The Tragic Fate Of The SS Morro Castle | History Retold | Absolute History

[Music] the see thousands upon thousands of miles of empty water the world's oceans are as beautiful as they are deadly if the ship encounters trouble far from land there is little those on board can do except hope for rescue those synching may seem to be the worst that can happen to a ship at sea it's actually fire that creates the most horrific pain and suffering because not only does a fire at sea Mina's ship is going down but passengers and crew have two choices be burned alive or jump into an unforgiving ocean a fire aboard ship is indiscriminate in its attack taking the lives of everyone from immigrants seeking a new life to cruise ship elite looking for a good time on the waves throughout the ages there are thousands of stories of horrific fires at sea but many of the most infamous are not well known the images that tell their tales are remarkable haunting and rarely seen now with restored film footage and high-definition photo technology we can look deep inside these seagoing stories of heroism and tragedy to fully understand what happens aboard ship when there is a fire [Music] Asbury Park New Jersey located in the northern part of what's known as the Jersey Shore this beach town complete with a miles long boardwalk is the summertime respite for New Yorkers and Jersey residents alike looking for a fun place to beat the heat it's been that way for more than 100 years during the decades Asbury Park has seen its share of disasters hurricanes flooding drownings but nothing in the city's history can compete with the events on the morning of September 8th 1934 three miles offshore the fiery Hulk of a passenger ship steams north through choppy waters hundreds of people are pulled from the roiling see some alive many dead the ship the SS Morro Castle winds up beaching itself on the shore directly adjacent to the Asbury Park Convention Center it is a horrific and bill wildering seen how the moral castle winds up here and how 137 passengers and crew die is the stuff of maritime legend it begins four years earlier when the Morro castle is built and launched by the Ward Line a company that specializes in sending ships up and down the east coast of North and South America carrying passengers untrimmed vacations the Morro Castle has one of the best runs of them all from New York City to Havana Cuba and back again all in under a week but the stories of the Morro Castle are more than those of just great parties it is rumored that the ship's owner the Ward Line has accepted money from revolutionaries in Cuba to smuggle in weapons from the United States though nothing has ever been proved early evening September 7th 1934 Morro Castle is on its return voyage to New York it's scheduled to arrive early the next morning the ship is crashing through rough seas a major storm has been brewing along the East Coast and the Morro Castle is plowing through some serious Atlantic chop and 30 mile an hour winds still it is whether the ship can handle but everything changes around a p.m. [Music] the ship's captain Robert Wilma tells crewmembers he isn't feeling well and he's going to lie down in his cabin an hour later he is found dead of a heart attack command of the ship is turned over to chief officer William warms a much less experienced seaman just before 3:00 a.m. think smoke starts pouring from a storage locker in the ship's first-class writing room located on B deck within minutes flames have burst from the locker and are ripping through the writing room spreading to surrounding hallways and offices the Morro Castle is on fire it doesn't take long for the fire to spread and wreak havoc throughout the ship it burns the wiring of its electrical system plunging the morale castle into darkness [Music] chief officer warms attempts to beach the ship but the fire has cut the vessels hydraulic lines leaving the crew no way to steer crews on other ships see a strange glow on the horizon during the night the Moro castles radio officer George Rogers becomes a hero because he sends out the only SOS before the Morro Castle loses all power the churning seas and confusing lack of information compounds any rescue efforts for other vessels to reach the burning ship passengers and crew members scramble in the darkness to the deck waiting for daybreak and a chance to escape there are 12 lifeboats on board not enough for the 549 passengers and crew some of the davits for the lifeboats are covered with so much paint they cannot be freed for use the Morro Castle becomes a raging inferno passengers have a choice burn or jump many jump into the high seas with life preservers around them and wind up drowning or breaking their necks in the 60-foot fall what was supposed to have been a celebratory final night at sea has descended into madness first with the death of the ship's captain and then by a suspicious fire which has turned the moral Castle into a flaming floating coffin New York Harbor it's here that millions of immigrants came ashore 100 years ago searching for a better