The Morro Castle, a Ward Line liner, was the latest word in science and technology. Its turboelectric installation provided an economical speed of 25 knots. "Morro Castle" could easily compete with the German liners "Bremen" and "Europe" - winners of the "Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic". The owners of the Ward Line hoped that the new ship would bring them good profits on the so-called “drunk line” New York - Havana. Thousands of Americans, who were burdened by Prohibition, flocked to Cuba with its almost free rum and available women. Particularly popular among them were the famous cabaret “La Tropicana” and three thousand bars scattered throughout Havana.
From January 1930 to the fall of 1934, Morro Castle made 173 super-profitable voyages to Cuba. Every Saturday afternoon, a thousand passengers left New York Harbor. The liner headed for Havana and, after exactly two days of sailing and 36 hours of stay in the Cuban port, returned to New York again. This schedule of movement for four years was never disrupted even by the famous West Indian hurricanes - the true scourge of navigation in the Caribbean.
On that voyage, the liner was commanded by the most experienced captain of the World Line company, Robert Wilmott, who faithfully served its owners for three decades.
On the evening of September 7, 1934, Morro Castle completed its 174th flight on the route Havana - New York. Five hours later, abeam the lightship Ambrose, he will set a new course and approach the Ward Line pier. But first, the captain had to give a traditional banquet for passengers in honor of the end of a fun voyage.
However, Wilmott did not honor the passengers with his presence in the cabin at the captain's table. “Watchman! Let them announce at the banquet that the captain is not feeling well and offer his sincere apologies. I'll have dinner served in my cabin. Call us when we're abeam Scotland."
These were the last words of Robert Wilmott. An hour later, the ship's doctor De Witt van Zijl confirmed his death from poisoning with some strong poison... The captain was found half-naked in the bath.
The news of the captain's death spread throughout the ship. The music stopped, the laughter and smiles on their faces disappeared. The banquet was canceled, and the passengers began to disperse to their cabins.
The senior mate, William Worms, took over as captain. Over the 37 years he spent at sea, he went from cabin boy to captain. In addition, he had a New York Harbor pilot's certificate. Warms decided to remain on the bridge until the ship arrived at the port, since the weather forecast received on the radio indicated that the Morro Castle near the Scotland lighthouse would enter the band of a force eight storm and encounter two or three strong squalls from the mainland.
The ship's clock showed 2:30 a.m. when John Kempf, a 63-year-old firefighter from New York, woke up to the smell of burning. He ran out into the corridor. The ship's library room was on fire. The metal cabinet where writing instruments and paper were stored was engulfed in some strange blue flame. Kempf tore off the carbon dioxide fire extinguisher hanging on the bulkhead, unscrewed the valve and directed a stream of foam into the slightly open closet door. The flames changed color and burst out of the closet, scorching the fireman's eyebrows. Then Kempf rushed to the nearest hydrant, unrolled the hose and unscrewed the valve, but there was no pressure in the line. Kempf rushed to wake up the sleeping second class passengers. The lower deck corridor was also engulfed in flames. Fire always spread from bottom to top, but here, on the ship, it almost instantly rushed down...
The silence of the night was suddenly broken by heartbreaking screams. People, choking from the smoke, jumped out into the corridors in panic. Meanwhile, the occupants of the cabins where the smoke had not reached were still sleeping. And when fire alarms rang across all decks of the liner, it was already too late - the corridors and passages were engulfed in flames. The exit from the cabins was cut off by a fire curtain. Those who did not have time to leave their cabins unwittingly found themselves in salons whose windows and portholes overlooked bow liner.
The fire continued to pursue those who were driven into the salons of decks “A”, “B” and “C”. The only chance to escape is to break the windows and jump onto the deck in front of the ship's superstructure. And people broke the thick glass of the square portholes with chairs and jumped down onto the deck.
"Morro Castle" continued to race at twenty knots. The longitudinal corridors of both sides of the liner now resembled a wind tunnel. 20 minutes after the fire started, the flames were buzzing throughout the entire liner.
The ship was doomed. But this was not yet understood on the navigation bridge and in the engine room. For unknown reasons, the fire detection system and the automatic fire extinguishing system did not work. Although Captain Worms was immediately notified of the fire, he thought more about the upcoming difficulties of mooring in the cramped New York harbor and was confident that the fire would be extinguished.
For the first half hour of the fire, Worms was in a state of some strange stupor, and only the failure of the autopilot forced him to change the course of the ship and turn away from the wind.
The trial report on the Morro Castle fire, which was later heard in New York, noted that the behavior of Captain Warms and his assistants was reminiscent of the play of tragic actors, creating panic and confusion by their actions. It was also strange that Chief Engineer Abbott, called by telephone from his cabin, did not appear on the bridge. They didn’t see him in the engine room either. It turned out that at that moment he organized the launching of the lifeboat from the starboard side. Journalists saw him in it (albeit with a broken arm) when a few hours later the boat reached the shore.
For unknown reasons, Worms did not assign any of his assistants to lead the firefighting effort. The passengers themselves tried to put out the fire. In a panic, they rolled out hoses, opened hydrants and poured water into the smoke. But the fire came - people had to seek salvation. Thus, almost all the hydrants were open, and although the mechanics had already turned on the pumps, there was almost no pressure in the main fire line. There was nothing to put out the fire.
Meanwhile, Worms transmitted commands to the mechanics by machine telegraph. For ten minutes, the Morro Castle kept changing course, describing zigzags, going into circulation, spinning in place until the wind turned the fire into a giant raging fire.
After the last command, the diesel generators were stopped, and the liner plunged into darkness... The engine room was filled with smoke. It was no longer possible to stay there. Mechanics, mechanics, electricians and lubricants left their posts. But few of them managed to find salvation on the upper decks of the ship...
Worms ordered the SOS signal to be sent only fifteen minutes after he was informed that the fire could not be extinguished. At this time, Morro Castle was twenty miles south of Scotland Lighthouse, approximately eight miles from the coast.
