SS Morro Castle catalyst for Merchant Marine Act of 1936
Posted on September 14, 2008
Filed Under History, US Laws & Codes | 1 Comment
A nor’easter turned the Atlantic into an angry ocean on the night of September 8, 1934. The SS Morro Castle, all 508 feet and 11,000 pounds of her, chugged hard through the high winds and pounding waves on her way to New York from Havana. The weather was mean and cruel, but nature wouldn’t deal the hardest blow that night.
In the early evening, Captain Robert Willmott took dinner in his cabin. Later he called for the ship’s doctor complaining of stomach pain, not long after, he died, perhaps of a heart attack, though, some 74 years later, some still speculate that the captain was poisoned. Command of the ship went to Chief Officer William Warms.
At 3 a.m. fire was detected in a storage locker. By 3:10, fire had eaten through the main electric line, plunging the ship into darkness and confusion. By 3:30 a.m. flames engulfed the ship. The design of the ship with its highly varnished surfaces and wooden framed fire doors helped to feed the fire.
The crew, poorly trained, did little to help passengers who were never instructed in a fire drill, nor taught how properly to use the life preservers. Many passengers jumped from the ship, snapping their necks on landing, or knocked unconscious and later drowning.
Chief Officer Warms tried beaching the Morro, but his strategy only pushed the ship into the winds, fanning the flames. By morning, 137 of the 549 passengers and crew were dead. The carcass of the SS Morro Castle lodged itself at Asbury Park, NJ and remained there until towed away on March 14, 1935.
In the aftermath of the SS Morro Castle disaster, laws were passed that required ships be built with fire retardant materials, have automatic fire doors, install ship-wide fire alarms and emergency generators, and place greater attention and emphasis on fire drills for passengers.
Also, the SS Morro Castle tragedy provided the impetus for the United States Congress to pass the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. Among other things, the act established training requirements for crews and was the impetus for the establishment of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The act also formalized the rights of seaman, giving them greater protection and recourse against ship’s companies, captains or fellow crewmembers.
For good and ill, the tragedy of the SS Morro Castle is still felt 74-years later.
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