life and it's here that people who live in New York escaped the grit and grime of the city by taking day-long cruises on steam ships built exclusively for running up and down the Hudson and East rivers one of those ships is called the General Slocum named after Civil War hero and New York congressman Henry Warner Slocum the Slocum is built in a Brooklyn drydock in 1891 she is 235 feet long and 37 feet wide she has three decks three watertight compartments and 250 electric lights the General Slocum is powered by two paddle wheels one on each side of the ship each wheel has 26 massive paddles that push the Slocum through the water at a respectable speed of 16 knots the ship has a crew of 22 under the command of Captain William H Ben Shia in the decades after it launches the Slocum is plagued by many mishaps it runs aground several times with passengers having to be hoisted from the landlocked ship but none of that compares to the morning of June 15th 1904 it is a Wednesday and the Slocum has been chartered by state marks Evangelical Lutheran Church from the little Germany district of Manhattan the cost of the church's charter is three hundred and fifty dollars more than 14-hundred church members board the Slocum most of them women and children the ship leaves its dock at 9:30 a.m. and is to sail up the East River then eastward across the Long Island Sound to Locust Grove a picnic site at Eaton's neck long island but as the ship passes 90th Street a fire starts in its lamp room in the forward part of the Slocum the fire quickly spreads fueled by straw oil and oily rags that are strewn about the room deckhand John J Coakley sees the smoke and attempts to put the fire out but when he opens the door to the lamp room he lets in a huge draught of air which causes a massive fireball to explode the General Slocum is ablaze and in serious trouble frantic passengers grabbed four life jackets which have been stowed in the sealing compartments of the Slocum since its launch 13 years earlier the jackets are made from cheap cork mother's put the lifejackets on their children and throw them into the river in an effort to save them from the flames only to watch the court jackets fill with water and pull the helpless kids beneath the waves to make matters worse almost none of the immigrants on board know how to swim and they are all wearing heavy woolen clothing when the passengers jump into the water their clothes quickly become saturated making it impossible for anyone to stay afloat captain bond shiok keeps the Slocum going at full steam not wanting to pull the ship into a dock and risking of fire on land this only fans the flames turning the Slocum into a waterborne inferno passengers jump overboard to escape the flames but many are sucked under and thrashed to death by the still turning paddle wheels by the time the Slocum beaches itself at North Brother Island just off the Bronx Shore the ship's floors collapse sending hundreds more to a watery grave an estimated 1021 people have either burned to death or drowned [Music] [Music] 321 passengers survived it's said that when husbands return home from work that evening the entire lower east side of the city is empty none of their families survived it takes days for authorities to retrieve the bodies and to raise the ship from the bottom of the river [Music] coffins are stacked high at Brother Island New York's City Hall is draped in black mourning the massive loss of life [Music] funerals are held for weeks [Music] at the coroner's inquest Frank Barnaby president of the Knickerbocker steamship company which owned the Slocum is grilled on why work orders for repairs that should have been made to the ship were forged [Music] though accusations are leveled at nearly everyone associated with the disaster the only person convicted of a crime is Captain Vaughn Shia who is found guilty of criminal negligence for failing to maintain fire drills and fire extinguishers aboard ship he is sentenced to ten years in prison but is paroled after serving only three and a half the General Slocum tragedy remains the greatest ship disaster in the history of New York City and was responsible for the greatest loss of life in the city's history until the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 the Slocum burned so badly because her captain ran the fiery ship into the wind the same thing happens three decades later off the shore of New Jersey not long after crew members of the Morro Castle passenger ship first report a fire on B deck the Morro Castle goes up in flames in the middle of the night and everything that can go wrong does only six of the 12 lifeboats are launched during the fire carrying a total of just 85 people most of them members of the crew residents frantically tow lifeboats to the shore lifeguards pull hard against the pounding surf to get their boats out to sea local ships head out looking for survivors dozens of people who either swim for land or who are swept toward the shore by the current are pulled from the roiling surf by lifeguards and onlookers nearly drowned