Assistant Chief of the ship's radio station George Alagna rushed to the radio room, which was located not far from the ship's bridge. But the flames blocked his path, then Alagna shouted through the open porthole of the control room to the radio operator to send an SOS signal. The head of the ship's radio station, George Rogers, did not have time to transmit the distress signal to the end - spare acid batteries exploded in the radio room. The cabin was filled with acrid fumes. Choking from sulfur fumes and almost losing consciousness, the radio operator found the strength to once again reach for the key and convey the coordinates and a message about the tragedy that had unfolded at sea.
At 3 hours 26 minutes, the radio operator on duty of the nearby English liner Monarch of Bermuda tapped out a message received through the headphones: “CQ, SOS, 20 miles south of the Scotland lighthouse.” I can't send any more. There's a flame underneath me. Get help immediately. My radio is already smoking.”
Alagna managed to get into the burning radio room. Both radio operators made their way through the half-burnt bridge and went down the right ladder to the main deck. From there, the only way to escape was to the tank. It was already crowded there: almost all the officers and sailors of the Morro Castle were looking for salvation there. Among them was Captain Worms...
The next day, September 8, 1934, the central newspapers of the United States came out with special editions - the focus was on the events of the past night on board the Morro Castle. Sailor Leroy Kesley spoke of helpless passengers who "resembled a line of blind men desperately searching for the door." Kesley explained to journalists why the hoists jammed on many boats when descending from the Morro Castle, told how the liner, which was still moving, towed the boats behind it, how, very close to it, huge pieces of thick glass from the cabin windows, which had burst from the heat, fell into the water with a hiss, how they cut the people in the boat in half...
The sailor later recalled: “From the boat I saw a terrible sight. The burning ship continued to move away... Its black hull was engulfed in orange flames of fire. Women and children, huddled closely together, stood at its stern. A cry reached us, plaintive, full of despair... This cry, similar to the groan of a dying person, will be heard by me until my death... I could only catch one word - “farewell.”
Eyewitnesses of the disaster from among the rescued passengers wrote that those who found refuge at the stern of the ship had no chance to leave the burning liner on boats. Only those who looked down without fear, where the cold water of the ocean seethed 10 meters below, could be saved.
During the investigation, it turned out that about twenty people managed to escape from the burning liner by swimming, overcoming 8 nautical miles of the raging sea. A sixteen-year-old Cuban ship's cabin boy managed to do this without a life jacket.
By dawn on September 8, a small group of crew, led by Captain Worms, remained on the already completely burned out and still smoking liner. Rogers and his deputy, second radio operator George Alagna, were also there.
To stop the ship from drifting downwind, the right main anchor was released, and when the US Navy rescue ship Tampa approached the Morro Castle, the towing had to be abandoned. Only by 13:00 were those remaining on the liner able to saw through the anchor-chain link with a hacksaw. Captain third rank Rose ordered a tug to be put on the liner's forecastle to deliver the burnt ship to New York. But by evening the weather worsened sharply and a northwest storm began. Soon the tow rope broke and wound around the Tampa's propeller. The Morro Castle began to drift into the wind until it ran aground off the coast of New Jersey, three dozen meters from the beach at Ashbari Recreation Park. This happened on Saturday at 8 pm when there were a lot of people there.
The news of the tragedy had already spread throughout New York and its suburbs, and the latest news broadcast on the radio attracted thousands of people to this unusual incident. The next morning, 350 thousand Americans gathered in Ashbary Park, all highways and country roads were clogged with cars. The park's owners charged $10 to board the still-smoldering liner. Thrill-seekers were given respiratory masks, flashlights and fire boots so that they could enjoy visiting the burned-out Morro Castle “without risking their lives.”
The governor of New Jersey was already making plans to turn the wreck of the liner into a permanent “horror attraction.” But the Ward Line company responded with a categorical refusal. She chose to sell the burned-out Morro Castle building, which at one time cost $5 million to build, for $33,605 to a Baltimore firm for scrap metal.
The investigation into the death of Morro Castle, conducted by experts from the US Department of Commerce, who published 12 volumes of this case, established the following: the first three boats lowered from the burning ship could have carried more than 200 passengers. These boats were to be manned by 12 sailors. In fact, there were 103 people in them, of which 92 were crew members. Everyone knew for sure that the liner left Havana with 318 passengers and 231 crew members on board, and that of the 134 dead, 103 were passengers.
In addition to the dead, hundreds of people, having received severe burns, remained disabled for life... America was shocked by the cowardice, mediocrity of Worms and the meanness of Abbott. The newly appointed captain of the Morro Castle, Worms, lost his boating license and received two years in prison. Mechanic Abbott's mechanic's diploma was taken away and he was sentenced to four years in prison.
For the first time in the history of American shipping, the court sentenced the indirect culprit of the fire, a person who was not on the ship. It turned out to be the vice-president of Ward Line, Henry Kabodu. He received a year of probation and paid a fine of $5,000. According to the claims of the victims, the owners of Morro Castle paid 890 thousand dollars.
But this tragic story also had its heroes - the sailors of the Monark of Bermuda, City of Savannah and Andrea Lackenbach, the Tampa tug, and the Paramont boat, who saved about 400 people. And, of course, the main character of the events described was radio operator George Rogers. The mayors of New York and New Jersey gave lavish banquets in his honor. The US Congress awarded Rogers a gold medal for bravery.
In the hero's homeland - in the small town of Bayonne, New Jersey - a parade of the state military garrison and police took place on this occasion. Hollywood is thinking about the script for the film “I will save you people!” Rogers triumphantly traveled through many states, where he spoke to the American public with stories about the drama on Morro Castle.
In 1936 Rogers left naval service and settled in his hometown. There he was gladly offered the position of head of the radio workshop in the city police department.
Nineteen years later, Rogers was again the number one sensation. In July 1953, former Morro Castle radio operator George Rogers was arrested by police on suspicion of the brutal murder of 83-year-old typist William Hummel and his adopted daughter Edith. An American hero ended up in a prison detention cell. After deliberating for 3 hours and 20 minutes, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The investigation established that Rogers, a former American police officer, is a most dangerous person for society, a murderer, a swindler, a thief and a pyromaniac. During the investigation, facts suddenly began to emerge that shocked not only the inhabitants of Bayonne, but the entire United States. It turned out that the “national hero” was now credited with the poisoning of Captain Wilmott and the arson of Morro Castle.
