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kmomof4 · 7 years

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Fic Rec List 3 of 3 tonight

Since my original post was too long, I had to break it up into 3 posts tonight. Hopefully this works. The whole thing is the definitive list of all my favorite fics. On a scale of 1-10, all of these are rated 11 or higher. A single asterisk next to a fic is a desert island fic that I couldn’t do without. A double asterisk is a #1 all time favorite fic that I reread regularly. All links, Tumblr handle (if I know it), ao3 and/or ff profile, links to fics on ao3 and/or ff, are included. So settle in for some fabulous reading from this EXTREMELY long list.

From @whisperofgrace on Tumblr, ao3 and ff I Feel So is a post-Neverland one shot in which Emma is forced to confront her feelings for Killian after seeing him with Ruby. Rated E ao3 and ff.

What Could Have Been is a canon divergent in which everyone is sent back to the EF, but something went wrong and now Killian has to break the curse. Rated M with 25ch. ao3 and ff.

From @itsalostgirlthing on Tumblr, ao3 and ff 10 Things I Hate About Killian Jones is a modern HS AU based on the movie. Victor and Mary Margaret come up with an elaborate scheme to get Victor into Ruby’s good graces by pairing notorious player Killian Jones with loner Emma Swan. Rated T with 11ch. ao3 and ff.

From somethingalltogether on ao3 and Somethingalltogether on ff Accidental Acceptance is a season 3 canon divergent one shot. Killian accepts Pan’s deal. The consequences are devastating. Rated E one shot. ao3 and ff.

To Succeed Is Not to Win is a canon divergent WIP where Hook finally succeeds in getting his revenge. Emma is caught in the aftermath. Rated M with 5ch so far. ao3 and ff.

From @asthewheelwills on Tumblr, fardareismai on ao3 *Let’s Go Steal a One-Time Thing is a CS Leverage fic. A Hacker, a Hitter, a Thief, and a goal. Now all they need is an honest person to show them how to reach it. Rated T with 6ch. First and only part (for the time being) of the series Let’s Go Steal Ourselves a Happy Ending.

From @ashar663 on Tumblr, ashar663 on ao3 and ff Professor Jones is a modern AU where Killian is a professor of Maritime History who falls for his graduate student Emma Swan. Now complete on ff, only 9ch posted on ao3. Rated M.

Through the Hat is a canon divergent from 2X1 Broken. Instead of Emma and Mary Margaret falling through the hat, only Emma does and she lands in the sea where Captain Hook saves her. Rated M WIP with 7ch so far. ao3 and ff.

From @initiala on Tumblr, InitialA on ao3, Initial A on ff Storybrooke Downs Series featuring (in order) Little Bits of Fluff, rated G one shot, ao3 and ff. Grocery Stick, rated G two shot, ao3 and ff, Dark Horse (main fic), rated M with 28ch, ao3 and ff. Fruit of the Alder Tree, rated T one shot, ao3 and ff. Got the Bit Between Your Teeth, rated T one shot, ao3 and ff. The Forest for the Trees, rated M one shot, ao3 and ff. Horse of a Different Color, rated T one shot, ao3 and ff. Get Back on the Horse (That Bucked You), rated E one shot, ao3 and ff. This series is set in the world of Storybook Downs, a prestigious race horse training facility. The one shots give background to and differing perspectives of events in the main fic.

From @victorias-tales on Tumblr, secretless_vicki on ao3, Victoria-Ashlyn on ff All In a Days Work is a modern AU WIP in which Killian is a con man and Emma is the FBI agent intent on bringing him down. Until he scores his biggest con yet by convincing the FBI to hire him and partnering with Emma. Rated M with 6ch so far. ao3 and ff.

From @ripplestitchskein on Tumblr, Ripplestitchskein on ao3 Light of All Lights is a fairytale in 5 parts. What happens when the ship that Killian “Deckhand Hook” Jones is on crashes on the Dark Swan’s island? Contains dark fairy tale elements. Rated E with 5ch.

From @scapeartist on Tumblr, scapeartist on ao3, ScapeArtist on ff Surf and Turf Wars is a modern AU featuring CaptainCharming BroTP. Killian and David are best friends who own different restaurants in the same town. Will a potential for a Michelin Guide critic and 3 star rating come between the two men? Rated G with 4ch. ao3 and ff

From @swanslieutenant on Tumblr, twistedroses on ao3 Star Struck is a modern AU where Emma hits TV star Killian Jones with her car without realizing who he is. Rated T one shot.

A Place in Time is a modern AU where the biggest missing persons case of all time lands in agent Emma Swan’s lap. Thousands of people appear in a flash of white light at a lake in the middle of winter. Some have been missing for decades or even centuries, including a certain pirate, but haven’t aged a day since their disappearance. Rated T WIP with 9ch so far.

From @this-too-too-sullied-flesh on Tumblr, wtvoc on ao3 If One Only Remembers to Turn on the Light is her new AU. Killian sets up his booth at the local farmers market each week, and each week he sees her. This summary in hardly any way accurately summarizes what is going on in the fic. It’s only the original setting and it goes in a very unexpected and fascinating direction. Rated M WIP with 2ch so far.

The Next Wounded Soul is a EF AU where Lieutenant Killian Jones has been wounded in the war against the Dark One. He is attended by a noble woman of the kingdom. Will he ever find her again? Rated E with 12ch.

Theoretically is a modern AU where Killian’s gift to Emma for her 30th birthday is to prove to her that he really is as good as he says he is. Rated E with 4ch.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOSER Is a modern AU where Emma mistakenly texts a stranger when wishing an old friend happy birthday. They continue to text and eventually meet. Rated E with 3ch.

