Morro Castle

[George L. Lorton]

quote:

Well... hmmmm...my grandparents went. EVERYONE'S grandparents went.

My Grandparents would of went as well or maybe not. If they didn't go some of them would of had a superior attitude over people who did go and wouldn't have been shy about it.

One of my Grandparents (Baptists) would of been there preaching about Sodom and Gomorrah and the fires of Hell. Some good ole' hellfire sermons.

I'm certain though that the Swedes in my family would of stayed away and changed the subject if it was brought up.​

 

[Jim Kalafus]

>making me feel like an idiot like usual

Such was not my intent, auld sport! Hop in the tardis...I'll meet you at Mabel Normand's for drinks, by way of an apology!

>but will have nightmares tonight where my daughter and I are trapped on the burning Morro Castle.

Put yourself in the place of Mr. and Mrs. Telfer, of the Mohawk. The Mohawk had the same lifeboat F-up as did the Titanic: some were loaded on the boat deck; others from the promenade deck, and none in any particular order. The Telfers' two children were put into a lifeboat, and when they went to enter, the occupants set up an outcry of "Too full, don't let them in." The crew did not, in fact, allow them to enter, and they spent the Mohawk's final 20 minutes running back and forth trying to find space in a lifeboat- which they never did. Both died, but their sons survived and were reunited with their grandmother, who was also aboard.

How's that for nightmare material?

 

[George L. Lorton]

quote:

Such was not my intent, auld sport! Hop in the tardis...I'll meet you at Mabel Normand's for drinks, by way of an apology!

Oh it wasn't you. I just open my mouth and insert foot. This is what happens when you mix Dane-Swede and righteous Scots-Irish with a bit of German.

quote:

I'll meet you at Mabel Normand's for drinks, by way of an apology!

No apology needed. We'll go raid Mary Pickfords stash in her batheroom. Jack Pickford owes me after I lied on the stand at his court Marshall. His Mom never paid me. Not even after I dragged Mary out of Kirkwood's apartment back in '14.​

 

[Jim Kalafus]

>We'll go raid Mary Pickfords stash in her bathroom.

Oh god, no. The last time we were there, she kept trying to prove to me that she is a natural blonde. I still get the shudders thinking about it.

 

[George L. Lorton]

quote:

The last time we were there, she kept trying to prove to me that she is a natural blond. I still get the shudders thinking about it.

Well you got her drunk. I warned you but you wouldn't listen. Luckily her and Doug are in New York. Doug's selling one of his Boyscout take the temperance pledgie books. We'll have the House all to ourselves. Jack got me a key. I got him some meds for his lil' problem. By the way remind me to hunt down Marguerite Clarke. I was thinking we could do the silent version to your smash hit My Mann Man. We'll call it Sugar Daddy. With Clarke's Childish features and short stature it's sure to be a hit. We'll get Jason S. (Screen Name-Jason Knightly) to play the boss. Be sure also to pick up some eggs so I can egg Luella Parson's house. No wait, scratch that. Lupie Lu won't know what for yet.​

 

[Jason Schleisman]

Golly! Marguerite Clarke! I'm gonna have to really watch out for myself then, George. With films to her credit such as:

"The Goose Girl" (1915)
"Molly Make-Believe" (1916)
"The Valentine Girl" (1917)
"Little Miss Hoover" (1918)
"Three Men and a Girl" (1919)
"Girls" (1919)
and
"Easy To Get" (1920)

I'm afraid I just might be in trouble!

I really must see my agent about this......

 

[Jim Kalafus]

About Eban Abbott: His failure to utilise the motor in his lifeboat, for which his rationale was that he was afraid sparks from the ship might cause it to explode, put him in a different category than the other officers and the acting captain.