During the analysis of the case, having analyzed a number of circumstances preceding the fire, interviewing witnesses and eyewitnesses, experts recreated the picture of the Morro Castle disaster. An hour before the liner left Havana, Captain Wilmott, seeing the head of the radio station carrying two bottles with some chemicals, ordered him to throw them overboard. The police learned that Wilmott and Rogers had been feuding for a long time. The fact that the captain was poisoned did not raise doubts among experts, although there was no direct evidence (the corpse burned during the fire).
Shipbuilding experts and chemists suggested that Rogers set fire to the ship using time bombs in two or three places. He turned off the automatic fire detection system and released gasoline from the emergency diesel generator tank from the upper deck to the lower ones. That's why the flames spread from top to bottom. He also took into account the storage location of signal flares and rockets. This explained the rapid spread of fire on the boat deck. The arson scheme was thought out professionally, with knowledge of the matter...
On January 10, 1958, Rogers died in prison from a myocardial infarction.
An American liner was set on fire by a pyromaniac and burned to the ground off the coast of New Jersey. 134 people died.
Morro Castle, a Ward Line liner, was the latest word in science and technology. Its turboelectric installation provided an economical speed of 25 knots. "Morro Castle" could easily compete with the German liners "Bremen" and "Europe" - winners of the "Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic". The owners of the Ward Line hoped that the new ship would bring them good profits on the so-called “drunk line” New York - Havana. Thousands of Americans, who found Prohibition a burden, flocked to Cuba with its almost free rum and available women. Particularly popular among them were the famous cabaret “La Tropicana” and three thousand bars scattered throughout Havana.
From January 1930 to the fall of 1934, Morro Castle made 173 super-profitable voyages to Cuba. Every Saturday afternoon, a thousand passengers left New York Harbor. The liner headed for Havana and, after exactly two days of sailing and 36 hours of stay in the Cuban port, returned to New York again. This schedule of movement for four years was never disrupted even by the famous West Indian hurricanes - the true scourge of navigation in the Caribbean.
On that voyage, the liner was commanded by the most experienced captain of the Ward Line company, Robert Wilmott, who faithfully served its owners for three decades.
On the evening of September 7, 1934, Morro Castle completed its 174th voyage from Havana to New York. Five hours later, abeam the lightship Ambrose, he was supposed to set a new course and, having made his way through the crowd of steamships on the East River, approach the Ward Line pier. The captain was already waiting in the cabin for passengers who had gathered for the traditional “captain’s banquet” in honor of the end of a fun voyage.
But Wilmott did not honor the passengers with his presence in the cabin at the captain's table.
“Watchman! Let them announce at the banquet that the captain is not feeling well and offer his sincere apologies. I'll have dinner served in my cabin. Call me when we’re abeam Scotland.”
These were the last words of Robert Wilmott. An hour later, the ship's doctor De Witt van Zijl confirmed his death from poisoning with some strong poison... The captain was found half-naked in the bathtub.
The news of the captain's death spread throughout the ship. The music stopped, the laughter and smiles on their faces disappeared. The banquet was canceled, and the passengers began to disperse to their cabins.
The senior mate, William Worms, took over as captain. Over the 37 years he spent at sea, he went from cabin boy to captain. In addition, he had a New York Harbor pilot's certificate. Worms decided to remain on the bridge until the ship arrived at the port, since the weather forecast received on the radio indicated that the Morro Castle near the Scotland lighthouse would enter the band of a force eight storm and would encounter two or three strong squalls from the mainland.
The ship's clock showed 2:30 a.m. when John Kempf, a 63-year-old firefighter from New York, woke up to the smell of burning. He ran out into the corridor. The ship's library room was on fire. The metal cabinet where writing instruments and paper were stored was engulfed in some strange blue flame. Kempf tore off the carbon dioxide fire extinguisher hanging on the bulkhead, unscrewed the valve and directed a stream of foam into the slightly open closet door. The flames changed color and burst out of the cabinet, scorching the fireman's eyebrows. Then Kempf rushed to the nearest hydrant, unrolled the hose and unscrewed the valve, but there was no pressure in the line. Kempf rushed to wake up the sleeping second class passengers. The lower deck corridor was also engulfed in flames. Fire always spread from bottom to top, but here, on the ship, it almost instantly rushed down...
The silence of the night was suddenly broken by heartbreaking screams. People, choking from the smoke, jumped out into the corridors in panic. Meanwhile, the occupants of the cabins where the smoke had not reached were still sleeping. And when fire alarms rang across all decks of the liner, it was already too late - the corridors and passages were engulfed in flames. The exit from the cabins was cut off by a fire curtain. Those who did not have time to leave their cabins unwittingly found themselves in the salons, the windows and portholes of which overlooked the bow of the liner.
The fire continued to pursue those trapped in the saloons of decks A, B and C. The only chance to escape is to break the windows and jump onto the deck in front of the ship's superstructure. And people broke the thick glass of the square portholes with chairs and jumped down onto the deck. Thus, almost all of the front windows were knocked out. "Morro Castle" continued to race at twenty knots. The longitudinal corridors of both sides of the liner now resembled a wind tunnel. 20 minutes after the fire started, the flames were buzzing throughout the entire liner.
The ship was doomed. But this was not yet understood on the navigation bridge and in the engine room. For unknown reasons, the fire detection system and the automatic fire extinguishing system did not work. Although Captain Worms was immediately notified of the fire, he thought more about the upcoming difficulties of mooring in the cramped New York harbor and was confident that the fire would be extinguished.
For the first half hour of the fire, Worms was in a state of some strange stupor, and only the failure of the autopilot forced him to change the course of the ship and turn away from the wind.
The trial report on the Morro Castle fire, which was later heard in New York, noted that the behavior of Captain Warms and his assistants was reminiscent of the play of tragic actors, creating panic and confusion by their actions. It was also strange that Chief Engineer Abbott, called by telephone from his cabin, did not appear on the bridge. They didn’t see him in the engine room either. It turned out that at that moment he organized the launching of the lifeboat from the starboard side. Journalists saw him in it (albeit with a broken arm) when a few hours later the boat reached the shore.
