Word: morros
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When the New York-to-Cuba vacation liner Morro Castle was gutted by fire off the New Jersey coast in 1934 with the loss of 124 lives, closest approach to a hero to emerge from the muckraking Department of Commerce investigation that followed was the ship's chief radio operator, pudgy George White ("Sparks") Rogers. Having stuck to his key until he was hauled out of the radio room half-suffocated, Sparks Rogers was decorated for his heroism by the Veteran Wireless Operators Association...
Said Chief O'Neill, coldly: "After the glory of the Morro Castle, two years as an ordinary patrolman must have seemed pretty dull. An ambitious man might think it would be pretty swell to be the lieutenant in charge...
Then Captain George Fried, 60-year-old No. 1 U. S. sea hero, drafted after the Morro Castle fire in 1934 to jack up, the marine inspection service to prevent sea disasters, made a personal inspection of the fire-damaged Berengaria, refused a passenger certificate. Cunard White Star debarked its 319 remaining passengers, angrily sailed its ship away with 650 personnel, mail, freight. Though the fires were labeled "mysterious" and sabotage was hinted, it seemed possible because of her age that defective electric wiring caused the blazes. Said blunt Captain Fried, "I didn't believe she was safe...
...great ball of fire ascending from the deck. Fire had broken out in the hold or engine room. Police boats, Coast Guard craft and private speedboats swarmed to the rescue while the City of Baltimore burned almost to the waterline. Although the scene was reminiscent of the Morro Castle, the casualty list was small -three dead, two missing at week's end. This was the first loss of passenger life at sea by fire or collision on U. S. vessels since the safety campaign which got under way two years ago after the Ward Line disasters (TIME...
...same week the Morro Castle burned off the Jersey shore, the S. E. P. was featuring a newspaper short story by Manuel Komroff, based on the Titanic disaster, called "Never Misspell a Name." In 1935, Test Pilot James ("Jimmy") Collins plunged to his death a few weeks after the Post ran his article "Return to Earth," a graphic piece of writing describing the plane-tester's feelings as he shot toward the ground at 400 m.p.h. Same year came the Post's most melodramatic news-coincidence, the article "Prelude to a Heterocrat-the Evolution of Huey Long." which...