Waiting is a canon compliant deleted scene set in season 4. Pirates take, Killian waits. Rated M one shot.

From @sotheylived on Tumblr, sotheylived on ao3 Dare Over Truth is a modern AU where Emma is a tattoo artist who joins her friends, including Killian, for Truth or Dare every week. Killian never turns down a dare, until he does.

From @gingerchangeling on Tumblr and ao3, firechangeling on ff A Darkness for the Light is a EF AU where Princess Emma must give herself to Dark Hook if she has any hope of saving her family and her kingdom. Rated E WIP with 22ch so far. ao3 and ff.

The Disasters series is a series of one shots named after a different natural disaster. All rated E. Includes Tornado, ao3 and ff; Tsunami, ao3 and ff; Landslide, ao3 and ff; and Wildfire ao3 and ff.

From @ohmyodonghue on Tumblr, melissa13 on ao3, Melissa Black13 on ff Dead at Heart is modern vampire AU. When women start being murdered in her small town, Sheriff Emma Swan has to turn to 300yr old vampire Killian Jones for help. Rated M WIP with 8ch so far. ao3 and ff

From @iminwinnipegthatsincanada on Tumblr, BrittJK on ao3 and ff Hit Me With Your Best Shot is a modern AU where Emma and Killian are captains on opposing dodge ball teams. Rated T with 8ch. ao3 and ff

Nothing Beats a Fresh Pair of Socks Out of the Dryer is a rated G one shot where Emma gets a match on her dating app with her biggest celebrity crush Killian Jones. ao3 and ff

From @secret-captain-swan-blog on Tumblr, secret_cs_fics on ao3 Castle on a Hill is a modern day lost princess AU. Rated T WIP with 8ch so far.

From Ice_Cube44 on ao3, IceCube1 on ff To Repair a Heart was her January Joy submission where Killian is a pediatric heart surgeon in the 1950′s and Henry Swan is his patient. Rated T one shot that will eventually get a second part. ao3 and ff.

Message In a Bottle is a modern AU where Killian finds a message in a bottle written almost 20yrs ago. He sets out to find the writer, Emma Swan. Rated T with 5ch. ao3 and ff.

From @stophookingatmeswan on Tumblr, ao3 and ff These Nights Never Seem to Go to Plan is a modern AU where Emma and Killian are both cops. As their lives start to interact professionally, they realize that they’re also drawn together personally. Rated E with 21ch. ao3 and ff.

Forged in Fire is a new multi chapter with 1ch so far. Killian is a master bladesmith and Emma is new on the scene. Rated E.

Guitars and Scarred Hearts is a modern Rock Star!Killian AU. Rated E WIP with 6ch so far.

From @bleebug on Tumblr, bleebug on ao3 ***Every Letter series which includes Every Letter, Every Touch, and Every Letter: Ten Years. EL tells the story of a class project which brings together international pen pals Emma and Killian. They grow up writing to each other. Rated T with 10ch. ET is rated E with 5ch and takes place during various EL chapters. ELTY is a one shot of Emma and Killian’s 10th relationship anniversary.

From @nowforruin on Tumblr, ao3 and ff The Stars Walk Backwards is a modern AU in which Emma and Killian meet up on the same day every year. Rated M with 4ch. ao3 and ff

The Trouble With Faking It is a modern AU in which Emma is hired by Regina to help improve Hollywood bad boy Killian Jones’s image. Rated E with 26ch. ao3 and ff.

Bar Nights and Christmas Lights is a modern AU where Emma’s most recent one night stand shows up when and where she least expects him. Christmas 2 shot. Rated T. ao3 and ff.

Lost Souls and Rabbit Holes is a modern AU where Ruby decides she’s going to help Killian get back on his feet by hiring him as a bartender at The Rabbit Hole. This is a CS fic. Rated M with 27ch. ao3 and ff.

Seabrooke is a modern AU where Sheriff Emma is caught up in a web of betrayal and treachery that she never would have expected in the tiny town of Seabrooke. Rated M with 21ch. ao3 and ff.

A Change in the Wind is a canon-divergent where Regina enlists Captain Hook to keep Emma Swan from coming to Storybrooke on her 28th birthday. Rated M with 24ch. ao3 and ff.

From misslizanne on ao3 The Joy of Rediscovering You is a modern AU where musician Killian Jones is forced into the care and protection of bodyguard Emma Swan. He remembers her as the employee at the record shop he used to frequent. Can he convince her that he's the same man he was then? Rated M with 4ch.

From @drowned-dreamer on Tumblr, Drowned_dreamer on ao3 and Drowned-dreamer on ff The Ghost and Emma Swan is a modern AU in which single mom Emma Swan falls in love with and buys Misthaven cottage, unaware that a very old and very deceased pirate still lives there. Rated M with 18ch. ao3 and ff.

From YouSaidWho on ao3 Burn is an EF AU featuring CS, OutlawQueen, and TinkFire. Darkness gathers at the edge of the kingdom. What will it take to defeat it? Rated E with 26ch.

From @nothingimpossibleonlyimprobable on Tumblr and ao3, NothingImpossible on ff Secrets and Spies, Truth and Lies is a modern AU where CIA hacker Emma Swan is paired up with MI6 brothers Liam and Killian Jones in a mission to bring down an ex-spy. Rated M with 10ch. ao3 and ff

Mother Tongue is a rated T one shot based on the head canon that Liam and Killian would speak Irish to each other when they were alone.

From @belovedcreation on Tumblr, BelovedCreation on ao3 That’s the Way I Wanna Rock ‘n Roll is a modern AU where Rock Star Killian starts getting death threats. Enter security expert Emma Swan. Rated M with 31ch.