For unknown reasons, Worms did not assign any of his assistants to lead the firefighting effort. The passengers themselves tried to put out the fire. In a panic, they rolled out hoses, opened hydrants and poured water into the smoke. But the fire came - people had to seek salvation. Thus, almost all the hydrants were open, and although the mechanics had already turned on the pumps, there was almost no pressure in the main fire line. There was nothing to put out the fire.
Meanwhile, Worms transmitted commands to the mechanics by machine telegraph. For ten minutes, "Morro Castle" continually changed course, described zigzags, went into circulation, spinning in place... and the wind turned the fire into a giant raging fire.
After the last command, the diesel generators were stopped, and the liner plunged into darkness... The engine room was filled with smoke. It was no longer possible to stay there. Mechanics, mechanics, electricians and lubricants left their posts. But only a few of them managed to find salvation on the upper decks of the ship...
Worms ordered the SOS signal to be sent only fifteen minutes after he was informed that the fire could not be extinguished. At this time, Morro Castle was twenty miles south of Scotland Lighthouse, approximately eight miles from the coast.
Assistant Chief of the ship's radio station George Alagna rushed to the radio room, which was located not far from the ship's bridge. But the flames blocked his path, then Alagna shouted through the open porthole of the control room to the radio operator to send an SOS signal. The head of the ship's radio station, George Rogers, did not have time to transmit the distress signal to the end - spare acid batteries exploded in the radio room. The cabin was filled with acrid fumes. Choking from sulfur fumes and almost losing consciousness, the radio operator found the strength to once again reach for the key and convey the coordinates and a message about the tragedy that had unfolded at sea.
At 3 hours 26 minutes, the radio operator on watch of the nearby English liner Monarch of Bermuda tapped out a message received through the headphones: “CQ, SOS, 20 miles south of the Scotland lighthouse.” I can't send any more. There's a flame underneath me. Get help immediately. My radio is already smoking.”
Alagna managed to get into the burning radio room. Both radio operators made their way through the half-burnt bridge and went down the right ladder to the main deck. From there, the only way to escape was to the tank. It was already crowded there: almost all the officers and sailors of the Morro Castle were looking for salvation there. Among them was Captain Worms...
The next day, September 8, 1934, the central newspapers of the United States came out with special editions - the focus was on the events of the past night on board the Morro Castle. Sailor Leroy Kesley spoke of helpless passengers who "resembled a line of blind men desperately searching for the door." Kesley explained to journalists why the hoists jammed on many boats when descending from the Morro Castle, told how the liner, which was still moving, towed the boats behind it, how, very close to it, huge pieces of thick glass from the cabin windows, which had burst from the heat, fell into the water with a hiss, how they cut the people in the boat in half... Later the sailor recalled: “From the boat I saw a terrible sight. The burning ship continued to move away... its black hull was engulfed in orange flames of fire. Women and children, huddled closely together, stood at its stern. A cry reached us, plaintive, full of despair... This cry, similar to the groan of a dying person, will be heard by me until my death... I could only catch one word - “farewell.”
Eyewitnesses of the disaster from among the rescued passengers wrote that those who found refuge at the stern of the ship had no chance to leave the burning liner on boats. Only those who looked down without fear, where the cold water of the ocean seethed 10 meters below, could be saved.
During the investigation, it turned out that about twenty people managed to escape from the burning liner by swimming, overcoming 8 nautical miles of the raging sea. A sixteen-year-old Cuban ship's cabin boy managed to do this without a life jacket.
By dawn on September 8, a small group of crew, led by Captain Worms, remained on the already completely burned out and still smoking liner. Rogers and his deputy, second radio operator George Alagna, were also there.
To stop the ship from drifting downwind, the right main anchor was released, and when the US Navy rescue ship Tampa approached the Morro Castle, the towing had to be abandoned. Only by 13:00 were those remaining on the liner able to saw through the anchor-chain link with a hacksaw. Captain third rank Rose ordered a tug to be put on the liner's forecastle to deliver the burnt ship to New York. But by evening the weather worsened sharply and a northwest storm began. Soon the tow rope broke and wound around the Tampa's propeller. The Morro Castle began to drift into the wind until it ran aground off the coast of New Jersey, three dozen meters from the beach at Ashbari Recreation Park. This happened on Saturday at 8 pm when there were a lot of people there.
The news of the tragedy had already spread throughout New York and its suburbs, and the latest news broadcast on the radio attracted thousands of people to this unusual incident.
The next morning, 350 thousand Americans gathered in Ashbary Park, all highways and country roads were clogged with cars. The park's owners charged $10 to board the still-smoldering liner. Thrill-seekers were given respiratory masks, flashlights and fire boots so that they could enjoy visiting the burned-out Morro Castle “without risking their lives.” The governor of New Jersey was already making plans to turn the wreck of the liner into a permanent “horror attraction.” But the Ward Line company responded with a categorical refusal. She chose to sell the burned-out Morro Castle building, which at one time cost $5 million to build, for $33,605 to a Baltimore firm for scrap metal.
The investigation into the death of the Morro Castle, carried out by experts from the US Department of Commerce, who published 12 volumes of this case, established the following: the first three boats lowered from the burning ship could have carried more than 200 passengers. These boats were to be manned by 12 sailors. In fact, there were only 103 people in them, of which 92 were crew members. Everyone knew for sure that the liner left Havana with 318 passengers and 231 crew members on board, and that of the 134 dead, 103 were passengers. In addition to the dead, hundreds of people, having received severe burns, remained disabled for life...
America was shocked by the cowardice, mediocrity of Worms and the meanness of Abbott.
The newly appointed captain of the Morro Castle, Worms, lost his boating license and received two years in prison. Mechanic Abbott's mechanic's diploma was taken away and he was sentenced to four years in prison. For the first time in the history of American shipping, the court sentenced the indirect culprit of the fire, a person who was not on the ship. It turned out to be the vice-president of Ward Line, Henry Kabodu. He received a year of probation and paid a fine of $5,000. According to the claims of the victims, the owners of Morro Castle paid 890 thousand dollars.
But this tragic story also had its heroes - the sailors of the Monark of Bermuda, City of Savannah and Andrea Lackenbach, the Tampa tug, and the Paramont boat, who saved about 400 people.