many of those who survived the three-mile watery Trek have to be resuscitated once they're pulled onto the beach [Music] aroused from sleep only a few hours from home and in scary night attire hurled into a maelstrom of death they are still too stunned to tell a coherent story of those hours of Terror they only know they're still alive and wonder why [Music] [Music] survivors either pulled from the surf or plucked from the ocean by rescue ships tell horrifying tales of having to jump into the water or be burned alive the only thing to do was to jump overboard I followed the phrase girl over and I don't know where she got the courage to jump over well anyway I fall at her saying that she could do it I guess I'm lucky to be alive that's all you see I have a watch here that stopped exactly at 25 minutes to 5 that's the time I jumped in the water and from then on I hung around the water trying my best to get all excited for seven hours we couldn't find her and I still don't know whether that she has been rescued or not I'm hoping very much that she was on the beach survivors and rescuers struggle to make sense of the tragedy unfolding before them as rescue ships search the waters for survivors the US Cutter Tampa attaches a cable to the bow of the Morro Castle in an attempt to tow the fiery wreck north to New York but the weight of the ship combined with the stress caused by the high seas snaps the towline and the Morro Castle heads straight for the Jersey Shore with heavy surf pushing the ship toward land there is nothing stopping it from running straight into the beach [Music] on the east side of Cuba's Habana harbour several storeys above the crashing surf is what remains of a once mighty fortress called the Morrel castle built in 1589 and designed by italian engineer juan bautista Anatoly the fort was built to help stop raids launched from the sea on the city of Havana it was originally under the control of Spain overtaken by the British in 1762 it was returned to Spain a year later and this imposing rock balustrade is the namesake of the cruise ship Morro Castle in the late 1800s Cuba is struggling for its independence from Spain the United States which is isolationist when it comes to problems in other countries does not intervene despite Cuba being only 90 miles south of Florida and the u.s. having a general disdain for the Spanish quietly however many inside the US military government and in big business are looking for an excuse to go to war it's in the waters just offshore from the fortress Morro Castle that those officials will soon get what they need one of the most infamous explosions and fires at sea that ever occurred the USS name a United States warship constructed in the late 19th century is built out of necessity at the time the United States Navy is weak its commanders feel that it will be impossible to protect the US coastal cities from an attack by sea when the Brazilian Navy in 1883 launches its ironclad warship rich yellow giving Brazil along with its other warships what was considered to be the finest Navy in the Western Hemisphere US military commanders know they are in trouble the chairman of the House naval Affairs Committee Hilary Herbert says to Congress quote if all this old Navy of ours were drawn up in battle array and mid-ocean and confronted by the rich yellow it is doubtful whether a single vessel bearing an American flag would make it back to port in response the u.s. begins building two huge warships at the shipyards in Brooklyn New York the Texas and the USS Maine the steel sighted ships are an answer to Brazil's sabre-rattling and an effort to ensure that the u.s. can do more than just protect its own shores it can attack other ships at sea as well but the main seems cursed from its start it takes nine years from when it's keel is laid until she is ready to be put into service there are problems with the u.s. steel industry at the time overwhelmed by work orders in the new industrial age and suffering from wildcat strikes by laborers demanding more rights strangely and perhaps prophetically there is a fire in the drawing room of the building yard where the mains working set of blueprints are stored engineers go to work they draw up new blueprints but the plans are more complicated than the original causing further delays in getting the newly designed main constructed and into the water [Music] on November 18th 1889 hundreds of spectators gather at the Navy shipyards in Brooklyn New York for the launch of the USS Maine underneath the entire length of the 324 footlong ship builders hammer in wedges that will lift the Maine from the blocks on which it was built to launching ways as a new support now crews with large two-man saws begin cutting away at these sole piece a large timber of oak that holds back the tremendous pull of the huge ship during the last moments that the saws teeth cut through the oak the Maine begins to grow Alice Tracey Wilmerding granddaughter of Navy secretary Benjamin F Tracy swings a huge bottle of champagne that shatters on the Mane's bow just as she begins