Fire at Sea: The Mysterious Tragedy of the Morro Castle

by Thomas Gallagher

On a stormy night in September 1934, the Morro Castle was making its way through heavy seas en route from Havana to New York City. Shortly after 2:00 A.M., while most of the passengers slept, fire suddenly engulfed the luxury liner; within an hour, hundreds were dead or struggling desperately in the water.
The fire's apparently inexplicable outbreak wasn't the only secret that night aboard the Morro Castle. Hours earlier, Captain Robert Wilmott had died in his cabin under suspicious circumstances. Had Wilmott been poisoned? Was the fire accidental, or intentionally set? Drawing from interviews with the survivors, as well as his own in-depth research, Thomas Gallagher skillfully recreates the Morro Castle tragedy, proposing convincing solutions to its myriad mysteries.
In FIRE AT SEA, originally published in 1959, a seasoned reporter's meticulous attention to detail is combined with a novelist's sense of his story's drama. The result is a vivid and unforgettable story of the sea.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, 20th Century

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Thomas Gallagher (1918-1992) was a widely published journalist and the author of eight books. His novel The Gathering Darkness (1952) was nominated for a National Book Award; his Fire at Sea: The Story of the Moro Castle (1959) won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for nonfiction.

Reviews

[Lynette Lark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. I got a little confused at the beginning because the author obviously wrote this to impress men. However, the rest of the book picked up considerably! The writing was such that I was standing on the deck with two choices: burn or jump 30 feet into the ocean during a CAT 4 hurricane.

Interestingly, most of the crew survived.

[Lois Carkhuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and horrifying. Very engaging and interesting. I had to remind myself that this was a real event and constructed from various reliable sources.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 1959 edition. I thought it was fast paced and written well for a true account.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another tragedy that should never have happened!

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but poorly written.