked of officers when they were not busy that caused Alagna to write his petition made the guest happy but also put them in terrible danger. One task was the round the clock polishing of the brass on board with a polish, already a chemical concoction, that was laced with kerosene to make the application easier on crew member's elbows. A huge amount of the ship was constructed from wood and another chemical polish was slathered all over the everything wooden on a weekly basis to keep everything shining. New layers of paint were applied every few weeks with the attention being on appearance rather than safety. I large number of lifeboats were unable to launch because of the layers and layers of dried paint cementing them to the ship. All the plywood used on board was not fireproof and was chosen because it was lightweight. The staterooms were lined in thin sheets of wood that were stuck together with eight layers of flammable glue before being bathed in varnish. The deck planking, made of Oregon pine was caulked with a mixture of glue, cotton, and oakum which melted in the extreme heat and stuck to passengers feet at they were trying to escape trapping them to the deck as they burned. The location of the Writing Room as the starting point of the blaze only added to the problems. From inside the storage closet the flamed went into a vent and spread behind a false ceiling where the Morro Castle's Lyle gun was kept along with the twenty-five pounds of gunpowder used to operate it.

Morro Castle lifeboat still fixed to the ship

Chemicals were not the only things that doomed the Morro Castle, fault also lay thick on both construction and crew. True, the ship was fitted with a state of the art fire detection system, but that system only covered the cargo, staterooms, and engine room and the fire doors meant to close automatically once a certain temperature was reached had all of their wires removed requiring them to be manually closed. Although the cargo was equipped with the detection system, it had been turned off. Part of the cargo on this voyage was a shipment of salted hides and on September 5th Captain Willmott ordered the system be turned off to prevent the stench spreading throughout the vessel. The same pathways that allowed the ship to be "sea-cooled" also gave the fire an oxygen-filled and totally unobstructed path to all areas.

The sheer confusion on the night of the fire was increased tenfold due to the fact that the crew members flat out did not know what to do in case of a blaze and even if their instincts led them the Morro Castle was not equipped to to allow those instincts be followed. Captain Willmott believed his ship was the safest place in the world and because of that he flat out refused to conduct any safety drills despite them becoming law after the sinking of the Titanic. When the idea was brought to the captain of doing drills to show the passengers how safe they were it was quickly shot down with Willmott stating "No, I don't want the men to run around and excite passengers. We have an old sea tradition, excitement brings panic." On the rare occasion that a drill could be conducted it was carried out by having crew members go to their posts briefly before continuing with their days. But, if you were busy catering to passengers you did not even take part in that. When Cruise Director Robert Smith proposed the idea of making games out of the safety drills for passengers Willmott immediately shut him down saying it would put ideas in people's heads that something actually could happen, which he refused to believe.

There were forty-two fire hydrants on board the Morro Castle the night it went up in flames, but almost none of them were functional. One month before the catastrophe a passenger slipped on some water that leaked from a hydrant and successfully sued the company for $25,000. Rather than fix the leak Willmott ordered the crew to remove all the hoses, nozzles, wrenches, and outlets for the hoses before having them cap off all the hydrants they could. The crew was unaware how to remove the caps but even if they did it would have been little help on the night of the fire, there was no water pressure. The three pumps that supplied water to the hose system had a capacity of 1,300 gallons per minute. However, the system was designed assuming that there would never be a situation where all the hydrants would be used so the max number that could be turned on and functional with water pressure at any one time was six. With the crew turning on every hydrant trying to find one that worked, the water pressure was cut down to a forth of its full strength.

Surely there was no way these conditions were legal. But, on paper the Morro Castle was perfectly safe due to the fact that inspections mainly consisted of strolling the decks and taking meals with Captan Willmott. Inspection records from August 4th, just over a month before the unthinkable, claim that an inspector from the Steamboat Inspection Service was able to test all of the lifeboats by lowering them all into the water and bringing them back up, and examine the hull, steering gear, gangways, telephones, radio equipment, anchors, and all 100 fire extinguishers and 848 life jackets in less than two hours. The Morro Castle was built to the standards of the U.S. Navy, there was simply no need for inspections.

The Morro Castle still burning while moving on September 8th 1934

As the hearings moved along the evidence of an act of arson continued to build. Crew and passengers continued to comment that the speed of the fire was nothing natural and there were reports from people swearing that they saw flamed traveling down staircases, completely defying a natural burning. The color of the flames were another big indicator. Night watchman Pender stuck to his claims that the flames he saw shooting out from the Writing Room storage locker were blue with indicated a chemical fire with temperatures over 1,500 degrees. In addition, chemical flames change color when water is applied and at lease one crew member reported that when they threw water on the flames they changed from blue-white to yellow. Another major thing to consider was where the fire began. While the Writing Room was open to the public the storage locker was hidden with the doors being made to blend in with the wall paneling, something only known by crew members. If the fire was truly an Act of God or an accident the storage locker was the worst place for fate to place a fire, but if it was deliberately caused by an incendiary device there was no better place on the ship to hide one.