Sparkling is an EF AU. Emma is cursed and her disfigurement guarantees she will never find her True Love. That doesn’t stop her parents from continuing to search. Pirate captain Killian Jones impersonates a prince in order to find gold, he finds True Love instead. Rated G with 18ch.

Ships Passing in the Night is an EF AU. Emma is looking to con the biggest fish in the sea, Captain Hook. But what if he’s been looking for her too? Rated M one shot.

As Seen on TV is a modern AU where Emma and Killian are on a reality TV show. Rated T one shot.

The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing is a modern AU where Emma and Killian meet up at swing dancing festival. Rated G one shot.

That’s all for tonight. The remaining recs should be up early next week. Thank you all for reading and your patience! Tagging those authors on Tumblr. @whisperofgrace @itsalostgirlthing @asthewheelwills @ashar663 @initiala @victorias-tales @swanslieutenant @ripplestitchskein @scapeartist @this-too-too-sullied-flesh @sotheylived @gingerchangeling @ohmyodonghue @iminwinnipegthatsincanada @secret-captain-swan-blog @stophookingatmeswan @bleebug @nowforruin @drowned-dreamer @nothingimpossibleonlyimprobable @belovedcreation

#Krystal Recommends #definitive list of favorites #fic recs #desert island fics #All time favorites #hope you enjoy #hopefully the rest of the list will be out Monday #enjoy!

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topfygad · 4 years

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Street excursion by way of the Florida Keys

Simply after a unbelievable 48 a number of hours in Miami, I used to be lucky sufficient to tick off a single of my best bucket guidelines targets of all time. I took a 7 days-very lengthy road journey via the Florida Keys.

Forward of we deliberate our highway journey by way of the Florida Keys, I’d spoken to so lots of people who had frequented this chain of tropical islands. They’d all commented on its fantastic surroundings, wonderful outside routines, Caribbean-like vibe and beautiful sunsets. And what can also make this one explicit of America’s best freeway outings is the breath-having Overseas Freeway and the enduring Seven Mile Bridge which perches on stilts over the turquoise waters.

Overseas Freeway

The Overseas Freeway is only one of America’s best feats of engineering and is sort of actually the picture that you just think about of when any person mentions this island chain.

Our eco boat journey within the Florida Keys

As a person who skilled loads of queries concerning the Florida Keys proper earlier than my journey, I thought-about I’d share a mini guidebook with you on the placement. From what to depend on if you search the companies of a auto in Florida to data about each part of the Keys, optimistically , it should act as a mini-guideline when you ever system your particular person highway trip via the Florida Keys.

Taking a road journey via the Florida Keys: A mini-manual

The Florida Keys: On a regular basis residing simply after the hurricane

The most important motive I used to be utilizing a road journey by way of the Florida Keys was part of a do the job journey, to provide concerning the restoration of the area subsequent Hurricane Irma (you’ll be able to learn the report right here).

When the tropical storm hit the Caribbean and southern components of the USA in September 2017, it devastated a number of areas of the world. I keep in mind seeing it on the information and asking your self how are you going to maybe get better from this sort of a horrific operate?

As we attained the beginning of the Keys from Miami, the impact of the hurricane wasn’t instantly obvious. As we drove extra south whereas, we began to acknowledge vacation homes and caravan parks skilled been devastated, palm timber ended up down and a few of the vegetation was terribly broken.

It was so unlucky to see, however I’ve to say, the speed at which they’ve recovered and turned issues round has been extraordinary. Inside eight months of the storm, almost three quarters of the lodging within the Florida Keys had reopened and you’re going to discover that solely a bit of proportion of the sights have nevertheless to re-open their doorways.

There are somewhat a a number of new motels additionally set to begin this calendar 12 months, just like the area’s fairly first all-inclusive trip resort, Bungalows Essential Largo. The area has actually bounced again once more and folks right now haven’t been set off coming proper right here.

The Essential Largo Bay Marriott Seaside Resort

Whereas it was straightforward to overlook that the hurricane at any time transpired, it did come up in dialogue now and another time with individuals we achieved. Some spoke concerning the households (and of sophistication, life) that had been dropped although others talked about the affect it skilled had on the wildlife.

However, a single factor that struck me was how resilient this space is. Particularly once we seen the hashtag #Islamoradastrong displayed all through constructions and once we frequented the Hurricane monument in Islamorada, a tribute to the 408 women and men who died within the hurricane of 1935.

The straightforward indisputable fact that hurricanes have created an look within the area’s file quite a few cases doesn’t make it any rather a lot much less devastating when a unique storm hits. However as we seen the constructing of latest stilted housing developments and the revamp of marinas, we realised how correctly this location copes within the wake of such disasters.

The place by are the Florida Keys and the way had been being the Florida Keys shaped? A bit of little bit of historical past

You’ll discover the Florida Keys on the southernmost portion of Florida in America. They’re a sequence of islands that construct a light arch into the ocean off the Florida peninsula, beneath the Everglades Nationwide Park. On one side you’ve gotten the Gulf of Mexico (the ‘Bayside’ of the Keys) and on the opposite, you’ve gotten the Atlantic Ocean (the ‘Oceanside’).

The second the Keys have been nothing in any respect extra than a swamp land inhabited by crocodiles however the Caloosa and Tequesta Native People lastly inhabited the placement proper till Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon arrived into the house within the 16thCentury.

The realm didn’t significantly develop into liveable until industrialist Henry Flagler constructed the famed East Shoreline railroad in Florida and resolved to delay it to the Keys. The situation hit difficulties simply after the 1935 hurricane however they managed to rebuild the infrastructure within the 1940s and ignite the tourism you see at present. With a great deal of heritage, wildlife, idyllic landscapes and fantastic meals, it’s easy to see why so quite a few people come on vacation getaway proper right here.