~According to the accounts of everyone in the boat called to testify, the self-lowering boat jammed in its falls while just below the promenade deck. Crewman Ramon Ferner, 18, climbed back aboard the ship and manually lowered the boat. It is not clear whether he fell while trying to climb down a rope to the boat, or jumped for it and missed, but he was not wearing a life jacket and could not swim. Everyone agreed that his screams for help were quite horrible to hear. Many of these men were friends of his, which is how this unsung hero of the disaster was positively identified. Everyone agreed, too, that the boat had drifted so far astern that by the time oars were made ready, Mr. Ferner had already swallowed water and gone under. In this context, I think again of Florence Brown immediately letting go of her rope to swim after that drowning woman who she did NOT know:

while an entire boatload of crewmen watched a friend of theirs, who was drowning as a direct result of his successful bid to save their lives, die, and not one of them even attempted to swim back OR suggested that the motor be started.



~Abbott's boat apparently left late in the game. Catherine Phelps, who knew Abbott socially, was not among the first to go overboard, but was in a position to recognize him standing in the stern of his lifeboat as it rowed past her in the water without stopping. The socially well connected, and very pretty, Mrs. Phelps survived to give damning testimony in NYC. There was no question of her ID of Abbott.

~Eva Fisk and her cabin mate Frances Spector jumped from the ship together towards dawn. Miss Fisk had a lifebelt; Miss Spector did not. It must have been close to daylight, because Miss Fisk testified that they watched a lifeboat row towards them, and past them. She did not specifically ID Eban Abbott, but I suspect that because of the lighting conditions, and the fact that the two women stayed aboard the Morro Castle for some time after they fled their cabin for the stern, it was the same boat that rowed past Mrs. Phelps. Eva Fisk recalled that they were close enough to the boat for her to make eye contact with a crew member. Frances Spector who, as I said, did not have a life belt, drowned.

~Marjorie Budlong, 18, who jumped from the ship while it was still dark; and her shipboard acquaitance Franz de Beche, also 18, who she encountered in the water, were approached by a Morro Castle lifeboat after dawn. At that point, Franz was incoherent with exhaustion (no lifebelt), and Miss Budlong was able to call out "Could you at least take him? He's dying" to the occupants of the boat. One of whom called out "We'll send somebody back for you" as they kept rowing. Franz drowned, and his body was never recovered. Again, the timing of this third case of a lifeboat bypassing passengers in the water; the second case in which a fatality resulted, leads me to believe that it was Abbott's boat.

Not surprisingly, no one who was IN the boat testified to any such thing. Although they did agree that Abbott tore the officer's stripes from his uniform, and made incriminating statements about his own culpabilty in the botched rescue attempt, as they neared shore.

The motor in the boat is what puts the whole thing over the top for me. Abbott COULD conceivably have saved people who had not already jumped from the stern, by ferrying them past the fire and to the bow, where they could conceivably have been pulled back on board. Probably not willingly, but nevertheless...

An alternate plan is that he could have pulled people from the water, and from the ropes at the stern, and ferried them to the fishing boat, Lila, which had been on scene since BEFORE the fire broke out.

Failing at that, he could even have brought people in the water together into groups, like the group of 25-30 who mostly survived by keeping one another afloat. A weak solution, but a solution nevertheless.

But he never started the motor.

He, of all of those who received sentences after the disaster, truly deserved it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Little Miss Hoover" (1918)
"Three Men and a Girl" (1919)

Ah, Jason. The latter film you mentioned costarred William Haines; Ramon Novarro and a very young Valentino as the three men. Miss Clarke was very safe on set, I assure you. She was bitter, in 1930, to lose the lead in Follow the Swallow to a younger actress.

>Well you got her drunk.

George, lad, with regards to Miss Pickford that is like your accusing me of making the tide come in.

God she was a vile creature. Evidently nailed everything male that walked upright in Hollywood that wasn't gay, 80, or nodding off from heroine, while aggressively maintaining her air of public sanctimony. Her quote about her niece "Who has been raised oh so carefully" shocking her by singing "that song" from Mae West's film that she, Mary, was too modest to say the title of aloud, makes me wish that Miss West had put in an appearance and knocked la borracha's incisors out with an empty bottle of Wild Turkey every time I read it.

