Shipwreck: The Strange Fate of the Morro Castle

On September 8, 1934, the luxury cruise liner Morro Castle caught fire in the early morning hours while returning to New York from Havana, carrying 316 passengers and 230 officers and crew. The fire spread rapidly, consuming the ship and killing 134 people. Writers Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts investigate the disaster, concluding it was not an accident but a deliberate act planned by George White Rogers, the ship's chief radio officer. They also establish that Rogers poisoned the captain hours before the fire began. Through interviews with survivors, rescuers, and investigators, the authors reconstruct the ship's final voyage moment by moment and detail the investigation into the mass murder. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the approach of World War II, the account examines personal heroism, tragedy, and the search for those responsible for one of the Atlantic Ocean's most spectacular disasters. This work is an Edgar Award Finalist.