Easy methods to get to the Florida Keys

The perfect option to get to the Florida Keys and the best manner to try the Florida Keys is to get a freeway tour from Miami. We picked up a make use of automobile within the heart of town after which it was round 50 miles from right here to the beginning out of the island chain.

The second you get to Crucial Largo, you’re formally at Mile 100. These mile markers then function all the way in which all the way down to the southernmost isle of Essential West, acknowledged as ‘Mile Zero’. We uncovered the guests and highways in Miami a bit of bit loopy (there are so quite a lot of numerous lanes!) however it’s very easy if you hit the Keys as it’s only a particular person straight highway and the driving will get a lot extra chilled out – which signifies you’ll be able to loosen up a bit extra and benefit from the landscapes.

Driving in Florida

A pair points to take a look at previous to you use the service of your automobile to get to the Florida Keys are the actual fact your motorized vehicle is feasible to be computerized (so have a observe within the automotive or truck park previous to you go away), you can be driving on the appropriate-hand side of the freeway and you’ll require to shell out a toll for using the Florida Turnpike freeway.

If you’re utilizing the companies of a automobile, take a look at no matter whether or not the toll is included in your automotive use invoice. Or else, you could possibly have to make use of a SunPass transponder. And if you’re a US resident and you’re driving a private automobile, you is perhaps billed simply after your journey. The best level to do is confirm Florida’s Turnpike web-site for the newest particulars.

As quickly as you’re within the desired vacation spot, be ready to pay out for valet parking at your lodge. We discovered this was near $20 for each night and also you’ll be anticipated to tip the valet when you choose up the automotive. Only one factor to reveal in mind.

What are the varied places of the Florida Keys like?

We spent two nights in Crucial Largo and three nights in Important West, so we actually didn’t get to find the total of the Keys however we undoubtedly loved a few of the key highlights. Right here’s what to anticipate within the Higher, Heart and Decrease Keys.

The Increased Keys

The Increased Keys are terrific for diving, fishing and maritime life. Instantly in spite of everything, Key Largo (essentially the most vital of the Florida Keys) is precisely the place friends go to take a look at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef Level out Parkand Florida Keys Nationwide Marine Sanctuary, and the house is dubbed the ‘diving capital of the world.’ Within the meantime, Islamorada is dubbed the ‘sportfishing funds of the world’ and hosts a wide range of fishing and seafood festivals by way of the yr. It’s additionally residence to Robbie’s– a ought to-visit for mangrove excursions and an opportunity to feed the tarpon.

The Heart Keys

The Heart Keys even now have somewhat a modern-day Floridian ‘vacation’ actually really feel, with aquariums and household sights and smart lodging and vacation homes which are successfully geared to travellers. However, very similar to the Higher Keys, there’s additionally a loaded fishing and maritime heritage and an excessive amount of alternatives for boat excursions and excursions.

The rather more you examine, the extra you’ll come throughout quite a lot of the laid-back Keys life fashion commencing to trickle in.

The Decrease Keys

The Diminished Keys is the portion of the Florida Keys you entry after getting cruised over the legendary Seven Mile Bridge, one explicit of essentially the most photographed bridges within the planet.

It’s by which character followers seem to see the Nationwide Essential Deer Refuge in Main Pine, the place you will get kayaking adventures in Blue Hole and the place you’ll be able to relaxation on the seaside on the picturesque Bahia Honda State Park.

The southernmost island of Important West

I’ve to say, side of the pleasure of road tripping the Florida Keys is simply profiting from the environment and stopping at many viewpoints alongside the way in which. We uncovered the Increased Keys felt considerably much more linked to mainland Florida, with drive-via eating institutions and espresso chains and large supermarkets flanking the Freeway. While the additional down the Keys we travelled, the rather more we felt a neighborhood, island actually really feel, with shrimp shacks, artist stalls and neutral retailers beginning to seem.

On the time you hit Key West (my favorite island), it’s an extra story all alongside each other. They joke that Key West is sort of a area all by itself after they tried to type an impartial nation in retaliation to the authorities within the 80s. It might need solely lasted 60 seconds, however Essential Westers proceed to thrill themselves on their ‘Conch Republic’ identification, hanging flags exterior their properties. It’s additionally an individual of the quirkiest spots I’ve frequented. If I ever obtained the chance to think about a road journey by means of the Florida Keys as soon as extra, it could be Important West that will entice me again!

Are there seashores within the Florida Keys?

You will discover some seaside places within the Florida Keys however due to to the coral reef, they’re primarily guy-manufactured. A number of the higher lodges have their very own sandy coves these sorts of as by which we stayed on the Essential Largo Bay Marriott Seaside Trip resort. My favourite was the seaside entrance at The Attain Resort the place we put in a number of evenings. It was a captivating place to reach once more to quickly after a day of testing Essential West.

Are the Florida Keys actually value visiting?

Unquestionably! We favored the environment, the sunshine and the overall working expertise of driving down this paradise island chain. My favourite areas ended up the wonderful seafood, the fantastic boat excursions and the quirky and vibrant island of Essential West. As I say, I’d go once more in a heartbeat and it’s so fantastic to see the Keys have recovered proper after the storm.

Proceed to maintain your eyes peeled for lots extra posts developing on elements to do in The Florida Keys although you’re there.

Have you ever been to the Florida Keys and in that case, what had been your favorite areas and gadgets to do right here? Really feel cost-free to go away your responses and views and comply with The Journey Journo on Instagram for all the newest visuals.