If the fire was in fact arson, who could have set it? While the Ward Line was being ripped apart in the press for negligence and Alagna was being painted as the possible violent arsonist due to his issues before leaving New York, Francis Xavier Fay at the F.B.I. was looking into a tip that prompted him to get a background check of a certain crew member. The resulting report was worse than he ever could have and imagined and put a significant spotlight on the man being called the hero, George White Rogers.

The background check on Rogers laid out a lifetime of disturbances dating back to when he was a young child. There were numerous behavioral issues leading to him being thrown out of school after school until finally being expelled at the age of fifteen. In 1919 Rogers enlisted in the Navy as a radio operator and during his time there he became involved in a small chemical explosion where he bent the story repeatedly to paint himself the hero. Rogers was extremely well versed in chemistry and when the Black Tom explosion happened in 1918 he became obsessed telling people his theories on how the explosion was set and describing in detail a way he figured out to turn a simple fountain pen into a bomb. When the Navy explosion happened he was taken to the Navy Hospital feigning unconsciousness and delirium due to pain. He was discharged but while Rogers's story involved him damaging his eyes while jumping into the explosion to save a fellow sailor the medical records state that he was discharged due to dimness of vision. Nine years went by with Rogers jumping from job to job before he began working at electronic stores in New York City, during which employers reported multiple thefts and fires in their shops.

Despite his frightening history and his suspicious behavior before, during, and after the Morro Castle Rogers may have never been looked at twice had disturbances not continued after the fire that made him famous. After his fame began to fade he opened up an electronics shop which mysteriously burned to the ground. His next job was as a radio operator for the police department in Bayonne, New Jersey. Rogers quickly befriended Lieutenant Vincent Doyle but as the two got closer Doyle began to grow uneasy. Rogers grew increasingly vocal about his time on the doomed ship and he began to describe in detail how exactly he "thought" the fire was set, with a fountain pen incendiary device tucked inside the pocket of a waiter's jacket. When Doyle began to press Rogers on his knowledge about the Morro Castle fire Roger's backtracked saying it was just a guess. That was before Rogers built a bomb from missing police department equipment, planted it in a room, and lured Doyle inside where it exploded severely injuring him. This time Rogers was arrested and sentenced to twelve to twenty years in prison, a sentence that was appealed in 1942 when Rogers signed up for parole in exchange for enlisting in the armed services.

Vincent Doyle

By 1944 Rogers was back in Bayonne, New Jersey where he became friends with a retired painter named William Hummel who lived with his daughter just down the street from Rogers. Over the course of their friendship Rogers tried to involve Hummel in several business ventures that never took off with Hummel lending Rogers a total of $7,500. On June 18th 1953 Hummel told Rogers he would need the money back because he and his daughter were moving to Florida. Within the next forty-eight hours Hummel and his daughter were bludgeoned to death in their home. The only reason their bodies were found on July 1st was because Rogers himself told the owner of a radio store that the two were missing before the police even knew about it. Rogers was arrested and sentenced to life in prison but his time in jail was short, he died of a heart attack in January 1958 with his name never formally being attached to the deadly fire that killed 134 people.

Inquiries and accusations flew freely during the hearings after the blaze with Warms, Chief Engineer Eban Abbott, and Ward Line vice-president Henry Cabaud eventually being indicted on various charges. However, an appeals court later overturned Warms' and Abbott's convictions after deciding that the decisions of deceased Captain Willmott greatly contributed to the tragedy that night. In the end no official cause was ever cited for the fire.

The wreck of the Morro Castle remained in Asbury Park attracting millions of tourists who paid to wade out to touch it and purchased pressed pennies and postcards with the haunting charred remains emblazoned on them like a tranquil beach scene. It was not until the stench of the ship began to deter people that the wreck was finally declared a total loss and removal was arranged. On March 14th 1935 she was hauled away from Asbury Park and taken to Gravesend Bay in New York before making her final voyage to Baltimore, Maryland on March 29th where she was finally scrapped.

The wreck of the Morro Castle in Asbury Park November 1934

Morro Castle postcard

The story of the Morro Castle is the stuff of mystery novels. A luxury cruise ship returning from paradise when the captain died during one of two vicious storms, a mystery fire, a run away wreck that became a tourist destination, and a villain that was given many names but who took their identity to the grave. Despite all the unbelievable pieces of the story, it is hard to ignore that the tragedy of the Morro Castle was something that was a direct result of human hands, from the layers of chemicals that turned it into a powder keg to the person who set the blaze that transformed one last night of dreaming into one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.

******************************************************

Sources:

The Morro Castle: Tragedy at Sea by Hal Burton (1973)

Inferno at Sea: Stories of Death and Survival Aboard the Morro Castle by Gretchen F. Coyle and Deborah C. Whitcraft (2012)

Fire at Sea: The Mysterious Tragedy of the Morro Castle by Thomas Gallagher (2003)

When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and its Deadly Wake by Brian Hicks (2006)

Shipwreck: The Strange Fate of the Morro Castle by Thomas Gordon and Max Morgan Witts

Please check out the New Jersey Maritime Museum online at:

https://njmaritimemuseum.org/

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starlightiing · 6 years

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Think I have a problem? 12 books about the sea, and just about all of them are maritime disasters/shipwrecks. I think I have a problem. #books #bookstagram #maritimehistory #maritimedisasters https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs-kqXogBMg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qand3p4npwx5

