WAS THERE NEGLIGENCE?

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 7

WAS THERE NEGLIGENCE?

OPINIONS OF PASSENGERS VARYING ACCOUNTS GIVEN HARROWING EXPERIENCES fl . BRAVE RESCUE EFFORTS By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 10.45 p.m. New York, Sept. 10. A Press survey on Saturday night showed that 430 of the passengers and crew of the Morro Castle had been accounted for, with 130 dead or missing. Ninety-nine bodies were checked at the central morgue at Seagirt, the National Guard headquarters. Two were found in a cabin of the vessel, which was beached. The Ward Line, owner of the vessel, announced that 162 persons were believed to be lost, with the total rescued 398. It was believed that many were trapped in their cabins, and that some bodies were taken to neighbouring towns and had not been reported. Many passengers are inclined to blame the officers and crew, for various types of alleged' negligence and inefficiency, but others claimed that the ship’s company did everything possible and blamed the hysterical fright of many of the passengers for the large loss of life. An unidentified member of the crew declared that Chief Officer Warms kept the motors going as long as he could to keep the vessel directly into the wind and retard the flames spreading. He gave up and ordered the anchor to be dropped only when the power failed. Dr. Gouverneur Morris Phelps, a Prominent New York surgeon, and his wife and 25-year-old son were all saved, but after extreme suffering. Dr. Phelps and his wife, with life preservers, were six hours in the water before they reached the shore. The son said he clung to a rope with his body half immersed m water for six hours before he was rescued. All three complained bitterly of the manner in which the sailors handled the lifeboats, and claimed .that some contained but a handful of the crew and no passengers. They insisted that the boats could easily have picked up many of those in the water but instead they struck off for the shore. • CREW’S EXPLANATION. The crew’s explanation why so few gained the boats was that the passengers to reach th* deck must have dashed through smoke and light flames. In their panic-stricken state many insisted on staying on the lower decks; nor could they be pushed or carried upwards. Finally, members of the crew say, they took what passengers they could and left to save their own lives in addition to giving information about the fire. Migs Wacker told a heartrending account of saving herself and her mother while her father perished. She said she was a good swimmer and alternately aided her mother and her father, who were indifferent swimmers, to reach the shore. ’ “Father had . sinus trouble and it was very difficult for him to breathe in the water,” she said. “Waves kept washing over us. Although I tried to keep them both up finally father said ‘let me go; I’ve had enough.’ I couldn’t do that, but he was soon unconscious and then died. After four hours a fishing boat picked mother and me up, but they wouldn’t take father’s body. They said they were only picking up live people. A sailor told of his effort to save an 11-year-old girl whom he identified as Margarita or Martha Saenz, daughter of a famous Cuban physician. He said the rhild swam up to him in the water with her face badly burned. “But she didnt whimper, while I kept her afloat, hf said. “After a long time she was getting weaker and then she became unconscious and I held on until I was sure she was dead.” VICTIMS OF MODESTY. One survivor said he believed many, particularly women, perished as the result of a sense of modesty; they delayed to fully clothe themselves. Most, however, were wearing either sleeping garments or evening clothes. With. Jersey coast lights plainly visible some failed to realise ..that they were five or six miles away, and in their confidence returned to their cabins to save jewellery and other valuable possessions and were cut off by the flames. A most touching rescue was that of a couple tightly bound together. . They had been married by Captain Willmott only a few hours before he died the previous evening. Incidentally, Captain Willmott s body was probably cremated in his own cabin. Apparently only the ship’s surgeon knew where the body was placed, and he perished in the disaster. Among the survivors are the 72-year-old twins Michael Dulk and his sister, Mrs. Katie Noteboom. In the panic she found her elderly brother with a crew detail handling a hose and forced him to abandon his fire-fighting efforts and leave the vessel with her.