to slide her way down the launch way and into the water in 1895 the Maine joins the u.s. fleet patrolling the east coast of the United States part of the Maine's armaments include four eighteen inch torpedo tubes that can be fired and rapid secession either at enemy ships or submarines in addition to its on deck large cannons the Maine comes with a full complement of lighter but deadly weaponry six 6-inch guns are mounted in cast mates in the hull to each at the bow and stern and to amidships they fire shells that weigh 105 pounds with a muzzle velocity of about 1950 feet per second with a maximum range of 9,000 yards the main is also fitted with anti torpedo boat armament which consists of seven fifty seven millimeter 6-pounder guns mounted on the superstructure of the deck they fire a shell weighing about six pounds at a muzzle velocity of one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five feet per second at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a maximum range of 87 hundred yards needless to say the main is a deadly fighting machine [Music] in January 1898 the Maine is sent from Key West Florida to Havana Cuba to protect us interests during the Cuban war of independence against Spain this is the last picture of the Maine entering Havana Harbor passing in front of the Morro Castle not long before tragedy strikes tensions are high in the island nation as rebels fight to free themselves from Spanish control there are conspiracies everywhere some say Spanish Minds litter the waters of Havana Harbor on the evening of February 15 1898 the Maine has dropped anchor in the calm waters of the harbor not far from the fortress Morro Castle that's 20 minutes before midnight with no warning something aboard the Maine goes terribly wrong the ship explodes a massive fireball lights up the Havana sky the forward third of the ship where the munitions are stored disintegrates most of the mains crew quarters are in the forward part of the vessel the men died in their bunks never knowing what hit them the remainder of the burning ship quickly sinks to the bottom of the harbor the captain charles 6b and 17 other officers survived only because their quarters are towards the rear of the best two hundred and sixty US sailors are killed only 89 live to tell the tale [Music] as the Sun rises from the east over the Cuban fortress Morro Castle rescue and salvage crews from the US Navy tried to make sense of the twisted metal wreckage that just a day earlier was the warship USS Maine in the quiet harbor the night before a massive explosion and fireball aboard the ship killed most of its crew and sent the Maine to the ocean floor now mangled pieces of the warship are jutting out above the waves a reminder of the violence that had occurred just a few hours earlier in the United States newspapers scream for revenge the destruction of a US warship in the middle of havana harbor makes a tense situation much worse remember the Maine becomes a rallying cry for papers like the New York Journal owned by William Randolph Hearst and the New York world owned by Joseph Pulitzer both papers run with the story devoting thousands of column inches to the sinking Hearst even announces a $50,000 reward for the conviction of the criminals who sent 258 American sailors to their deaths privately Hearst and Pulitzer don't really believe the Spanish are responsible for the destruction of the mane but the newspaperman want a war it will be good for business they work the American public into a frenzy demanding that the Spanish released Cuba from its colonial rule the spanish-american war begins two months after the sinking of the main meaning there is no opportunity for the United States to raise what is left of the ship and retrieved the dead who are still in tuned in their watery graves however the war allows a relatively unknown politician from New England to make a lifelong impression on the American people his name is Theodore Teddy Roosevelt and he leads a group of hell-raising cavalry soldiers called the Rough Riders into battle on the island and they famously stormed Cuba's San Juan Hill under heavy fire and destroy the Spanish position there Roosevelt becomes a national hero and in 1901 he is elected president of the United States [Music] in December 1910 with hostilities between the US and Spain over naval officials build a coffer dam that surrounds the wreck of the mane and drain the water from inside of it for the first time they can physically inspect the wreckage that has lain beneath the sea for more than a decade [Music] officials determined that in fact it was some sort of explosive device that had detonated outside the mains Hall that caused a major explosion in the ship's munitions the remains of 70 dead sailors are recovered and taken to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC for burial what is left of the Maine is refloated towed to sea and scuttled in a solemn ceremony for more than a century the true reason for the explosion and fire aboard the Maine has been debated multiple government committees