SS Morro Castle (1930)

Uncommon card · No. 189162

SS Morro Castle was an American ocean liner that caught fire and ran aground on the morning of September 8, 1934, en route from Havana, Cuba, to New York City, United States, with the loss of 137 passengers and crew. On the previous evening, Morro Castle's captain, Robert Willmott, had died suddenly, and his place was taken by Chief Officer William Warms as a strong northeast wind was developing under heavy cloud. At 2:50am, a fire was detected in a storage locker, which burned through electrical cables, engulfed the ship in flames and plunged it into darkness. Responses by the crew, the United States Coast Guard and rescue vessels were notably slow and inefficient, with lifeboats not loaded to their capacity. The decks were too hot to stand on, smoke made breathing difficult and passengers were forced to leap into ocean swells where swimming was impossible. By mid-afternoon Morro Castle was abandoned and the survivors were landed on the shores of New Jersey by an assortment of craft. The...

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