And, of course, the main character of the events described was radio operator George Rogers. The mayors of New York and New Jersey gave lavish banquets in his honor. The US Congress awarded Rogers a gold medal for bravery.
In the hero's homeland - in the small town of Bayonne, New Jersey - a parade of the state military garrison and police took place on this occasion. Hollywood is thinking about the script for the film “I will save you people!” Rogers triumphantly traveled through many states, where he spoke to the American public with stories about the drama on Morro Castle.
In 1936, Rogers left the naval service and settled in his hometown. There he was gladly offered the position of head of the radio workshop in the city police department.
Nineteen years later, Rogers was again the number one sensation.
In July 1953, former Morro Castle radio operator George Rogers was arrested by police on suspicion of the brutal murder of 83-year-old typist William Hummel and his adopted daughter Edith. An American hero ended up in a prison detention cell.
After deliberating for 3 hours and 20 minutes, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The investigation established that Rogers, a former American police officer, is a most dangerous person for society, a murderer, a swindler, a thief and a pyromaniac.
During the investigation, facts suddenly began to emerge that shocked not only the inhabitants of Bayonne, but the entire United States. It turned out that the “national hero” was now credited with the poisoning of Captain Wilmott and the arson of Morro Castle.
During the analysis of the case, having analyzed a number of circumstances preceding the fire, interviewing witnesses and eyewitnesses, experts recreated the picture of the Morro Castle disaster. An hour before the liner left Havana, Captain Wilmott, seeing the head of the radio station carrying two bottles with some chemicals, ordered him to throw them overboard...
The police learned that Wilmott and Rogers had been feuding for a long time. The fact that the captain was poisoned did not raise doubts among experts, although there was no direct evidence (the corpse burned during the fire).
Shipbuilding experts and chemists suggested that Rogers set fire to the ship using time bombs in two or three places. He turned off the automatic fire detection system and released gasoline from the emergency diesel generator tank from the upper deck to the lower ones. That's why the flames spread from top to bottom. He also took into account the storage location of signal flares and rockets. This explained the rapid spread of fire on the boat deck. The arson scheme was thought out professionally and competently.
"MORRO CASTLE"
An American liner was set on fire by a pyromaniac and burned to the ground off the coast of New Jersey. 134 people died.
Morro Castle, a Ward Line liner, was the latest word in science and technology. Its turboelectric installation provided an economical speed of 25 knots. "Morro Castle" could easily compete with the German liners "Bremen" and "Europe" - winners of the "Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic". The owners of the Ward Line hoped that the new ship would bring them good profits on the so-called “drunk line” New York - Havana. Thousands of Americans, who found Prohibition a burden, flocked to Cuba with its almost free rum and available women. Particularly popular among them were the famous cabaret “La Tropicana” and three thousand bars scattered throughout Havana.
From January 1930 to the fall of 1934, Morro Castle made 173 super-profitable voyages to Cuba. Every Saturday afternoon, a thousand passengers left New York Harbor. The liner headed for Havana and, after exactly two days of sailing and 36 hours of stay in the Cuban port, returned to New York again. This schedule of movement for four years was never disrupted even by the famous West Indian hurricanes - the true scourge of navigation in the Caribbean.
On that voyage, the liner was commanded by the most experienced captain of the Ward Line company, Robert Wilmott, who faithfully served its owners for three decades.
On the evening of September 7, 1934, Morro Castle completed its 174th voyage from Havana to New York. Five hours later, abeam the lightship Ambrose, he was supposed to set a new course and, having made his way through the crowd of steamships on the East River, approach the Ward Line pier. The captain was already waiting in the cabin for passengers who had gathered for the traditional “captain’s banquet” in honor of the end of a fun voyage.
But Wilmott did not honor the passengers with his presence in the cabin at the captain's table.
“Watchman! Let them announce at the banquet that the captain is not feeling well and offer his sincere apologies. I'll have dinner served in my cabin. Call me when we’re abeam Scotland.”
These were the last words of Robert Wilmott. An hour later, the ship's doctor De Witt van Zijl confirmed his death from poisoning with some strong poison... The captain was found half-naked in the bathtub.
The news of the captain's death spread throughout the ship. The music stopped, the laughter and smiles on their faces disappeared. The banquet was canceled, and the passengers began to disperse to their cabins.
The senior mate, William Worms, took over as captain. Over the 37 years he spent at sea, he went from cabin boy to captain. In addition, he had a New York Harbor pilot's certificate. Worms decided to remain on the bridge until the ship arrived at the port, since the weather forecast received on the radio indicated that the Morro Castle near the Scotland lighthouse would enter the band of a force eight storm and would encounter two or three strong squalls from the mainland.
The ship's clock showed 2:30 a.m. when John Kempf, a 63-year-old firefighter from New York, woke up to the smell of burning. He ran out into the corridor. The ship's library room was on fire. The metal cabinet where writing instruments and paper were stored was engulfed in some strange blue flame. Kempf tore off the carbon dioxide fire extinguisher hanging on the bulkhead, unscrewed the valve and directed a stream of foam into the slightly open closet door. The flames changed color and burst out of the cabinet, scorching the fireman's eyebrows. Then Kempf rushed to the nearest hydrant, unrolled the hose and unscrewed the valve, but there was no pressure in the line. Kempf rushed to wake up the sleeping second class passengers. The lower deck corridor was also engulfed in flames. Fire always spread from bottom to top, but here, on the ship, it almost instantly rushed down...
The silence of the night was suddenly broken by heartbreaking screams. People, choking from the smoke, jumped out into the corridors in panic. Meanwhile, the occupants of the cabins where the smoke had not reached were still sleeping. And when fire alarms rang across all decks of the liner, it was already too late - the corridors and passages were engulfed in flames. The exit from the cabins was cut off by a fire curtain. Those who did not have time to leave their cabins unwittingly found themselves in the salons, the windows and portholes of which overlooked the bow of the liner.
The fire continued to pursue those trapped in the saloons of decks A, B and C. The only chance to escape is to break the windows and jump onto the deck in front of the ship's superstructure. And people broke the thick glass of the square portholes with chairs and jumped down onto the deck. Thus, almost all of the front windows were knocked out. "Morro Castle" continued to race at twenty knots. The longitudinal corridors of both sides of the liner now resembled a wind tunnel. 20 minutes after the fire started, the flames were buzzing throughout the entire liner.