and even television networks have struggled to determine if a Spanish mind like the one pictured here really was responsible for the destruction some conclude that a mine had to be the cause of the wreck while others say volatile called us inside the ship's engine room spontaneously combusted and ignited the mains massive ammunition stores located below decks just one remote to this day the true cause remains a mystery [Music] though military warships are some of the most finely operated vessels in the world they are not immune from fire at sea sailing into war zones loaded with thousands of pounds of ammunition battleships cruisers submarines and aircraft carriers are floating powder kegs and though military personnel are extensively trained on how to avoid tragedy with their volatile cargo accidents still happen when they do they are often with horrific consequences the US aircraft carrier Oris Connie is a prime example the Auris Connie serves in both the Korean and Vietnam wars between June and October of 1966 the Auris Connie launches nearly 8,000 combat sorties from its location in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam [Music] all goes according to plan until October 26 1966 when a fire erupts on the starboard side of the ships forward hangar bay a flair has accidentally ignited near the ship's flare Locker a frantic crewmember grabs the flare but instead of throwing it overboard he tosses it deeper inside the ship's flare Locker which causes an explosive fire aircraft are pushed aside in an effort to save them from the flames pilots are hauled from their quarters just as the fire moves toward their rooms some crewmembers frantically move heavy bombs which are only a few feet away from the raging inferno and toss them overboard the flames raced through five decks of the massive aircraft carrier and the crew works desperately with fire hoses trying to keep up water pressure to douse the blaze [Music] foaming fire retardant covers the decks thick smoke billows from the aircraft's starboard side while a blazing Inferno rips through the ship killing 44 crewmen many of those killed are pilots who hours earlier had returned from missions flown over Vietnam most of the bodies of the dead sailors are moved by the ship's massive hoists where they are kept below decks until the carrier returns to California at least one of those killed is given an official military burial at sea they're chaplains say prayers and every seaman aboard the Auris Connie quietly watches as their brother in arms is silently slipped beneath the waves during an hours-long Sara [Music] years later after serving nearly five decades as a distinguished fighting ship the Auris Connie meets its watery end the Navy scuttles the aircraft carrier off the coast of Pensacola Florida on May 17th 2006 it takes 37 minutes for the Auris Connie to sink beneath the waves it lands on the bottom exactly up right it is in waters shallow enough that amateur divers can access the wreck making the Auris Connie the largest accessible man-made underwater reef in the world ships carrying ammunition at sea are at high risk some say that the moral castle ablaze in 1934 off the shore of New Jersey is also carrying munitions running guns and explosives from the United States to Cuban revolutionaries whenever it docked in Havana [Music] these rumors stoked the flames of conspiracy for decades about how the Morro Castle a well-designed passenger liner only four years old becomes a floating tinderbox it is the morning of September 8th 1934 along the beach of Asbury Park New Jersey [Music] the fiery smoking Hulk of the SS Morro Castle which burned offshore overnight drifts closer and closer to shore [Music] these are long forgotten images of a horrific story lost to time bodies of passengers and crew who jumped overboard into a raging sea to escape the flames are pulled onto the beach or placed on the Asbury Park pier all this is happening in the shadow of the steamship severely damaged by fire which is about to beach itself next to the city's Convention Center investigators quickly discovered dozens of reasons why the Morro Castle burned the way it did [Music] the ship's elegant veneered wooden surfaces and glued ply wood paneling were highly flammable although the ship was built with fire doors there was a wood lined 6-inch opening between the ceilings and the steel bulkheads of the doors which provided a pathway for the flames to spread there were fire detectors in all of the ship's staterooms crew quarters offices cargo holds and the engine room but none in the ship's lounges dance hall library or the writing room where the fire started there were 42 water hydrants on board but the ship was designed so only six could be used at once when the fire broke out the crew opened nearly all 42 hydrants dropping water pressure to almost zero there were fire alarms on the ship but many survivors say they never heard [Music] regulations required fire drills to be held on each voyage but only members of the crew participated passengers had no idea what to do when the