I suspect that the niece was singing "I Like a Man Who Takes His Time." One wonders, parenthetically, what COULD shock the promiscuous; drunken; marriage destroying; adulterous; sterile after one too many septic abortions aged demi-sl~~. "Raised Oh So Carefully"....yeah right. A whorehouse would have been a more morally correct setting in which to raise a child.

But, as always, I digress....

 

[George L. Lorton]

quote:

I really must see my agent about this......

How you go do go on Jason. You'll love it. Make you a Star.

Oh Jim,
We all know Mary has her issues. Don't we all. Speaking of Pickfords, Jack will also be putting in an appearance in Sugar Daddy as Marguerite's over protective brother who's a bit of a lush. Pauline Frederick plays your society wife who is cold and unresponsive to your caresses, Jason.

Overt Image's
Sugar Daddy/ My Sugar Daddy and Me 1914
British Title= Forbidden and Bad
French Title=Forbidden Infant Pucelle
Plot- A Man falls in love with young Belinda after saving her from the General Slocum Disaster. He didn't care that she was only 12.​

 

[Jason Schleisman]

quote:

Pauline Frederick plays your society wife who is cold and unresponsive to your caresses, Jason.

I suppose I'd be cold and unresponsive too if I'd been through what Pauline Frederick had been through prior to signing on with Overt Studios. I mean, look at some of her early films:

"Sold" (1915)
"The Slave Island" (1916)
"The Slave Market" (1917)
"Her Final Reckoning" (1918)
"Paid in Full" (1919)
"Bonds of Love" (1919)
"A Slave of Vanity" (1920)
"The Sting of the Lash" (1921)

Unflinching, she went through at least 5 husbands. AND I'm not making this stuff up!

Maybe I'll just stick with Marguerite Clarke after all. I'm sure that Billy, Ramón, and Rudy, will make perfect chaperons ~ you know, just in case I need a cover for the press.

 

[George L. Lorton]

Alas all those films are in Pauline's future. We end up putting money behind all of them. We are going to make Sugar Daddy in 1914. In fact La Frederick has turned us down. It seems she wants the lead and shes to mature looking to play 12 year old Belinda so I'm looking for an actress to play a beautiful emotionally frigid harridan Society Woman. She needs to be seen by folks in 1914 as a perfect fit for the Role. Any ideas on who we should cast.

 

[Jason Schleisman]

Oh yes. Silly me.

After our 1914 film with Ms. Frederick, she sort of 'sold out'.

 

[George L. Lorton]

I'm moving Casting Calls for Sugar Daddy to Ballyhoo Jazz. This topic is for the Morro Castle.

 

[Deborah Kogan]

Remember the Morro Castle today, and those who died. It is the 74th anniversary.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

As always, I left flowers at the graves of local victims: Miss Eleanor Brennan, 38; Mrs. Dora Gahringer, 67, and her daughter, Miss Lillian Gahringer, 37, all of whom died of shock and exposure.

Miss Brennan's story is mostly preserved, but the Gahringers left almost no record. They apparently did not socialize aboard the ship. Nobody spoke of them later, and local press coverage was minimal. Mrs. Gahringer was buried in her mother's grave, and her name was not added to the stone. Lillian was buried in the unmarked grave of a sister of hers who died in childhood, and a stone was never placed. Other than that both women worked as domestic servants, little else is known about them.

Miss Brennan was a farm girl from Carmel who had to drop out of school to raise her siblings upon the death of her mother. In the 1920s she took a job in Macys, NYC, and by 1934 was a head buyer who could afford to rent half of the best suite on board and who was taking her second Morro Castle cruise of the year when she died. She was having a stateroom party, at 3AM, and what her guests thought was the arrival of room service, with food and drinks, proved to be someone giving them warning about the fire.

I often think about how Eleanor Brennan, 38, and Lillian Gahringer, 37, represent the extreme ends of the 'possibilities' spectrum for women who came of age before the depression. From the evidence, it seems that, at age 37, Miss Gahringer had hit the dead end once refered to as "spinsterhood." She no longer worked, and was living with her sister and brother in law. Her death drew almost no comment in the small town press, which tends to imply that no one knew her.