The ship was doomed. But this was not yet understood on the navigation bridge and in the engine room. For unknown reasons, the fire detection system and the automatic fire extinguishing system did not work. Although Captain Worms was immediately notified of the fire, he thought more about the upcoming difficulties of mooring in the cramped New York harbor and was confident that the fire would be extinguished.
For the first half hour of the fire, Worms was in a state of some strange stupor, and only the failure of the autopilot forced him to change the course of the ship and turn away from the wind.
The trial report on the Morro Castle fire, which was later heard in New York, noted that the behavior of Captain Warms and his assistants was reminiscent of the play of tragic actors, creating panic and confusion by their actions. It was also strange that Chief Engineer Abbott, called by telephone from his cabin, did not appear on the bridge. They didn’t see him in the engine room either. It turned out that at that moment he organized the launching of the lifeboat from the starboard side. Journalists saw him in it (albeit with a broken arm) when a few hours later the boat reached the shore.
For unknown reasons, Worms did not assign any of his assistants to lead the firefighting effort. The passengers themselves tried to put out the fire. In a panic, they rolled out hoses, opened hydrants and poured water into the smoke. But the fire came - people had to seek salvation. Thus, almost all the hydrants were open, and although the mechanics had already turned on the pumps, there was almost no pressure in the main fire line. There was nothing to put out the fire.
Meanwhile, Worms transmitted commands to the mechanics by machine telegraph. For ten minutes, "Morro Castle" continually changed course, described zigzags, went into circulation, spinning in place... and the wind turned the fire into a giant raging fire.
After the last command, the diesel generators were stopped, and the liner plunged into darkness... The engine room was filled with smoke. It was no longer possible to stay there. Mechanics, mechanics, electricians and lubricants left their posts. But only a few of them managed to find salvation on the upper decks of the ship...
Worms ordered the SOS signal to be sent only fifteen minutes after he was informed that the fire could not be extinguished. At this time, Morro Castle was twenty miles south of Scotland Lighthouse, approximately eight miles from the coast.
Assistant Chief of the ship's radio station George Alagna rushed to the radio room, which was located not far from the ship's bridge. But the flames blocked his path, then Alagna shouted through the open porthole of the control room to the radio operator to send an SOS signal. The head of the ship's radio station, George Rogers, did not have time to transmit the distress signal to the end - spare acid batteries exploded in the radio room. The cabin was filled with acrid fumes. Choking from sulfur fumes and almost losing consciousness, the radio operator found the strength to once again reach for the key and convey the coordinates and a message about the tragedy that had unfolded at sea.
At 3 hours 26 minutes, the radio operator on watch of the nearby English liner Monarch of Bermuda tapped out a message received through the headphones: “CQ, SOS, 20 miles south of the Scotland lighthouse.” I can't send any more. There's a flame underneath me. Get help immediately. My radio is already smoking.”
Alagna managed to get into the burning radio room. Both radio operators made their way through the half-burnt bridge and went down the right ladder to the main deck. From there, the only way to escape was to the tank. It was already crowded there: almost all the officers and sailors of the Morro Castle were looking for salvation there. Among them was Captain Worms...
The next day, September 8, 1934, the central newspapers of the United States came out with special editions - the focus was on the events of the past night on board the Morro Castle. Sailor Leroy Kesley spoke of helpless passengers who "resembled a line of blind men desperately searching for the door." Kesley explained to journalists why the hoists jammed on many boats when descending from the Morro Castle, told how the liner, which was still moving, towed the boats behind it, how, very close to it, huge pieces of thick glass from the cabin windows, which had burst from the heat, fell into the water with a hiss, how they cut the people in the boat in half... Later the sailor recalled: “From the boat I saw a terrible sight. The burning ship continued to move away... its black hull was engulfed in orange flames of fire. Women and children, huddled closely together, stood at its stern. A cry reached us, plaintive, full of despair... This cry, similar to the groan of a dying person, will be heard by me until my death... I could only catch one word - “farewell.”
Eyewitnesses of the disaster from among the rescued passengers wrote that those who found refuge at the stern of the ship had no chance to leave the burning liner on boats. Only those who looked down without fear, where the cold water of the ocean seethed 10 meters below, could be saved.
During the investigation, it turned out that about twenty people managed to escape from the burning liner by swimming, overcoming 8 nautical miles of the raging sea. A sixteen-year-old Cuban ship's cabin boy managed to do this without a life jacket.
By dawn on September 8, a small group of crew, led by Captain Worms, remained on the already completely burned out and still smoking liner. Rogers and his deputy, second radio operator George Alagna, were also there.
To stop the ship from drifting downwind, the right main anchor was released, and when the US Navy rescue ship Tampa approached the Morro Castle, the towing had to be abandoned. Only by 13:00 were those remaining on the liner able to saw through the anchor-chain link with a hacksaw. Captain third rank Rose ordered a tug to be put on the liner's forecastle to deliver the burnt ship to New York. But by evening the weather worsened sharply and a northwest storm began. Soon the tow rope broke and wound around the Tampa's propeller. The Morro Castle began to drift into the wind until it ran aground off the coast of New Jersey, three dozen meters from the beach at Ashbari Recreation Park. This happened on Saturday at 8 pm when there were a lot of people there.
The news of the tragedy had already spread throughout New York and its suburbs, and the latest news broadcast on the radio attracted thousands of people to this unusual incident.
The next morning, 350 thousand Americans gathered in Ashbary Park, all highways and country roads were clogged with cars. The park's owners charged $10 to board the still-smoldering liner. Thrill-seekers were given respiratory masks, flashlights and fire boots so that they could enjoy visiting the burned-out Morro Castle “without risking their lives.” The governor of New Jersey was already making plans to turn the wreck of the liner into a permanent “horror attraction.” But the Ward Line company responded with a categorical refusal. She chose to sell the burned-out Morro Castle building, which at one time cost $5 million to build, for $33,605 to a Baltimore firm for scrap metal.
