THE MORRO CASTLE.

Evening Star, Issue 21821, 10 September 1934, Page 8

THE MORRO CASTLE.

Beached on the New Jersey coast less than forty miles from her terminal port, New York, the luxury liner Morro Castle is acting as a magnet for sensation-seeking Americans in adjacent parts of the Atlantic coast. The highways from the great cities of New York and Philadelphia—perhaps forty and sixty miles respectively from Asbury Park, where the ill-fated hull now lies —became so thronged as the news spread of a major disaster at sea of a peculiarly horrifying kind that a traffic jam developed on a scale that necessitated the use of army wagons as ambulances for those injured in the automobile race for the seaboard. This aspect needs stresshlg as an indication of the mentality of a nation plainly ambitious to rule the waves and replace Britain in the role of the world’s great sea carrier. It is to be doubted whether America is fundamentally sea-minded. As a builder of ships she has not greatly impressed the experts of the more truly maritime nations since the days of sail became numbered, nor (with the same reservation) has her operation of her mercantile marine accorded with the standards and traditions of the British mercantile marine. Admittedly within a few minutes of the mysterious outbreak of fire, apparently in the ship’s library, the whole superstructure of the vessel was a raging inferno; but discipline appears to have been wanting, whether in attempts to quell the fire or in the launching of boats and embarkation of passengers. It may have been exaggeration or unfair generalisation on the part of some of the survivors to say of the crew “ They never turned a hand to help us,” but the words leave their mark on the memory. Luxury cruises are a fairly recent development, and America was early in the field. Her own immigration laws, together with general world depression, drove liners off regular routes to cater for the pleasure seeker alone. In the days of Prohibition the Bermudas, as a renowned liquor depot, was a favourite cruise; but since repeal the whole of the West Indies has been made available to the American tourist, and Havana, the capital of Cuba, was the eight-day trip which the Morro Castle had so nearly completed. On Friday night, the last night aboard, there seems to have been the celebration, on the part of those able to brave the extremely dirty weather then raging, incidental to such an occasion, the death of the captain, who only a few hours previously had been on the bridge, apparently not acting as a damper on holiday spirits. Swiftly upon the chief officer fell the most terrible ordeal to which a human being could be subjected. He stayed aboard with a faithful few until the last, and what they witnessed must indeed have been weirdly terrible. Though several vessels were standing by and aeroplanes were circling low overhead, the work of rescue reads as though it was haphazard rather than systematic. However, darkness and heavy seas, together with the lightning swiftness of the disaster, would explain much, and investigation may bring fresh facts to light. As to the origin of the fire and the tentative suggestion that there may have been sabotage by Cubans belorc the vessel left Havana, it may be mentioned that since Mr Welles did such good work for the U.S.A. Government as mediator a year ago. when the notorious Machado resigned the Cuban presidency and fled, there has been no little friction in Cuban-American relations; but it was thought to have ended some three months ago when a new treaty abrogated the “ Platt Amendment ” of 1903, which gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs when Washington deemed it necessary. Even since that concession tho Cuban authorities had to take unusual precautions to protect U.S. diplomatic officials from terrorism.