#books #bookstagram #maritimehistory #maritimedisasters

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britishadmiraltychart · 3 years

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CLICK https://wa.me/6281268878103, Ba Charts 1655, Ba Charts 1426, Ba Charts 1046, Ba Charts 2738, Ba Charts 2444

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instapicsil3 · 5 years

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⁠A victim is carried up the SS Eastland as the steamship lies on its side in the Chicago River after slowly rolling over and drowning 844 people on the morning of July 24, 1915. The Tribune wrote, "It lay like a toy boat of tin wrecked in a gutter, its starboard half rising clear of the water." ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The Eastland would be the greatest peacetime inland waterways disaster in American history and the deadliest single day event in Chicago's history. Read about the disaster by clicking the link in our bio. #EastlandDisaster #SSEastland #ChicagoRiver #MaritimeDisasters⁠ https://ift.tt/2GsZxm3

#Insta New 3 #Insta All #All Extra #Everything #Track 1

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instapicsil2 · 5 years

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#All #Pics #Insta New 2 #Insta All #All Extra #Everything #Track 1

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lollipoplollipopoh · 5 years

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youtube

Estonia ferry disaster: French court denies compensation claim by Al Jazeera English Relatives of hundreds of people who died in one of Europe's worst maritime disasters have lost their claim for compensation. 852 people died when the MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994. Most of the victims' bodies were never discovered. Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports. - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL #AlJazeeraEnglish #EstoniaFerryDisaster #MaritimeDisaster

#youtube #video #news #aljazeera

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husheduphistory · 3 years

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Wrecked and Remembered: Two Canadian Catastrophes and their Stories in Stone

The natural beauty of Canada can seem almost unreal. Mountains meet glaciers and dense, sprawling forests while other areas look like epic desert landscapes. Intertwined with all the amazing rock and soil are Canada’s many stunning coastlines, rivers, and lakes. Canada has had an important connection with its bodies of water and waterways, relying on them throughout history to provide growth, food, and avenues for travel and commerce. Like many other regions deeply connected with their waters, there is always a chance for disaster when navigating the routes, carrying potentially dangerous cargo, and dealing with uncontrollable weather conditions. The coastlines of Canada are littered with shipwrecks, but some of these ships fell into circumstances that went far beyond unfortunate and resulted in utter disaster for those involved.

Located on a coastal road near the St. Lawrence River in Pointe-au-Père in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada is a tall stone structure inscribed with a grim tale of an excessive loss of life. The words are not alone in telling their tale; this monument is situated alongside a mass grave commemorating the spot where Canada experienced one of the greatest peacetime maritime disasters ever seen.

The RMS Empress of Ireland was a Scottish-built ocean liner measuring 570 feet long and had ninety-five voyages under her belt by May 1914. She was a relatively young ship, just under eight years old, with no reason to suspect that there was anything for any of her thousands of passengers to worry about.

On the morning of May 29th 1914 the Empress was setting out on her latest journey, traveling to Liverpool England from Quebec City, a routine trip headed by the newly promoted Captain Henry George Kendall who would be making his first venture up the St. Lawrence River. The passengers of the ship bid farewell to Quebec City, serenaded by the jovial sounds of the Salvation Army Band. The ship was manned by 420 crew members on hand to attend to the 1,057 passengers on board, some of which belonged to the higher classes of British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand society. The first-class passengers occupied cabins on the upper deck and lower promenade decks which encircled the ship. There were plants, a café, smoking room, a library, a string quartet, and a private dining area for the children of first-class passengers. Second class passengers traveled in the stern of the lower promenade and upper decks with a smoking room and access to the first-class café. The largest number of passengers on this voyage were traveling third class with cabins below decks with access to a section of the upper decks. They were all anticipating a comfortable and peaceful voyage to Liverpool.

A colorized image of the Empress of Ireland. Image via Wikimedia Creative Commons.

By 1:38am on the morning of May 29th the Empress had departed Pointe-au-Père and was making their way along their normal course. The conditions were clear when ship lights were first spotted approximately six miles from the Empress. The lights belonged to a Norwegian collier, SS Storstad, who also saw the Empress’s masthead lights off in the distance.

The clear conditions deteriorated extremely fast, enveloping the ships in a fog so dense that visibility was lost and the only indicator to the locations of the ships came from sounding their fog whistles. It was not enough. The next thing Captain Kendall saw were the lights of the Snorstad plowing out of the fog and heading directly for his ship.

At 1:55am the Snorstad made a direct hit onto the Empress at a 45 degree angle, slicing through the ship and sealing the fates of many. The situation escalated terrifyingly fast. Given the early morning hour most passengers were asleep in their cabins at the time of the collision and had no time to realize what was happening, let along scramble to the upper decks in hope of a lifeboat. Water poured into the ship, trapping and drowning those below deck. As the Empress listed sharply to its side water began pouring in through the open portholes. The ship was tilting over at such an extreme angle that even if anyone could get to the lifeboats, they could not be launched. Ten minutes after the collision the ship lay completely on her side in the water and only four minutes later the RMS Empress of Ireland sank beneath the river taking 1,012 of the 1,477 souls who had boarded the previous day. The death toll was even larger than that of the Titanic which had occurred two years earlier.