Miss Brennan, in death, drew over a thousand people to her wake in the Bronx, and a like number to her funeral and burial here in Carmel. She was given a fair amount of biographical coverage in the NYC and local press, and quite a few survivors remembered her later.

Head department buyer, or unmarried old maid aunt who lives in the small room upstairs. One wonders about the choices, or lack of, that led each of the two women to where they were in September 1934.

In this context, I thought for a moment, too, of victim "Miss Overgene." A VERY frustrating research battle.

I tried to find ANYTHING about her, for years. The disaster had robbed her of everything, including her name. Every newspaper passenger list refered to her simply as Miss Overgene, with no first name, age, first initial, or address. When her body was recovered, the name placed on the victims list in every last paper was "Miss Overgene" with virtually no other information.

A Ward Line internal document gave me a relative goldmine: her first initial was "L."

No "L. Overgene," or near variant, appeared on any U.S. census 1880-1930.

For a time, I thought that MISS Overgene might have been MR. Louis O' Veregine, of New Orleans. A merchant seaman. A few of the victims listed as crew were actually passengers, and vice versa, and in at least one case a female victim "Miss Drena Villehoz" was actually a man from Havana named "Irineo Villehoz." Was this a case of a lost male crewman spending eternity on the wrong list under the wrong gender?

As it turned out, no.

Marty Oppenheim, while doing research in Newark, New Jersey, found Miss Overgene. Her first name was Louise, she was twenty years older than Eleanor Brennan, and she had been a grade school teacher in Newark since at least 1898. She lived with an unmarried sister, and in the unfortunate parlance of the day was an Old Maid School Teacher. A step up the ladder from Spinster Aunt Who Lives Upstairs, for she was self supporting and independent...but, still, in the end she vanished so completely that even those who compiled the list of the identified dead could not get a first name. One suspects that she was identified by someone from the school who knew her only as "Miss Overgene" and so it remained.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

The Return To New York.
This is an incomplete listing of survivors brought back to NYC by rescue vessels on the afternoon of September 8, 1934. This was compiled from newspaper accounts, interviews, and survivor lists.

Passengers Rescued by the Monarch of Bermuda.
Dr. S. Joseph Bregstein
Mr. James Bute
Mr. William Clark
Mrs. Dorothy Coll
Minnie Davis
Father Raymond Egan
Mr. William Haessler
Mr. James Hassall
Mr. Benjamin Hirsch.
Miss Dora Hofman
Mrs. Sarah Hofman
Mr. Hiram Hulse
Mrs. Frances Hulse
Mr. Emil Lampe
Mrs. Mary Lione
Master Robert Lione
Mr. Frank Loveland
Mrs. Nathene Loveland
Mr. Philip Newmark
Mrs. Kate Noteboom
Mr. William Price
Mr. Martin Renz
Mr. George Ridderhoff
Miss Elizabeth Roberts
Mr. August Scheely
Mr. David Schneider
Mr. Herman Torborg
Mr. John Torborg
Mrs. Edna Von Pollnitz
Mrs. Katherine Vosseler
Dr. Theodore Vosseler
Miss Sadie Wald
Mr. Emanuel Weinberger


Crew Rescued by the Monarch of Bermuda
Mr. Lester Annessohn
Mr. Charles Anzalone
Mr. William Derringh
Mr. Herbert Douglas
Mr. Albert Eklund
Mr. Malcolm Ferguson
Mr. Paul Goltz
Miss Sarah Kirby
Mr. Jesus laFuente
Mr. Francis Massi
Mr. Bernard McNally
Mr. Manuel Martinex
Mr. Philip Muir
Mr. Ruscoe Nelson
Mr. James Pond
Mr. Julius Rosen
Mr. Joseph Ruigg
Mr. Aubrey Russell
Mr. George Schindel
Mr. Henry Speiermann
Mr. Isaac Soriano
Mr. Henry Stamm
Mr. Arthur Stamper
Mr. “Cirincio Torhealday”
Mr. Paul Weider
Mr. William Weintraub
Mr. Joseph Welch
Mr. Louis Wright
Mr. Anselmo Zaguira