The investigation into the death of the Morro Castle, carried out by experts from the US Department of Commerce, who published 12 volumes of this case, established the following: the first three boats lowered from the burning ship could have carried more than 200 passengers. These boats were to be manned by 12 sailors. In fact, there were only 103 people in them, of which 92 were crew members. Everyone knew for sure that the liner left Havana with 318 passengers and 231 crew members on board, and that of the 134 dead, 103 were passengers. In addition to the dead, hundreds of people, having received severe burns, remained disabled for life...
America was shocked by the cowardice, mediocrity of Worms and the meanness of Abbott.
The newly appointed captain of the Morro Castle, Worms, lost his boating license and received two years in prison. Mechanic Abbott's mechanic's diploma was taken away and he was sentenced to four years in prison. For the first time in the history of American shipping, the court sentenced the indirect culprit of the fire, a person who was not on the ship. It turned out to be the vice-president of Ward Line, Henry Kabodu. He received a year of probation and paid a fine of $5,000. According to the claims of the victims, the owners of Morro Castle paid 890 thousand dollars.
But this tragic story also had its heroes - the sailors of the Monark of Bermuda, City of Savannah and Andrea Lackenbach, the Tampa tug, and the Paramont boat, who saved about 400 people.
And, of course, the main character of the events described was radio operator George Rogers. The mayors of New York and New Jersey gave lavish banquets in his honor. The US Congress awarded Rogers a gold medal for bravery.
In the hero's homeland - in the small town of Bayonne, New Jersey - a parade of the state military garrison and police took place on this occasion. Hollywood is thinking about the script for the film “I will save you people!” Rogers triumphantly traveled through many states, where he spoke to the American public with stories about the drama on Morro Castle.
In 1936, Rogers left the naval service and settled in his hometown. There he was gladly offered the position of head of the radio workshop in the city police department.
Nineteen years later, Rogers was again the number one sensation.
In July 1953, former Morro Castle radio operator George Rogers was arrested by police on suspicion of the brutal murder of 83-year-old typist William Hummel and his adopted daughter Edith. An American hero ended up in a prison detention cell.
After deliberating for 3 hours and 20 minutes, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The investigation established that Rogers, a former American police officer, is a most dangerous person for society, a murderer, a swindler, a thief and a pyromaniac.
During the investigation, facts suddenly began to emerge that shocked not only the inhabitants of Bayonne, but the entire United States. It turned out that the “national hero” was now credited with the poisoning of Captain Wilmott and the arson of Morro Castle.
During the analysis of the case, having analyzed a number of circumstances preceding the fire, interviewing witnesses and eyewitnesses, experts recreated the picture of the Morro Castle disaster. An hour before the liner left Havana, Captain Wilmott, seeing the head of the radio station carrying two bottles with some chemicals, ordered him to throw them overboard...
The police learned that Wilmott and Rogers had been feuding for a long time. The fact that the captain was poisoned did not raise doubts among experts, although there was no direct evidence (the corpse burned during the fire).
Shipbuilding experts and chemists suggested that Rogers set fire to the ship using time bombs in two or three places. He turned off the automatic fire detection system and released gasoline from the emergency diesel generator tank from the upper deck to the lower ones. That's why the flames spread from top to bottom. He also took into account the storage location of signal flares and rockets. This explained the rapid spread of fire on the boat deck. The arson scheme was thought out professionally and competently.
This text is an introductory fragment.One of the most mysterious disasters at sea is the fire on the Moro Castle on September 8, 1934.
"Moro Castle" is a tourist liner connecting New York - Havana. Wealthy citizens went to Cuba to drink (prohibition, although it was already repealed in 1934), go on carousing in other ways (Cuba in the 1930s was a “brothel island”), and also have abortions (with them in the USA in the 1930s was problematic).
A story full of apparent negligence, deadly coincidences and human stupidity began with the death of Captain Robert Wilmott. Wilmott died suddenly, a few hours before the fire, and some circumstances resembled poisoning, which after the fire could no longer be verified.
First Mate William Worms assumed the post of captain, and his first order was to reduce the water pressure in the ship's water supply: one of the engines was malfunctioning.
At about three o'clock in the morning, near the ship's library, a fire was discovered in a cabinet with papers, the causes of which (in a closed and insulated cabinet) are still unknown. They extinguished it with a fire extinguisher, so skillfully that the fire engulfed the entire room.
The captain, who was quite far from the fire, did not delve into the situation for a long time and did not give any clear orders, despite the fact that the Moro Castle radio operator Rogers diligently held the frequency to transmit the SOS signal.
The fire, meanwhile, engulfed a significant area, and due to the fact that flammable polish was used when polishing the wooden lining of the passenger decks, it began to spread not upward, but downward, towards the cabins. By order of the captain, passengers began to gather at the stern of the ship, which was sailing against the wind, that is, all the fumes and smoke were flying towards them. Some couldn't stand it and jumped into the sea.
By this time, two things became clear. Firstly, Captain Wilmott, who suddenly died, was carrying a smuggled shipment of calf skins, the smell of which spread throughout the ship along the fire alarm. Therefore, Wilmott ordered it to be blocked and during the fire it did not turn on.
Secondly, due to Worms's first order, the water pressure did not allow the use of fire hoses.
On top of that, while Warms was thinking about how to get out of the situation, the fire damaged the ship's wiring and the burning ship found itself in darkness.
Chief Engineer Abbott, who was supposed to be in charge of the rescue efforts, did not like Worms and therefore neglected his duties, put on a white uniform, ordered the lifeboat to be lowered and waved his hand to everyone. He also became famous for throwing passengers into the sea who were trying to get into the boat.
And only radio operator Rogers, already losing consciousness from the smoke, managed to send out an SOS in this chaos. And the passengers continued to rush from bow to stern.
And when the ship approached to tow the burning "Moro Castle" to the shore, which was in line of sight, it turned out that, among other things, Warms ordered the anchor to be released, and due to the lack of electricity it could not be raised. And the crew, including the captain, began to cut the anchor chain. They sawed for a long, long time, all the survivors were even evacuated, but they kept sawing.
In total, more than 130 people died during the fire, and only the hull remained of the ship. The investigation revealed a huge number of oddities and creepy details (for example, there was evidence that some people purposefully killed passengers and crew members, including with firearms).