The SS Snorstad with damage sustained from the collison. Image via Wikipedia.org. Public Domain.

The wreck of the Empress came to rest only 130 feet below the surface and shortly after the disaster crews began diving in the search for bodies and valuables that had gone down with the ship. In 1964 a team of Canadian divers were able to recover a brass bell and due partially to the influx of divers the site of the wreck became protected under the Cultural Property Act in 1999 and was added to the Register of Historic Sites of Canada. While diving expeditions to the wreck are still carried out the dive has taken the lives of six more people since 2009.

The mass grave located at Pointe-au-Père was marked on the site several years after the disaster by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Several other memorials have been established in the region with monuments in the Mount Herman Cemetery in Quebec, a memorial in Saint Germain Cemetery in Rimouski, and a monument erected by the Salvation Army in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto where an annual memorial service is held on the anniversary of the disaster next to their statue reading “In Sacred Memory of 167 Officers and Soldiers of the Salvation Army Promoted to Glory From the Empress of Ireland at Daybreak, Friday May 29, 1914".

Empress of Ireland Memorial. Image via Wikipedia Creative Commons.

The wreck of the RMS Empress of Ireland quickly faded from many minds with some saying it simply got overshadowed by pre-WWI tensions. Only three years later though Canada would suffer another horrific wreck with an impact that reached far beyond the ship itself.

The SS Mont Blanc was less than twenty-five years old on December 6th 1917. Measuring at 320 feet long, it was a steamship that transported general cargo to wherever the shipment was needed freeing it from standard schedules and a port of call. In November 1917 the ship was chartered to carry a cargo of miscellaneous munitions and explosives from New York to France and on December 1st the SS Mont Blanc departed for Halifax, Nova Scotia under the command of Captain Aime Le Medec.

The ship was very slow moving, and on December 5th it arrived in Halifax, intending to join a convoy of other ships gathered in the Bedford Basin before heading to Europe. But, the ship arrived too late to enter the harbor that evening and was forced to sit and wait with a cargo full of explosive TNT, picric acid, gun cotton, and barrels of high-octane benzol sitting on the deck. When it first arrived the ship was boarded by harbor pilot Francis Mackey who asked if they had and “special protections” or a guard ship to help guide them into the harbor given the extremely volatile cargo. They did not.

Early the next morning on December 6th 1917 the Mont Blanc began traveling through the strait that connects the upper portion of the Halifax Harbor to the Bedford Basin with its cargo of over 2,500 tons of explosive materials. Mackey was keeping an eye on the waters around them, but approximately ¾ of a mile out he caught sight of the SS Imo, a Norwegian ship with no cargo due to head back to New York. The Mont Blanc blew their whistle signaling the Imo, but the Imo simply responded with their own whistles, indicating they had no intention of changing their course. The Mont Blanc tried to shift, the ships cut their engines, but momentum carried them dangerously close to each other. The crew of the Mont Blanc knew they had to be extremely careful, their ship was essentially a massive floating bomb, something that no one on the Imo or anyone else gathering to watch the ships was aware of. After some maneuvering, the ships were nearly parallel, but then the Imo put their engines in reverse, sending them into the Mont Blanc’s starboard side.

Stern of Mont-Blanc before the explosion during a prewar visit to Halifax, Aug. 15, 1900. Image via Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, MP18.196.11, N-4,395.

The severity of the situation may not have been obvious at first. The two ships collided at extremely low speeds at approximately 8:45am, knocking over the barrels of benzol, and sending the fuel spilling onto the deck and flowing into the holds. At this point people on other ships were beginning to gather on their decks to watch. When the Imo disengaged from the Mont Blanc it caused sparks, igniting the fuel and starting a fire. The crew of the Mont Blanc knew they, and everyone around them, were in extreme danger. Captain Le Medec ordered his crew to abandon the ship and the fire quickly grew out of control. People were still watching from other ships, and now people living on the coast were coming out of their homes and staring out their windows at the inferno. They had no clue what was about to happen. The smoke and noise muffled anything the frantic crew of the Mont Blanc were screaming, and even if they could be heard no one understood the warnings being yelled in French.

The Mont-Blanc, now engulfed in flame, began to drift and it made its way to Pier 6, setting it ablaze, before finally grounding itself at the foot of Richmond Street. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed for the people of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Just before 9:05am the fire reached the cargo hold and an explosion erupted in a blinding flash of white light. The shockwave ripped through Halifax, traveling more than 1,500 meters per second with the heat at the center of the blast reaching 5000C pushing a fireball of chemicals, debris, and shrapnel miles into the air and temporarily vaporizing the water around the ship. Soon after a tidal wave surged through Halifax bringing more devastation to the already nearly-leveled city. The Mont-Blanc itself was blasted into pieces and twisted parts of it would later be found miles from the site of the explosion. The Imo was lifted by the tidal wave and slammed into the shoreline. Halifax, a bustling city mere moments earlier, was hit by the largest man-made explosion in history before Hiroshima.

The SS Imo after being tossed by the tidal wave from the Mont Blanc explosion. Image via Wikipedia.org Public Domain.