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A part of this journey was protected by The Florida Keys & Crucial West Vacationer Board

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husheduphistory · 7 years

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A Handcrafted Tragedy: The Story of the SS Morro Castle

Tom Burley was having a busy night at work on September 8th 1934. As the radio station manager for WCAP out of Asbury Park, New Jersey it was his job to broadcast the goings on of the world in an accurate, timely manner and tonight there had been a great deal to report. At just after 7:30pm he moved to take a break from the strenuous evening when something caught his eye outside. Smoke, thick smoke, accompanied by a terrible red glow that defied the heavy rain pelting Convention Hall that night. It was headed directly for the building when 200 feet from shore there was a crash, screeching, and finally, and awful stillness with what looked like fire and brimstone blocking out Burley's office windows. As completely shocking as this was, Burley had an idea what he was looking at. He had been talking about it all night, a nightmare that only days before was a glittering paradise in the business of making dreams come true.

When she was new she was a marvel of both technology and luxury, crafted to withstand and protect, but also to inspire awe. The SS Morro Castle was built for the Ward Line of ocean vessels for the purpose of ushering vacationers between New York City and Havana,Cuba on excursions that were affordable while still promising memories to last a lifetime. The cruises ranged from $65 to $160 which made the vacationers range from students to professionals but once on board jobs and titles did not matter, everyone was treated equally. Passengers had their names printed on guest booklets and ornate invitations to the ships's many parties and special events. Stewards and pursers were on hand to carry out any task including being called on as dance partners or buying drinks off the $14 bar account they were each allotted specifically for that purpose. The surroundings were opulent in the styles of Italian Renaissance, Louis XVI era France, and grand old New York. Everything was shining, plush, crisp, sparkling, velveteen, velour, and varnish making everyone on board feel like they were the luckiest people in the world.

Morro Castle brochure (image from www.wardline.com)

One of the many staircases in the Morro Castle

The Morro Castle’s First Class Lounge

The Morro Castle Orchestra

The glamour was a rich coating for the bolts and steel holding it up and the Morro Castle was considered by some to be a structural marvel. She was constructed with a reshaped bow that would cut down on water resistance and streamlined rudders gave her the ability to travel at an unheard of 22 knots. Designer Theodore E. Ferris also designed a system of ducts that ran behind false wood panels allowing the Ward Line to advertise that the ship was "sea-cooled", a huge feature for passengers looking to escape the tropical air. The structure of the Morro Castle was unprecedented in terms of safety with the ship being built to the standards of the U.S. Navy. These specifications, while looking impressive, were not exclusively with the passengers in mind. In 1928 Congress had passed the Jones-White Act which offered shipping companies loans to build new liners provided that the ships would be built to specifications that would allow them to be quickly converted to warships or to be used for troop transport if needed. The ship was also built off the lessons of maritime disasters. As a result of the disaster of the Titanic the Morro Castle was built with nine watertight bulkheads and had enough lifeboats to accommodate 2,000 people, three times the amount of passengers it was designed to carry. The 1904 tragedy of the General Slocum ensured that the Morro Castle was equipped with fire detection technology with a web of tubes installed in the cargo hold, engine room, and staterooms that were used for smoke detection. One lesson that was not learned from the Titanic was not to exaggerate. The ship was advertised as being "the safest ship afloat" and it was claim that was proudly propagated by all members of the crew, especially the ship's captain, Captain Robert Renison Willmott, who could often be heard telling his passengers "There isn't a ship like her" and "you are safer on this ship than you are on 42nd Street and Broadway in New York.”

Captain Willmott had been with the Ward Line for over thirty years and he loved his job. After his appointment as captain of the Morro Castle his warm interaction with passengers and friendly demeanor elevated him to be yet another of the much anticipated attractions during the cruise. Travelers planned their vacations to make sure he was not away, they would meet him for drinks in his cabin and marvel at his many stories, and his entrance into the dining room every evening was a highly anticipated event. Eating at the captain's table for meals was a privilege and those lucky enough to grab a seat spent the time listening as Willmott told tales of his time at sea. One of his favorites was how a year earlier he had successfully brought the Morro Castle home after being trapped in a hurricane for two days. He showed everyone the watch he earned for the deed and would often comment how he and the ship were inseparable, their names were one in the same.

Captain Robert Renison Willmott

Wilmott was a beloved captain who loved his ship but on the evening of September 7th 1934 a very different man was sitting in the captain's quarters, one that had been warn down by a string of issues with other crew members on board. The truth was that while the ship was a paradise for passengers, working behind the scenes was an entirely different scenario. The Morro Castle was consistently understaffed and the staff that was there was paid only $35 a month. The food was poor quality, the living quarters were cramped, and beginning your day at 5:30am meant no break until 2pm and then enjoying only a small window of time before launching into evening meals and plans. Upon arriving back home in New York the crew had to fly into action with only seven hours in between docking and leaving again with a whole new set of vacationers. It was mandatory that the ship be ready to leave New York city by 4pm, it doubled as a cargo ship with a contract to carry all U.S. mail. Signing off the boat to visit family was highly discouraged and normally cost you your job, the Depression was fresh in many minds and there was always going to be someone else eager to take your place on board. Even those working on the Morro Castle with very specific tasks were told that when they were not busy they were required to mop floors and polish brass. Most employees stayed silent, but on August 4th 1934 second radio operator George I. Alagna had decided he had enough. He wrote up a petition about their workplace treatment but only ended up tearing it apart when he failed to get enough signatures to bring the issue to Willmott. Alagna did not know it but word of his petition had already reached Willmott, and he was not pleased. The captain immediately contacted the Radio Marine Corporation of America and demanded that Alagna be fired upon their next arrival back home. Willmott left the ship in New York expecting to be rid of the abrasive radio operator but when he returned to the Morro Castle just before departure he was met by a Radio Marine Corporation representative who had to inform him that they were unable to find another radio operator, that he was stuck with Alagna, but that Alagna also refused to work. After two hours of deliberation with the Ward Line Alagna was back on board with two targets on his back, one from the Ward Line and one from Willmott who believed he had a dangerously unstable man on board.