Passengers Saved by the Andrea Luckenbach.
Miss Rosario Camacho Leon
Miss Mary Gilmore
Miss Helen Kosanke
Mrs. Lillian Lampe
Miss Kathleen Liebler
Miss Margaret Mayer
Miss Alice Miller
Mrs. Constance Miller
Miss Sarah Murphy
Mr. Thomas Pierce
Mrs. Julia Rueda
Miss Florence Sherman
Mrs. Clara Siegmund
Miss Ruth Torborg
Miss Adele Wallace
Miss Mildred Weiser

Crew Rescued by the Andrea Luckenbach.
Mr. Joseph Berto
Mr. James Durnell
Miss Ella Jacoby
Mr. Trygue Johnson
Mr. Gustav Klinger
Mr. Charles Maki
Mr. George Webb
Mr. Joe Zarguiz

Passengers Rescued by the City of Savannah.
Mrs. Doris Aschoff
Mr. Thorpe Aschoff
Mr. Stephen Bodner.
Mrs. Wilhelmina Bodner
Mrs. Harry Brinkman
Mrs. Florence Brown
Miss Marjorie Budlong
Mrs. Ofelia Busquet
Miss Ofelia Busquet
Miss Alice Desvernine
Miss Madeline Desvernine
Mr. Nathan Feinberg
Mr. James Flynn
Miss Eleanor Friend
Miss Loretta Hassall
Miss Nan Helm
Mr. Joseph Hidalgo
Mrs. Myrtle Lohse
Mr. Herman Mayer
Mrs. Sophie Mayer
Mrs. Anna Meissner
Mr. Robert Meissner
Mr. Charles O’Connor
Mr. Louis Perrine
Mr. Gouverneur Morris Phelps, Jr.
Mr. William Weil






The Morro Castle Injured.

At least one in three of the Morro Castle survivors, if one discounts the 85 who came ashore in lifeboats, required hospitalization upon reaching shore. At least two, Raymond Lione and William Haessler, died from the effects of prolonged immersion, and one wonders if James Petrie, 59, recovered from the effects of his broken leg, broken hip and fractured neck, and if the “gravely burned” Myrtle Lohse recovered. Or, like Mrs. Julia Grego of the Andrea Doria, did they succumb to their injuries long after the media spotlight had been removed from the Morro Castle? What follows are the names that are consistent on all of the published lists September 9-11th. 1934.

American Legion Center, Point Pleasant.

Miss Rose Biren.

American Red Cross Hospital.

Mrs. Julia Rueda. Immersion, shock.

Beekman Place Hospital

Miss Loretta Hassall. Injured back.
Miss Edith Hull. Injured back.
Mrs. Kay Hirsch. Burns, shock.

Bellevue Hospital

Mr. William Clark. Eyes and throat burned.
Mrs. Angela D’Orn. Severe burns. Unconscious.
Mr. William Haessler. Shock, submersion, smoke inhalation. Mr. Haessler died, of lobar pneumonia, at Bellevue Hospital and became the final Morro Castle victim known to have succumbed.
Mr. Francis Nass. Smoke inhalation, submersion, shock.
Mrs. Kate Noteboom. Exposure, shock.
Mr. Arthur Pender. Shock, hysteria, delirium.
Mr. William Price. Shock, exposure.

Broad Street Hospital

Miss Madeline Desvernine. Submersion.
Mr. Philip Weiser. Shock, submersion.

City Hospital, Welfare Island

Mr. James Petrie. Right leg broken. Hip broken. Possible fractured neck

Coney Island Hospital

Mr. Joseph Berto. Cut hand.
Miss Helen Kosanke. Shock and submersion.
Miss Alice Miller. Burns, shock.
Master Benito Rueda. Shock, exposure.
Mrs. Betty Sheridan. Burns, shock, exposure.
Miss Adele Wallace. Burns.