The toll of the explosion was disastrous to Halifax with approximately 1,600 people losing their lives and another 9,000 sustaining injuries. More than 12,000 homes and buildings were damaged or completely leveled with the entire Richmond district laid to total waste. Structures were reduced to rubble and splintered wood, every window was shattered, every door ripped from their hinges, and rail cars and boats in the vicinity were simply crushed. Miraculously, all but one crew member of the Mont Blanc survived.

The devastation of Halifax after the Mont Blanc explosion. Image via Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Recovery efforts came in from hundreds of sources and six weeks after the explosion the Halifax Relief Commission was formed to take on the monumental task of managing and re-building Halifax with the North End being rebuilt as the Hydrostones, Canada’s first public housing project.

Halifax Exhibition Building in the aftermath of the explosion. Image via Wikipedia. Public Domain.

In 1966 the Halifax North Memorial Library was constructed with the first monument to the disaster, the Halifax Explosion Memorial Sculpture, placed in its entrance (the statue was later dismantled in 2004). Constructed in 1985, the Halifax Memorial Bell Tower stands today overlooking the site of the disaster and is the site for an annual remembrance ceremony that takes place every year on December 6th. It is the largest reminder among several still remaining in the Halifax region, with large pieces of the SS Mont-Blanc standing in Dartmouth and the clock tower of Halifax City Hall housing one clock on its north side permanently set at 9:05am to commemorate the minute that the city was nearly erased from the map.

Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower. Image by Jesse David Hollington from Toronto, Canada - Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3670253

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Sources:

Halifax Explosion https://www.britannica.com/event/Halifax-explosion

Explosion in The Narrows: The 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion

The Great Halifax Explosion, History.com https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-halifax-explosion

Kiloton Killer The Collision of the SS Mont-Blanc and the Halifax Explosion https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-2013-01-07-ssmontblancandhalifaxexplosion.pdf?sfvrsn=d4ae1ef8_6

Two ships collided in Halifax Harbor. One of them was a floating, 3,000-ton bomb by Steve Hendrix washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/06/two-ships-collided-in-halifax-harbor-one-of-them-was-a-3000-ton-floating-bomb/

SS Mont-Blanc Explosion – 1917 https://devastatingdisasters.com/ss-mont-blanc-explosion-1917/

The Empress of Ireland, National Museums Liverpool https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/merseyside-maritime-museum/maritime-museum-floor-plan/lifelines-gallery/empress-of-ireland

On this day: The Empress of Ireland, 'Canada's Titanic,' sinks in 1914 by Kayla Hertz https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/empress-of-ireland-sinking

RMS Empress of Ireland https://www.shipwreckworld.com/maps/rms-empress-of-ireland

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instapicsil3 · 6 years

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#TDIH 1915, the Eastland capsized in the #Chicago River, taking 844 souls with her. #History #ChicagoHistory #MaritimeDisasters https://ift.tt/2LmxWHK

#Insta New 3 #Insta All

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husheduphistory · 7 years

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A Shipwreck in Chicago: The Disaster of the SS Eastland

On the chilly early morning of July 24th 1915 the south bank of the Chicago River was bustling with activity. Young men dressed in their Sunday best and the ladies arrived in long dresses, hats, and boots in eager anticipation of the activities ahead. The yearly picnic for the employees of Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works (located in present-day Cicero) was a huge event for the company with the hard workers, their families, and friends taking a day off from their grueling work week for fun and relaxation. Thousands arrived that morning, but hundreds of people never left.

In the early 1900s a standard work week was typically six days long and well exceeded forty hours so when the picnics first began for Western Electric employees, they were an instant success. Washington Park, located across Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana was a idyllic setting for the event offering merry-go-rounds, a roller coasters, bandstands, a baseball park, beaches, and picnic grounds alongside tranquil wooded sections for calmer conversational relaxation. The ticket prices ranged from $.75 to $1.00, not a small fee in those days, but to those buying it was well worth it and that year ticket sales hit an all time high with over 7,000 sold. For many people the picnic was the social event of the year, they would not have missed it for the world.

Enjoying the beach at Washington Park.

In order to get the employees and their guests across Lake Michigan Western Electric chartered five excursion boats, one of which was the SS Eastland, the “Speed Queen of the Great Lakes.” The ship had already been in the hands of several owners and had even been the scene of a mutiny in 1903 when six of the ship’s firemen refused to tend to the fires because they had been denied potatoes with their meals. Despite its colorful past there was no reason for anyone to feel nervous boarding the Eastland. Earlier in the year the federal Seamen’s Act was passed requiring all passenger ships to be retrofitted with a complete set of lifeboats, a move partially enacted because of the tragedy of the Titanic only three years earlier. On July 2nd 1915, just under three weeks before the picnic, the owners of the Eastland complied with the new regulations and added three lifeboats and six rafts all weighing approximately fourteen tons to its top deck. By all appearances the vessel was the safest ship in the world. That morning it was also the most desirable ship to be on because it was scheduled to leave the dock first. Boarding the "Speed Queen" began at 6:30am and people rushed onto the decks at a rate of fifty people per minute in anticipation of a 7:30am departure. The 2,500 passenger limit was soon reached and excited picnic goers began to stake claims on their spots for the boat ride. Due to the light rain many women and children went to the lower decks while others went to the top deck where they gazed over the railings and called to friends down below. Music from a band drifted out from the main cabin beckoning people to dance and begin their festivities early.