Willmott had taken to confiding his concerns with his Chief Radio Operator George White Rogers who had only joined the Morro Castle crew the previous July. Rogers was regarded by many as an odd man. Standing at 6'2" and weighing 250lbs, he was not easy to miss but Rogers avoided people and could not have cared less about the Morro Castle's luxury. He was confident in his work to the point of arrogance and he spent his spare time in his bunk reading. Alagna had grown increasingly hostile to the point that Willmott had spiraled into paranoia. On September 2nd he pulled Rogers into his quarters lamenting about Alagna, "What's the matter with that second operator of yours? I think the man is crazy." He informed Rogers that Alagna was to be fired upon returning to New York but begged Rogers not to say a word because he feared what would happen if Alagna found out. He gave Rogers the key to the emergency room of the ship and told him to make sure Alagna had no access to the radio equipment inside. Now on the evening of September 7th Willmott's paranoia about Alagna reached an all new high. Rogers had spoken to him earlier and reported that he found two bottles of sulfuric acid in the radio room, but that he had saved the day by throwing them overboard. Now speaking with his first officer William Warms, the captain was predicting sabotage, telling him he could not leave his cabin, and that he had to keep the doors locked because he feared Alagna would burst in and throw acid on him. Willmott confided to Warms "I am afraid something is going to happen tonight, I can feel it."

William Warms

Warms left the captain without informing him about his own bizarre encounter with Rogers earlier that day. Smiling suspiciously Rogers confronted Warms saying he requested to speak with Captain Willmott, something he did not have to ask for being a ship's officer. When Warms asked what he wanted to discuss Rogers only smiled more and refused to tell him saying "Best I tell the captain first.” Warms was not the only crew member keeping an odd encounter with Rogers from the captain, the other was George Alagna. Alagna was asleep in his bunk the night before when he was awakened by Rogers approaching him. Rogers reached into a box above Alagna's head and then presented him with two small bottles of liquid. Rogers grinned at Alagna and asked coyly "What are you going to do with these, George?" before strolling away. Alagna had no answer for him. He had never seen the bottles before and he knew for a fact that they were not in the box above his bunk before Rogers entered the room that night.

George White Rogers

Unaware of what was going on with the crew were the many dinner guests seated in the dining hall although they knew something was definitely off that evening. It was the last night of the of their cruise, the Captain's Ball, and their beloved Captain Willmott had yet to make an appearance at 9pm. The passengers did not know what was going on but truthfully, neither did the crew. First officer William Warms had discovered Willmott slumped over his bathtub dead at 7:45 that evening.

As members of the crew gathered in Willmott's cabin Warms took it upon himself to take control, an appointment that technically belonged to Chief Engineer Eban Abbot but which went unchallenged. Cruise director Bob Smith was given the unfortunate task of informing the dinner guests of the unfortunate news and informed them that out of respect for their deceased captain, all evening programs were cancelled. While vacationers branched off into private parties refusing to let their last night of vacation go to waste, Warms took position on the bridge of the Morro Castle and faced a difficult evening in front of him. Not only had his friend died unexpectedly but he was made aware that a hurricane was brewing south of them and they were heading directly into a nor'easter. In telling of his triumph of navigating the Morro Castle of of a hurricane Willmott had always joked that the only damaged sustained was "a few wet towels.” Warms could only hope he would have the same luck as his friend with these storms.

He could not have ever imagined what the upcoming hours would bring.

Rogers ended his shift in the radio room after what became a very busy evening by telling the 3rd radio operator Charles Maki that he was off to bed, but not before going for a little walk. He was one of the few people on board who was thinking of sleep with many still awake at their mini private soirees and others observing how much the winds were picking up around them. When a passenger approached steward Daniel Campbell asking about the smell of smoke just before 3am Campbell was not overly surprised. It was probably a cigarette thrown into a garbage can, no big deal. He walked into the First Class Lounge where the smell grew strong but only found some drunk passengers. He continued through the lounge to the doors ahead of him, one being the Library and the other being the Writing Room. It was inside the Writing Room where Campbell found smoke, lots of smoke, more smoke than could have come from a cigarette in a garbage bin. It was coming from the inside of a storage locker that normally held blankets, cleaning supplies, and paper. The handle was hot to the touch. Just as he opened the door Arthur Pender, a night watchman entered the Writing Room as well. He had seen the smoke coming out of a ventilation shaft and his investigation brought him to Campbell as he opened the locker door. Flames. Huge tongues of fire leaped from the inside of the locker launching themselves out to consume the fresh sea air. Campbell slammed the door shut and the men ran to alert the crew. Pender later said that what struck him was that the flames were not orange, they were blue, the telltale sign of a chemical fire.