Fitkin Memorial Hospital

Miss Martha Bradbury. Submersion, exhaustion.
Mrs. Ida Brown.
Mr. Thomas Cannon. Submersion, spinal injuries.
Miss Gertrude Cohn.
Mr. Frank Dittman.
Miss Ruth Fabel.
Mr. Philip Geffert. Submersion.
Mrs. Philip Geffert. Submersion.
Miss Marguerite Gilligan.
Miss Regina Gilligan.
Mrs. Elsie Hassall. Submersion, exhaustion.
Mr. Charles Jackson. Left hand severed.
Mrs. Josephine Jakoby. Shock, submersion.
Mr. John Kempf.
Mr. William Kitchen. Burns.
Mr. Demetrious Konderousas.
Miss Floride laRoche. Cut on head by falling glass. Shock.
Miss Doris Landes.
Master Raymond Lione. Died soon after admission, may have been D.O.A.
Mr. Antonio Mata.
Mr. Rafael Mestre.
Mrs. Anne Marie Milliken
Mrs. Pearl Paccione. Exposure, exhaustion, submersion.
Miss Agnes Prince.
Mr. Jose Serra
Mr. Joseph Spagna.
Miss Anna Stemmermann.
Mrs. Sarah Stubner.

Nearly 20 of the Morro Castle’s unidentified dead are buried at the Fitkin Hospital Cemetery in Neptune, New Jersey.

Flower Hospital

Mrs. Mary Lione. Burns, shock, submersion.
Mr. Frank Loveland. Burns
Miss Sadie Marion Wald. Shock and burns.

Gouverneur Hospital

Miss Elizabeth Mary Welch. Exposure, shock.

Long Island College Hospital.

Mr. George Whitlock. Burned eyes.

Marine Hospital
Mr. Charles Maki. Submersion, shock.
Mr. Bernard McNally. Shock, burns.
Mr. Henry Stamm. Bruises.
Mr. Frank Suarez. Shock.
Mr. Henry Tiernan. Shock, submersion.
Mr. Jose Verguez.. Submersion.
Mr. George Webb. Submersion.
Mr. Robert Young. Burns, shock and submersion.

Methodist Episcopal Hospital

Mrs. Lillian Lampe. Burns.

Norwegian Hospital

Miss Rosario Camacho. Burns, shock.
Miss Mary Gilmore. Burns.
Mrs. Sophie Mayer. Burns.

Point Pleasant Hospital

Miss Jane Adams.
Miss Emily Beck. Shock, exposure, immersion
Dr. Jules Blondiau. Submersion, exposure, exhaustion.
Mrs. Martha Blondiau. Submersion, exposure, exhaustion.
Mrs. Edward Brady. Shock, exposure, immersion
Mrs. Harold Brown. Shock, exposure, immersion
Miss Kathleen Canavan. Shock, exposure, immersion.
Miss Caroline Casey. Shock, immersion, burns.
Mr. Abraham Cohen. Submersion, exhaustion.
Mrs. Harriet Cohen. Submersion, exhaustion.
Miss Lillian Davidson. Shock, exposure, immersion
Miss Marjorie Ehrman. Shock, exposure, immersion
Mr. Jose Freire. Shock, exposure, immersion
Dr. Emilio Giro. Shock, exposure, immersion
Mrs. Clemens Landmann. Shock, exposure, immersion
Dr. Samuel Lerner. Shock, exposure, immersion
Miss Dinah Levy. Shock, exposure, immersion
Miss Mae Maloney. Shock, exposure, immersion
Mrs. Katherine Phelps. Shock, exposure, immersion
Dr. Gouverneur Morris Phelps. Shock, exposure, immersion
Mr. Donald Truscott. Shock, exposure, immersion
Miss Dorothy Verfenstein. Shock, exposure, immersion
Mrs. Ida Weiser. Shock, exposure, immersion

St. Luke’s Hospital

Mrs. Frances Hulse. Burns, shock.