The festivities never did begin, because they never had the chance to.

The SS Eastland docked in Ohio circa 1911

The tilting of the Eastland began just after 7am but initially it did not alarm those already on board. At first it was able to right itself, the problem was that tilting did not stop there. The ship was listing toward the port side (the left-hand side of a vessel facing forward) and passengers were asked to disperse and move to the starboard side (the right-hand side of a vessel facing forward) but they did not follow these directions. At 7:20am water began to pour onto the main deck and engines were ordered to stop. However, departure was still not called off as the ship was able to again right itself. Minutes later the tilting resumed and despite being ordered to move to the starboard side passengers still refused due to rain making the desk slippery. The captain of the Eastland, Captain Harry Pedersen, still did not call off the departure, instrad ordering a standby. By 7:27am the listing resumed with the ship tilting away from the dock at a forty-five degree angle, only this time it did not right itself.

The jovial scene only moments before quickly disintegrated into chaos. Dishes began falling off of shelves, the refrigerator behind a bar crashed over pinning passengers underneath, water began to pour onto the ship and the piano on the promenade deck was thrown to the other side of the room crushing two people. Realizing the imminent disaster passengers began to scream and run toward staircases that would become deathtraps in a matter of seconds. Passengers were suddenly whisked off their feet and found themselves inexplicably falling, crashing into other people and anything else in between them and the floor which had been a wall only a moment earlier. The piles of bodies grew and were added to by the tables, chairs, bottles, lunches, and garbage that no longer had anything to hold them upright. Those who were on the top decks wondered if they should jump, and some of them did.

At 7:30am the SS Eastland rolled over in place, coming to rest on it’s side on the muddy bottom of the Chicago River submerging the port side and trapping hundreds of people in twenty feet of cold, murky water. It was only feet from the dock with its ropes still attached.

The disaster happened so fast that none of the new lifeboats were launched, no life jackets were handed out, and no life rafts were utilized simply because passengers did not even have the time to react to the sudden danger they found themselves in. Horrified onlookers, some of which were other picnic goers still waiting to board a ship, began to help in any way they could and people began to jump into the river that had transformed into a frantic screaming sea. Nearby boats hurried to the scene and onlookers began to throw ladders and shipping crates into the water for people to hold onto. To those still trapped in the non-submerged portion of the ship, salvation came in the form of welders who ran to the site and were able to cut holes into the hull with their torches giving people a way out. Bystanders dragged people out of portholes in hopes of saving them from suffocation and those still on the visible portions of the ship scrambled to the dock with some being able to simply walk across the now-horizontal side of the ship to safety.

People standing on the side of the Eastland waiting to be rescued. Image via Smithsonian Magazine.

Being pulled from the capsized ship.

The SS Eastland on its side in the Chicago River.

While there was hope for a percentage of passengers, there was nothing that could be done for those that were trapped inside the ship underwater and the result was absolutely devastating. Nearly everyone that was on the port side of the ship when it tipped was doomed. 844 people lost their lives in the Eastland disaster including 228 teenagers and 22 entire families.Many were lost by drowning but just as many lives were snuffed out by suffocation.

In the days following the disaster the magnitude of the event and the loss became apparent all over the city. Surrounding buildings became morgues and makeshift hospitals where frantic family members circulated desperate for word of their missing loved ones or hoping to finally find a familiar body among the dozens lined up in rows. The tight-knit communities of Polish, Czech and Hungarian immigrants who worked for Western Electric began to drape their homes in black while preparing the so many unexpected funerals. The first week was dedicated to burying the dead with families being given assistance in arranging and paying for the burials. The bells seemed to never stop ringing, the local churches had multiple funerals for days, and funeral processions became a constant sight.

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church overwhelmed by funerals. Image via OriginalShipster.com.

When the initial shock began to fade it was only replaced by countless questions of what happened that day on the SS Eastland. The answer was simple, the ship was too top heavy to support the passengers and as a result it tipped over. The explanations as to how the ship ended up in the position to tip over with thousands of people on board were not as easy to accept.

The fact of the matter was that the Eastland had a long unstable history. Built in 1902, it was originally constructed to carry produce and only up to 500 people. The design of the ship was top heavy and relied on ballast tanks to keep it balanced but repeated modifications in order to increase passenger space and speed made it unstable when being loaded or unloaded. All inspections were done only when the ship was traveling, making it seem stable and earning it multiple safety certifications. 1904 and 1906 saw two extremely close calls with the Eastland nearly tipping over, each time with over 2,500 people on board. When the ship was bought by the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company in 1914 the only thing that crossed their minds was how much of a bargain they were getting by only paying $150,000 for the vessel. Tragically, the final straw in the unsettling of the Eastland may have been the retrofitting of the life boats required by the federal Seamen’s Act which added thousands of pounds to its top decks.

A few days after the disaster of the Chicago River a coroner’s inquest questioned an official of the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company who remarked “I didn’t know much about the boat except that we got it at a bargain. All I do is sign blank checks.”

