Morro Castle Cruise Ship Fire

In the early morning hours of September 8 1934 a fire started in a closet aboard the cruise ship Morro Castle which was passing along the New Jersey coast after a trip to Havana Cuba.

Morro castle cruise ship fire. The blaze which originated in a mattress placed near an electrical switch in an overheated storage room stocked with flammable products led to the deaths of 88 passengers and two crew members. Mervyn Bregstein 8 Cruise Ship Fire SS Morro Castle Passenger September 8 1934 Time of Death 250-600. He was hours into his new position as captain of the cruise ship Morro Castle when the liner caught on fire approximately 15 miles off Barnegat Light.

Just hours after Captain Robert Willmott had been found dead in his stateroom of strange circumstances. On September 8 1934 the cruise ship caught fire on route to New York City. Chief Officer William Warms took command as the Morro Castle continued steaming through increasingly high seas.

By days end 134 people were dead three more would die weeks later. The SS Morro Castle was a luxury cruise ship launched in 1930 named for the Morro Castle fortress that guards the entrance to Havana Bay. On September 8 1934 the cruise ship the Morro Castle caught fire en route to New York City killing 137 people.

The Ward Line luxury liner had left port from Havana Cuba three days before running into some rough weather along the way. On the morning of September 8 1934 en route from Havana to New York the ship caught fire and burned killing 137 passengers and crew members. On September 8 1934 Mervyn Bregstein age 8 a student at Public School 185 in Brooklyn New York son of Brooklyn Doctor S.

In fact the entire investigation into the Morro Castle incident was kept a little too secret for a passenger ship. The fire could have been contained if the crew had used fire. See hyperlink for more.

The cause for the fire was never identified or at least never shared with the public. On 14 March 1935 what remained of the Morro Castle was towed away but some accounts say that she sank on the way to the scrapyard. While many acts of bravery were reported only half of the ships lifeboats were deployed and they were launched carrying less than too few people the majority of which were crew members.