The causes of the fire and Wilmott’s death are still unknown (besides him, another member of the team, a very young one, also died under the same strange, poison-like circumstances).
Today, the most popular (but not proven) version is the pyromaniacal tendencies of the heroic radio operator Rogers, whose biography included a lot of strange incidents, including murder (this was discovered only in the 50s; Rogers did not arouse suspicion among the investigative commission).
And on the link (there is the most detailed analysis in Russian of this story) they put forward the version that this is all a terrorist attack by agents of the Comintern. Read if you are interested, the version was clearly far-fetched for greater originality, but the details of the disaster are better than on many English-language sites.
11-07-2007
I looked online for information about the 1934 fire on the American steamship Morro Castle, described by Skryagin in his book, as promised, dear Editor. Regarding the detective component, no evidence of Skryagin’s speculations, except for the usual reporter’s lies, could be found, and this, however, is completely uninteresting at a level above the philistine. Who today is interested in all sorts of dirty tricks of a detective nature that took place seventy years ago?
The ship's captain was not poisoned, but died of a heart attack; as for arson, there is no convincing evidence of it. The fire started in the latrine next to the library, not in the library, and not from the mythical incendiary device, but from God knows what.
One of the credible articles about Morro Castle is on the history site passenger messages http://www.garemaritime.com/features/morro-castle/01.php
In particular, it says:
"Stories of poisoning and intrigue later circulated, but Wilmott"s final recorded words ("could you mix me up an enema?" delivered by telephone) and the fact that he was found toppled over into his bathtub with his pants around his ankles strongly suggest that he died of a heart attack or a stroke while trying to force a bowel movement; the doctors who were summoned agreed that it most likely was a heart attack."
("There were rumors of poisoning and conspiracy, but Wilmot's last words on the phone, 'Will you give me an enema,' and the fact that he was found slumped in the bathtub with his pants down to his knees strongly suggests that he died of a heart attack or stroke while he was fighting with constipation; the doctors who were called came to the conclusion that, most likely, it was a heart attack.")
Nevertheless, interesting information can be extracted from the history of the fire at Morro Castle. There are three dubious points in this matter: why is the equipped "by last word equipment" the passenger ship burned like a sheaf of straw, why the crew led by the chief engineer fled from the ship, forgetting about the passengers, and why the passengers behaved like bestials, pushing women and children away from the lifeboats.
As for the fire, there are no special secrets here. To some extent, designers are also black marketers, since the most important thing in design work is to sell the project. No, they did everything right - both automatic fire extinguishing and alarm systems, but they “forgot” to tell the customer that all this hardware is worthless without constant checks of the functionality of fire-fighting devices and without persistent training of the crew on actions in case of fire. You can't call a fire brigade at sea. The phrase “merely worth” is key here, since they could not value their project with such a sum.
There is an interesting circumstance associated with the assessment by designers of emergency situations during the operation of design objects. All such cases are divided into “design” and “beyond design”. The instructions describe “design-specific” situations, those that designers consider more probable, other situations are considered “beyond design-specific”, and the designer is simply silent about them. An off-design situation occurred on the Morro Castle when savvy passengers broke down the windows, creating the conditions for the ship to be transformed into a forge. The secret here is simple, and it lies in the field of farcing (we will call it “free market” and “market economy” for brevity. Almost everything can be provided for, but it will cost a lot of money. It is cheaper for the customer to insure the vessel, and as for the lives of passengers, then this is the tenth thing for a black marketeer.
It is curious that when reading descriptions of the death of Morro Castle, I constantly had associations with the Chernobyl accident. This is far from accidental; all misfortunes are based on almost the same reasons. At Chernobyl, the designers "forgot" to tell the reactor operators that under certain circumstances the reactor could be blown to pieces by an atomic explosion, or, in the language of these shy designers, "an uncontrolled chain reaction using prompt neutrons could occur in the reactor."
There is one more subtlety in the relationship “customer-designer-operator (ship crew)”. The project is ordered, of course, by the customer, someone sitting in an office, and not on board a ship or at a nuclear power plant. Its explosions and fires are of more theoretical interest; it won’t have to burn or explode. Designers rarely die, leaving this honorable right to the operators (team).
There is an unspoken opinion that the one who is the first to die will be able to figure out how this can be avoided. And indeed, where the operators are sane, they quite often find and, as best they can, correct the mistakes of the designers.
Here we come to question number two: what kind of team was it on Morro Castle?
Based on information gleaned from the Internet, I believe that the team consisted of morally corrupt people who had lost their human appearance due to their proximity to the same farce.
Prohibition on the mainland and the absence of it in Cuba, where the ship only sailed, created a very specific situation. The ship resembled a floating brothel, transporting those who wanted to drink and copulate on the cheap. Everything cost $75, round trip (excluding gender discourse). Prostitutes were constantly present on the ship, but, mysteriously, they were always not included in the passenger list. Moreover, the ship was sailing without interruptions, as required by the laws of farce, and if the sailor (the command staff was allowed leave) wanted to rest or visit relatives, he had to resign. The staff turnover was horrendous, so what fire drills are there!
Again, I remember Chernobyl, and the stories of one of the heads of the station about how fun they were having, organizing cultural trips for employees to the Black Sea shore, where almost everyone got drunk to the point of being a white beast. As for moral character, the Chernobyl nuclear workers dragged everything they could from the plant. In June 1986, when eliminating the consequences of an accident, I needed metering pumps, which, as I assumed, must have been at the station. After an intense interrogation of one of the engineers, who had to be intimidated by the KGB, he admitted that he had stolen the motor and gearbox from the dispenser in order to New Year rotate the Christmas tree in your apartment. The investigation was unable to find any other dispensers in my person.
The crew of the Morro Castle, from the chief engineer to the last bilge sailor, was preoccupied with the income from smuggling and from the prostitutes whom they illegally brought to the ship in Havana. They had no time for fire drills.
The crew of a ship, as well as a nuclear power plant, must consist of honest people with certain moral principles. otherwise the ship will sink and the station will explode. Not without the help, if not the main role, of owners and designers.
Finally, why did the Morro Castle passengers behave like pigs? The reason here, I think, is clear to everyone - these were mainly pigs who decided to snort on the cheap and finally realize their American dream.