The Eastland being righted after the disaster

Despite the cause being somewhat agreed upon, many still felt someone needed to take the blame for what happened that day. Although it was widely agreed that Captain Harry Pedersen and other crew members were negligent, they were never prosecuted along with officers from the steamship company who also avoided legal action. The hammer seemed to fall on chief engineer Joseph Erickson who was blamed for mishandling the ballast tanks and failing to right the Eastland as it tilted away from the dock. Erickson died during the long proceedings putting the question of fault to rest with him. More than 800 wrongful death lawsuits were filed but the proceedings dragged for more than twenty years with families getting almost nothing in return.

It was not until 1990 that the city of Chicago placed a memorial plaque dedicated to the Eastland disaster on the site. The plaque was stolen but replaced and rededicated on July 24, 2003.Today, at the corner of West Wacker Drive and North LaSalle Street the five foot tall black marker stands silent, often being swallowed up by the bustling city around it. When someone stops to read it, it has a story to tell that sounds unbelievable. A shipwreck, called “Chicago’s Titanic”, that took over 800 lives and happened only feet from dry land.

The marker for the Eastland disaster. Photograph by Victorgrigas on Wikimedia (Creative Commons).

Remarkably, in 2015 a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Chicago discovered previously unknown video footage taken of rescue efforts of the disaster. That footage can be viewed here.

Please do take some time to look at the official website of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society for much more amazing information, stories, and images from this disaster. Click here to go directly to their site.

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Sources:

www.EastlandDisaster.org

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/eastland-disaster-killed-more-passengers-titanic-and-lusitania-why-has-it-been-forgotten-180953146/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-eastlanddisaster-story-story.html

#husheduphistory #history #chicagohistory #maritimehistory #maritimedisasters #strangehostory #forgottenhistory #truestories #tragichistory #chicago #westernelectric #disasters #shipwreck #tragedy #in the blink of an eye #RIP #EastlandDisaster #SSEastland #1915

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husheduphistory · 8 years

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Lights Out: The Enigma at Eilean Mor

On December 26th 1900 Captain James Harvey’s ship the SS Hesperus made its way through the waters off the west coast of Scotland keeping an eye out for the 75ft tall tower that would signal the end of the journey for himself and his passenger Joseph Moore. Moore was a replacement lighthouse keeper and his turn to keep watch at the lighthouse was starting a bit later than usual due to storms earlier that week. He and Captain Harvey were sure that they man waiting for them was anxious for his turn to go back to land for a little while but when they arrived at the small island it was immediately clear something was wrong. The flags normally flying to welcome them were missing, horns and flares went unanswered, and there were no enthusiastic hands waving to them from shore. As they docked and walked up the 160 steps Moore later reported saying he had a feeling that something terrible had happened. He was right.

The Flannan Isles off the coast of Scotland, also called the Seven Hunters, are a small collection of rocky hills inhabited only by local wildlife. The largest of the islands, Eilean Mor is the home to the Flannan Isles lighthouse where Moore was supposed to take up his normal shift that Boxing Day in 1900.

The structure was practically new with it first being lit on December 7th 1899 after four years on construction and the operations consistently ran smoothly. The lighthouse crew was made up of four men, three who stayed at the lighthouse for six weeks at a time and one replacement who would rotate with them one at a time for two weeks during which the regular keeper stayed in the township of Breaselete on the Isle of Lewis located twenty miles west. On December 7th 1900 Donald MacArthur, Thomas Marshall, and James Ducat arrived at the Flannan Isles lighthouse to begin their rotation. The Superintendent of Lighthouses Robert Muirhead went along on the trip to do a routine check of the lighthouse and to make sure everything was in perfect working order for the men. The building was regularly monitored by telescopes from the mainland to ensure that the keepers could signal someone in case on an emergency but during this visit Muirhead spoke to Ducat informing him that they were having some visibility issues with a heavy mist that might inhibit their view from land for a short time. Unworried by the mist the crew and their superintendent said goodbye and they parted ways with the men waving from shore.

From the left Donald MacArthur, Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Superintendent Robert Muirhead

Ships reported passing the lighthouse on December 7th and 12th with nothing out of the ordinary to report. However, on December 15th a steamer en route from Philadelphia passed the Flannan Isles during a storm and later reported that the light was not on as it should have been. Weather again brought problems when the lighthouse relief ship carrying supplies and replacement lighthouse keeper Moore was unable to leave on December 20th for their scheduled visit to the island due to storms. The report of the lighthouse lamp being out deeply disturbed Moore. He knew the men on that island and they would have never allowed the light to go out but there was nothing that could be done. The weather ensured that the lighthouse and the crew were on their own until the SS Hesperus could arrive on December 26th.