The Writing Room of the Oriente (identical to the Morro Castle)

Within minutes the entire Writing Room was engulfed in flames and nearby crew were throwing buckets of water at the fire attempting to put it out with no luck. Not everyone on board was aware there was a catastrophe brewing. Warms walked into the ship's wheelhouse and casually ordered crew members to investigate the engine room to see if there were any problems. Alagna was woken from his sleep by the sounds of people screaming. As soon as he stepped out onto the deck he saw the horrifying glow and knew immediately what was wrong, the Morro Castle was burning up. He went back to the bunks and shook Rogers telling him there was a fire but he did not respond. Only when the 3rd radio announcer came in and softly said "Get up Chief, the ship's on fire" did Rogers suddenly spring from his bunk. Alagna ran to the radio room and was putting on his headset when Rogers burst into the room and shoved him aside taking the headset and telling Alagna to go to the bridge and get orders from Warms. Warms was giving orders, but they were still in the vein of telling crew members to go to the lounge and "take charge.” He had no idea how big the blaze had grown but the realty of the situation quickly hit him and Quartermaster Samuel Hoffman like a fright train. The Derby fire detection system on board was state of the art with a control panel with a small light representing each state room. If a room got over 160 degrees the light turned red and suddenly, all at once, the entire board went red. Smoke engulfed the entire ship and the port side was an inferno but still Warms was not worried, it had not even been fifteen minutes, there were multiple people fighting the fire, and he believed that the amount of smoke increased as fires were extinguished. Clearly the blankets of black air meant his crew was doing a good job. He could not have been more wrong. It was not until 3:05am that he sounded an alarm that went unheard by almost everyone. The only sounds were the screaming of passengers, the roaring of the flames, and the hurricane winds whipping the fire and smoke into an unstoppable force of destruction.

The scene on the decks of the Morro Castle was turmoil. Passengers in various stages of panic exited their cabins looking for an answer as to what to do next. Chief engineer Abbott dressed in his formal uniform and instructed crew members to go into the engine room and see what was going on while he went to the bridge. The chief engineer's primary job was to ensure that the engine room was running because it was the nerve center for the steering of the ship, the electricity, and the operation of the fire pumps. Instead, he headed to the bridge. Another crew member headed to the bridge was Alagna. He had attempted to get to Warms but could not get through the smoke so he returned to the radio room where Rogers sat defiant. Despite the ranging fire engulfing the ship, the heavy smoke, the thrashing winds, and the desperate chorus of screams Rogers flat out refused to send and S.O.S. signal until he got the official order from Warms to do so telling Alagna he had to "play by the rules.” On his second attempt Alagna reached Warms at the bridge and told him Rogers awaited his order. Warms remembered what Captain Willmott had told him about Alagna and all of the trouble he had caused so he opted to ignore him and stalked away without giving the official order. Alagna bolted back to the radio room and yelled at Rogers "They're a bunch of madmen up there!" Rogers calmly turned to Alagna and remarked "Cheer up, it'll turn up all right." Alagna's continued urging to do something about the fire was only met by Rogers telling him "We wait for orders. That's what the regulations say and that's what we'll do." It had been ten minutes since the alarm was sounded and there was still no S.O.S. signal sent. Alagna ran back toward the bridge.

Warms was finally having to admit to himself that the Morro Castle was not going to make it back to New York. The fire, smoke, water, turbulence, screaming, darkness, and paint being blown off the ship created an extremely grim picture for the acting captain but he decided the one thing he could do was try to reposition the ship to cut down on the wind feeding the flames. By now the steering and electricity were gone but he believed he could maneuver the propeller in a way to force the ship to turn. Alagna was back in Warm's ear begging for an order to give to Rogers when he suddenly asked if the Captain's body could be moved to a lifeboat. This request made no sense to Warms who believed Alagna was the man who murdered Willmott. Where was Abbot? The two men pawed through the smoke and found the chief engineer hunched over on the floor near the wheelhouse, wringing his hands and muttering to himself "What are we going to do?" over and over. It was moments later that the quartermaster yelled over at Warms to tell him his plan to turn the ship had failed during the attempt and now the ship was broadside with the wind allowing it to pour through the portholes and windows that had exploded from the heat. The new air only strengthened the fire consuming the ship, this was the worst case scenario.

When Alagna burst back into the radio room at 3:12am Rogers greeted him with an unbelievable message, that he had been sitting and listening to other ship’s communications asking about smoke and if anyone knew if a ship was on fire, but he never interrupted, never told them it was the Morro Castle, and still had not sent an S.O.S. signal. "They're asking about a fire" he said "but we have no orders.” He and Alagna wrapped wet towels over their heads and Alagna ran back out while Rogers continued to listen with his feet resting on the bottom rung of his chair. He could not put his feet on the floor, the heat was melting his shoes. Soon after the remaining electricity went out and the ship screamed into the darkness in response.

Names and pleading screams cut through the air trying to reach faces that could not possibly hear them. Walls of fire and smoke were everywhere, ribbons of paint flew through the air, dangerous winds pummeled the burning ship and people scrambled for a way off. For some it was hopeless, they were rendered blind by the smoke and the glue used on the decks was melting trapping some people to the burning ship by their bare feet. Many chose to jump into the thrashing ocean below thinking they might have better luck with water than with fire. Those lucky few that were able to secure life vests were not guaranteed safety, there were specific instructions on how to use them in each cabin that went unread by many. Unaware that you had to hold the vest down as you hit the water many were knocked unconscious and drowned when the vest hit their chins while others had their necks broken instantly.

A life vest from the Morro Castle sold by Kaminski Auctions

Alagna once again found Warms and begged for Roger's order but it was not until he told him that Roger's heard other ship communications about the possibility of a ship being on fire that he finally gave the official words to send an S.O.S. At 3:25am the signal went out and it was picked up by the Andrea S. Luckenbach and partially by the Monarch of Bermuda despite the intense heat interfering with the transmission signal. Batteries exploded, wires melted, and Rogers began to slip out of consciousness. It was 3:40am when Alagna, dragging the semi-conscious body of Rogers out of the radio room, made their way toward the wheelhouse where they saw Warms and and other crew members fleeing over the bridge to the forecastle, an area inaccessible to passengers. The wheelhouse had finally caught fire and before evacuating Warms set the engines to STOP and dropped the anchor. Alagna and Rogers could hear glass shattering and wood breaking all around them but were able to find a ladder to climb up to the forecastle and join Warms and a dozen other officers. Warms handed Rogers a flashlight and told him there was a ship out there and he should try to get their attention. Rogers flashed a quick S.O.S. and was answered by the Luckenbach asking if they needed assistance. Rogers signaled that they needed help immediately and the Luckenbach responded saying they would send ships. Rogers turned to everyone and declared "We'll all be safe soon. I got off the S.O.S."

