Cruise Bruise Blog
January 20, 2009
In my continued effort to document and detail the thousands of deaths at sea during fires aboard cruise ships, I have added three more historic cases. Each had a large loss of life. Mostly women and children perished either through drowning, smoke inhalation, or burning to death, often as others watched.

Through documenting the past, we can see why legislation has been written, only after great tragedy. Until the numbers of dead mount, business leaders and politicians simply turn a blind eye, and let ship owners endanger their passengers, year after year.

While these cases took place during a time in history the moral standard was, according to historians, much higher than it is today, we can begin to see, when it comes to tragedy at sea, honor frequently gets tossed overboard, and profits soar because honor at sea is more frequently a myth, than a reality.

January 20, 2009
SS General Slocum Fire Ends In 1,021 Deaths

When an estimated 1,300 women and children from the New York City German community boarded the SS General Slocum for a cruise around New York City, they would never dream that the cruise would end with over a thousand of them dead. Though, the writing was on the wall, the SS General Slocum had a checkered past, a safety record that was far from desirable.

She spent her first year afloat in one accident after another. Four months after her launch, she ran aground off Rockaway. On July 29, 1894, while returning from Rockaway with 4,700 passengers aboard, she struck a sand bar and lost all power. The next month, she ran aground off Coney Island during a storm. The passengers were evacuated.

Then, the next month, she  collided with the tug R. T. Sayre in the East River. Keeping her record for bumping into things both stationary and afloat, in July 1898 she collided with the Amelia near Battery Park.

The ship then ran aground again in June 1902 with 400 passengers aboard. The passengers had to camp out on the ship, without accommodations overnight.

Why a church would book 1,300 women and children on this vessel, is one of life's great mysteries, sadly one that tore the community apart. This tragic story tells of a coward captain, steering a ship not fit for dogs. The story is here

January 20, 2009
New Jersey Dock SS Saale Fire And Sinking Ends In 361 Deaths

During the afternoon of June 30, 1900 the Saale, owned by North German Lloyd Steamship Company was at the busy docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, along with her sister ships. Passengers had been loaded, and the ship was finalizing procedures to embark on the usual voyage to Southhampton, England.

Some cotton on the docks caught fire. The winds quickly fanned the flames, igniting some barrels of oil and turpentine, which in return very quickly caused an even larger blaze.  As the wood docks began to burn, it was evident that little could be done to save those who could not save themselves. The flames continue to be driven by wind and the ships at the dock became sitting ducks for a fire that was almost instantly out of control.

The most shocking part of the incident, was the way passengers were instantly forgotten, never mentioned in the press, though at least 99 of them lost their lives aboard the ship.

The SS Saale held 150 passengers in First Class accommodation, 90 in Second Class, and up to a thousand steerage passengers. Of the 1,240 passengers, only about 150 would have access to those cabin portholes, which were too small to exit.

Yet, when legislation was written to protect passengers, as result of the tragedy, it only applied to the small amount of first class passengers with windows in their cabins. The passenger deaths were nearly all steerage passengers. The new legislation required portholes be constructed large enough that an average size person could exit them in an emergency.

January 20, 2009
SS Morro Castle Fire Ends In 137 Deaths

Mervyn Bregstein, age 8, a student at Public School #185 in Brooklyn, New York, son of Brooklyn Doctor S. Joseph Bregstein were both aboard the Ward Line, SS Morro Castle on September 7, when a strange sequence of events combined, to end with the Morro Castle ablaze, shipwrecked in New Jersey.

Only six of the ship's 12 lifeboats were launched -- boats 1, 3, 5, 9 and 11 on the starboard side and boat 10 on the port side. In the photo of the ship after she washed ashore, seen on the case page, the port side lifeboats can be seen, still attached to the ship.

Although the combined capacity of these boats was 408, they carried only 85 people, most of whom were crew members. A total of 137 passengers and crew members died in the fire, several of the passengers were children including:

Master Arthur Sheridan, age 7, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Master Raymond Lione, age 8, of Sunnyside, Queens New York
Miss Marta Saenz y Aguilera, age 11, of New York City, New York
Master Roberto Gonzalez, age 13,  of Newburgh, New York
Master Henry Jakoby Jr, age 16, of Brooklyn, New York
Read the story here

January 20, 2009
Another Christian Musician Dies On Cruise

The bass player for the Christian rock band Storyside: B has died. Ron McClelland was on the Carnival cruise ship Fascination when he collapsed while playing basketball. The trip was sponsored by a Florida Christian radio station and was just a few miles away from returning to port in Jacksonville. The story is here