An early 1900s postcard showing the Flannan Isles lighthouse

The foreboding feeling felt by Moore as he climbed the steps that morning became entirely justified once he reached the door and he opened it to find that Donald MacArthur, Thomas Marshall, and James Ducat were nowhere to be found. An overturned chair lay in the kitchen area and food was still sitting on the table. There had clearly been no fire in the grate for several days and some reports state that all the clocks had stopped at the same time. Especially startling to Moore was that only Donald McArthur’s weatherproof oilskin coat was still hanging inside meaning that wherever he went, he left in only his basic clothes. Nothing about this made sense. The weather outside would have required his coat but more disturbing was that this meant that all three men left the lighthouse unattended, something that was illegal under the rules of Northern Lighthouse Board. Moore ran back to the ship to tell Harvey of his findings and a search was conducted but the crew of the Flannan Isles lighthouse was nowhere to be found. Moore and some members of the search party were left on the island to carry out the running of the lighthouse until better arrangements could be made and a telegraph was sent to the mainland and the Northern Lighthouse Board Headquarters in Edinburgh reading:

“A dreadful accident has happened at Flannans. The three Keepers, Ducat, Marshall and the occasional have disappeared from the island. On our arrival there this afternoon no sign of life was to be seen on the Island.

Fired a rocket but, as no response was made, managed to land Moore, who went up to the Station but found no Keepers there. The clocks were stopped and other signs indicated that the accident must have happened about a week ago. Poor fellows they must been blown over the cliffs or drowned trying to secure a crane or something like that.

Night coming on, we could not wait to make something as to their fate.

I have left Moore, MacDonald, Buoymaster and two Seamen on the island to keep the light burning until you make other arrangements. Will not return to Oban until I hear from you. I have repeated this wire to Muirhead in case you are not at home. I will remain at the telegraph office tonight until it closes, if you wish to wire me.”

Lighthouse rescue crew

Superintendent Robert Muirhead, possibly the last man to see the lighthouse crew as they waved goodbye from shore on December 7th, insisted on going to the island himself to further investigate. Searching for answers he looked to the lighthouse log book and his findings only shrouded the incident at Eilean Mor in a thicker layer of mystery. The log book was an official record where the crew members wrote nothing more than information pertaining to the daily running of the light. Beginning on December 12th though the entries, written in keeper Thomas Marshall’s handwriting, took on a much different tone:

“December 12. Gale north by northwest. Sea lashed to fury. Never seen such a storm. Waves very high. Tearing at lighthouse. Everything shipshape. James Ducat irritable”

Followed later that day by:

“Storm still raging, wind steady. Stormbound. Cannot go out. Ship passing sounding foghorn. Could see lights of cabins. Ducat quiet. Donald McArthur crying”.

“December 13. Storm continued through night. Wind shifted west by north. Ducat quiet. McArthur praying”.

Followed later by:

“Noon, grey daylight. Me, Ducat and McArthur prayed”.

On December 14th no entry was made in the log and on December 15th the final entry was made which read only:

“December 15. 1pm. Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all”

It was that night that the steamer reported the light not being on at the lighthouse as they passed by.

The entries to the lighthouse log were baffling for reasons beyond the fact that these types of things were never written in official logbooks. For one, Ducat was Marshall’s superior and to write in the open logbook that he was “irritable” would have been extremely unusual besides the fact that Ducat was known as being a good natured man. McArthur was known as being a heavily tried and true hardened man of the sea so an entry claiming that he was crying seemed totally unbelievable to anyone who knew him including Muirhead who also found the comments of praying bizarre because he never knew any of the lighthouse crew to be religious in any way. On top of the out-of-character entries the dates made no sense in regard to a strong storm. The weather on December 12th, 13th, and 14th was reported as being calm with strong storms not hitting the island until December 17th.

During his search of the island Murihead also discovered ropes strewn across rocks. These types of ropes were usually kept boxed up on a supply crane suspended well above the sea and the theory formed that perhaps the box became dislodged and the crew was trying to collect the ropes when they were unexpectedly hit by a wave and dragged out into the water. This was a version of events included in Muirhead’s official report to the Northern Lighthouse Board but some members still had questions. Why would these very experienced men risk their lives for some ropes? Why had they left the building in such a hurry that they left their food and one went out without his coat in December? What about the clocks? Why hadn’t the bodies washed ashore? And how did any of this make sense with log entries reporting a storm like none other when the Isle of Lewis stated clear visibility during those days and the weather was reported as being calm? The answers to these questions, like the lighthouse crew of Eilean Mor, were never found.

Newspaper clipping about the disappearance of the lighthouse crew

Nearly 120 year later the disappearance of Donald MacArthur, Thomas Marshall, and James Ducat at the Flannan Isles lighthouse remains the subject of great intrigue with theories and stories swirling around it. Some credit the incident to supernatural forces while many others claim that it was simply a terrible accident where the three men got swept away by rough seas and their bodies never washed back onto shore. Some even doubt the validity of the logbook entries stating that they were written after the fact while bitterly debating with those asking how then were they written in a crew member’s handwriting? The mysterious nature of their disappearance was certainly helped by the 1912 publication of Wilfrid Wilson Gibson’s epic “Flannan Isle” where he writes from the perspective of someone searching for the men:

“And, as we listen'd in the gloom

Of that forsaken living-room--

O chill clutch on our breath--

We thought how ill-chance came to all

Who kept the Flannan Light:

And how the rock had been the death…”

As for the Flannal Isle lighthouse itself, it remains standing on the same grassy peak on Eilean Mor where it has gone through several upgrades and transformations over the many years finally becoming automated in 1971. It is possibly to visit the island on group boat trips.

The Flannan Isles lighthouse today

You can read the full text of Gibson’s “Flannan Isle” here.

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