fire broke out with the ship firmly beached authorities are able to board the Morro Castle and retrieve the remains of Captain Robert Wilma Wilma had died of a heart attack in his cabin hours before the Morro Castle caught fire a newsreel cameraman rides a rope pulley from the convention center to the smouldering ship and takes the first onboard pictures of the destruction nothing aboard the ship was safe even trays of food which in the fire turned to piles of dust [Music] the charred Hulk of the Morro Castle quickly becomes a tourist attraction thousands of people come to the shores of Asbury Park to see the smoldering remains tens of thousands visit the wreck the ship is so close to shore that it is possible for the curious to wade out into the water and touch the side of the Morro Castle with their hands the wreck becomes the most famous tourist attraction on the east coast of the United States that summer there are even professional sightseeing tours that come complete with souvenir postcards of the burned Mauro castle [Music] the sudden death of the ship's captain a few hours before the fire started Stokes speculation that the flames were not an accident Jeep officer William warms who took command of the ship after the captain's death pointed the burning Morro Castle directly into the wind Fanning the flames and it took warms nearly 30 minutes to approve the first SOS to be sent out asking for help and by then the fire was out of control in the inquiries that followed the moral castle disaster there is criticism of the response of the first officers handling of the ship the crews response to the fire and the delay in calling for assistance inquiries conclude that there was no organized effort by the officers to fight and control the fire or close the Moro castles fire doors more damning is the conclusion that with a few notable exceptions the crew made no effort to direct passengers to safe pathways to the boat deck for many passengers the only course of action was to lower themselves into the water or jump overboard the few lifeboats that were launched carried primarily crew members and no efforts were made by these boats to maneuver towards the ship's Stern to pick up additional people the newly promoted captain warms never left the bridge to determine the extent of the damage and maintain the ship's bearing at full speed for a long distance after the fire was initially known as systems failed throughout the Morro Castle because of power loss no effort was made to use the emergency steering gear or emergency lighting warms chief engineer eben abbott and ward line vice president henry Chabad are eventually indicted on various charges relating to the incident including willful negligence in all three are convicted and sentenced to jail however an appeals court overturns warms and Abbot's convictions deciding that a fair amount of the blame could be attributed to the dead captain Wilmont [Music] in the inquiry that followed the disaster chief radio operator George white Rogers is made out to be a hero because having been unable to get a clear order from the bridge he sent a distress call on his own accord amidst life-threatening conditions later however suspicion is directed at Rogers when he is convicted of attempting to murder a police colleague with an incendiary device in 1954 Rogers is convicted of murdering a neighboring couple for money and he dies three-and-a-half years later in prison to this day Rogers is the main suspect in the fire aboard the Morro Castle and though the official cause of the blaze has never been determined many believe the moral castle was a victim of arson [Music] regardless of its cause the fire aboard the Morro Castle served to improve fire safety for future ships the use of fire retardant materials automatic fire doors shipwide fire alarms the necessity of emergency generators mandatory crew training and firefighting procedures and greater attention to fire drills they all result directly from the Morro Castle disaster there are few tragedies more horrific than fires at sea since ships first set sail on the water fire has been a constant lethal danger a horrific inferno can strike without warning it is indiscriminate in the types of ships it attempts from excursion boats out for a day trip to the most mighty vessels of a military at war surrounded by nothing but blue water and sky an uncontrolled fire at sea is a sailor's worst nightmare a waterborne inferno from which there is no escape [Music] you

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: Absolute History, boat fire prevention, deadly ship incidents, disaster preparedness at sea, historical maritime incidents, historical ship fires, maritime accidents, maritime incident analysis, maritime tragedies, naval disasters, naval history documentaries, sea accident investigation, sea disasters, sea tragedies, ship disaster recovery, ship emergency procedures, ship fires, tragic maritime events, tragic sea events

Id: EcxNg2fxcvw

Length: 50min 7sec (3007 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 31 2020