St. Vincent’s Hospital

Mrs. Claire Drummond. Shock and exposure.
Mr. Joseph Drummond. Shock and exposure.
Miss Frances Murphy. Burns to face and arms.
Mr. Herman Paccione. Burns, shock.
Mr. Israel Rudberg. Shock and bruises.
Dr. Emanuel Weinberger. Fractured shoulder.


Minor Injuries

Mrs. Florence Brown. Exposure.
Mr. Walter Byrne. Burns on face.
Miss Minnie Davis. Bruises of both arms. Attended at Pier 95. Sent home.
Miss Alice Desvernine. Shock. Sent home for bed rest.
Mr. Michael Dulk. Inflamed eyes.
Miss Nan Helm. Sprained ankle. Burns of both hands. Treated at Savannah Line pier and sent home.
Miss Dora Hofman. Minor burns. Attended to at Pier 95 and sent home.
Mr. Wilfred Kedy. Cuts on right hand.
Miss Sarah Kirby. Bruises.
Mr. Joseph Markov. Injured finger.
Mr. Philip Muir. Smoke inhalation.
Mr. Charles O’Connor. Burned eyes. Cut scalp. Treated at Savannah Line pier and sent home.
Mr. Herman Timms. Exposure. Attended to at Savannah line pier and sent home.
Mr. John Vassilides. Exposure.
Mrs. Charlotte Whitlock. Shock. Sent home.
Mr. Charles Wright. Submersion.



The Morro Castle Train.
On the afternoon of September 8th while the Morro Castle was still burning, a special train was dispatched from Spring Lake, New Jersey to Pennsylvania Station in New York City. Aboard were nine Morro Castle passengers and 86 crew members. Most of the passengers who came ashore at Spring Lake were in various stages of shock and exhaustion, having either swum the six miles from the ship to shore or been brought back by one of the fishing boats of the impromptu rescue fleet, while the majority of the crew who landed there came in by Morro Castle lifeboats and were therefore tired but fully ambulatory. When the train was pulled into a siding in Jersey City in order to switch over to an electric engine, the cars containing the crew were left behind, and the remaining 9 survivors arrived in NYC late in the afternoon. The nine Morro Castle passengers strong enough to immediately leave Spring Lake without requiring hospitalization or bed rest were:

Mr. Paul Arneth.
Mrs. Renee Mendez Capote.
Miss Una Cullen.
Miss Sydney Falkmann
Mr. Charles Hofman,
Mr. Charles Hofman, Jr.
Mr. Charles O’Connor
Mr. Aurelio Piedra.
Mr. George Watremez.

And, of the nine, only Mrs. Capote and Mr. Arneth are known to have been saved by a Morro Castle lifeboat. George Watremez recalls:

“I got on the train and we start heading for Penn Station in New York City. At one interval we changed to an electric engine so that we could get into Penn Station. When we did get in, everything was roped off. And again, there was newspaper reporters, police, cameramen, what have you. We never did get outside because the platform we were on was roped off, and we had a path roped all the way through the terminal. We were escorted underground to an elevator that took us to the Hotel New Yorker, that was at 34th Street and Eight Avenue. I forgot to mention that while I was in Spring Lake being taken care of, I had the opportunity to send a telegram home to tell the folks I was okay. That worked out pretty good. Now, going back a bit, when I was in the water the newspapers came out with this story about the Morro Castle being on fire, and hundreds of people dead, and the New York Journal had me as “Missing.” Now, there was my stepfather’s brother. He had picked up the newspaper and saw the whole article, and he took and hotfooted over to the restaurant and told my stepfather about it. My mother was working down around Union Square, in clothing- she was a weaver, a mender. So he called up and told them not to let her see a newspaper but as the story went on they started yakking amongst each other, and she caught on that something was wrong. So I guess my telegram took care of her a little in that way. We were walking as a group, and, believe me, we were quite a show to see, all kinds of clothing, blankets, what have you. My stepfather’s brother who was down there in the subway station. I guess he knew, he’d heard where we were coming in and he crawled under the ropes and he came along with me and it was quite a happy reunion. I must say that my mother and stepfather were at the Hotel New Yorker when I arrived, and believe me it was quite a reunion, and very sentimental.”