As Warms, Alagna, Rogers, and the rest of the crew looked out before them they were greeted with a churning sea of horrors where water was replaced by bodies. The Morro Castle was equipped with enough lifeboats to carry 800 people, over 200 more people that were actually on the boat that night but where were they? What happened to them? Why were there so many heads bobbing in the waves? The widespread flames were partially to blame with many people not being able to get to some of the lifeboats through the fire. Other boats burned still attached to their rigging, others stuck together from the heat. The boats on the port side simply would not launch, some of the mechanisms were painted over during the last paint job preventing the boats from releasing. Some of the launching gear was constructed in a way so that the boats could only be lowered manually from a deck, a procedure put into place in order to avoid boats being launched in a panic. It was now an impossible task. The boats that could be seen were practically empty after being haphazardly launched and most of those on board were not paid passengers. Of the first ninety-eight people to escape on a lifeboat, ninety-two of them were members of the Morro Castle crew. Bodies bobbed in the frothy water while those still with breath grasped onto to them like life preservers, people clung desperately to ropes hanging off the side of the ship, passengers dived off of decks thirty feet in the air and fell like rain while other squeezed out of portholes to escape the fire. And yet, most of the lifeboats did not go back to help. One of the crew members moving away from the scene on a nearly empty lifeboat was Chief Engineer Abbot. Huddled at the foot of the boat he urged the rowers to move away from the burning ship, but said he could not help, that he had cut his hand.

One of the Morro Castle lifeboats making it to shore

Forty-five minuted after the Luckenbach was alerted and turned to help the Morro Castle other ships in the area began to contact it asking if they had reached the burning ship. They reported that they had, and help was desperately needed. The first boat to arrive at the disastrous scene was a 26ft surfboat from the Coast Guard stationed in Sea Girt, New Jersey and they were followed by the Luckenbach, the Monarch of Bermuda, the City of Savannah, the President Cleveland and several more boats from the Coast Guard arriving just after dawn. Throughout all the chaos George Rogers stood with the small cluster of crew members seeming almost pleased with his surroundings. Upon seeing someone preparing to jump he would slowly feign a reaction until they hit the water at which time he would say what a shame, he was just about to leap to their assistance. He repeatedly assured Alagna that they had nothing to worry about, they had kept their heads in the face of disaster. The scene was unprecedented but the rescuing ships worked quickly. They had to, the hurricane that had been in back of the Morro Castle was rapidly catching up to them. Meanwhile, the lifeboat carrying Abbott was approaching shore and when it finally hit the land Abbott warned everyone not to speak to the waiting reporters, "They would never understand.” He tore the insignia off of his uniform, marched up the beach and got into a waiting car which took him to the police.

At 8am the Coast Guard cutter Tampa arrived on the scene and asked Warms if he wanted the Morro Castle towed back to shore. The stand-in captain agreed and the rescuing crew began fighting off the now 12ft waves in order to attach a towline to the hollow and still burning shell. Suddenly, Warms realized that the ship could not be towed anywhere, he had dropped the anchor during his failed attempt to reposition against the winds. There was no power to raise it up. The chain was going to have to be cut. With each link being three inches thick and only having access to a small hacksaw, it was going to be a long project where time was quickly running out. Warms, Rogers, Alagna, and the crew took turns on the chain with Rogers gloating the entire time about his "heroic acts" and how God had singled them out for greatness. When he was not declaring himself a hero he would randomly ask about the fire, why had it spread so quickly? When night watchman Pender told him that the flamed he saw were blue indicating a deliberate chemical cause Rogers said "Guess I was too busy sending out the S.O.S. signal to notice the color of the flames." While the chain was being cut bodies continued to wash up on local beaches and be tossed into the waves. The captain of the Tampa was not aware there were still active rescues taking place and he was not informed of this for two hours after his arrival. Horrified, he quickly sent available boats out hoping it was not too late for some. The chain was finally broken at noon and it took another hour before the crew was loaded into the Tampa and the two ships began to move. Their time had run out, the second hurricane was upon them.

The second storm thrashed so wildly that all rescue attempts had to be called off at 2:30pm despite the fact that people were still washing up all along the edge of New Jersey. The Tampa was only two miles off the coast and they had to be extremely careful not to run aground while dragging the still-burning wreck of the Morro Castle behind them. On the journey back a doctor found Alagna and commented that the resting Rogers was in bed delirious, ranting, semi-conscious, and weak. This made no sense to Alagna who had just spent hours next to Rogers while he stalked about singing his own praises. Alagna entered the room and upon seeing him Rogers launched into rambling tirade about how "they are leaving everything to George and me" before dramatically pretending to pass out. Alagna left the room undoubtedly exhausted but the disaster was not over yet. At 6:12pm the towline dragging the Morro Castle snapped and wound itself around the propellers of the Tampa. There was no choice, the Tampa's anchor had to be dropped and as it stopped the people on board gazed out watching the Morro Castle drift away from them and out into the open storm with absolutely nothing to stop it.

News about the unbelievable disaster of the Morro Castle was all over the headlines and radio stations with people trying to desperately come up with answers, names of survivors, names of the dead, causes, and the fire of the ship quickly became part of everyone's thoughts. One person who had been covering the tragedy was Tom Burley of WCAP in Asbury Park. Before he went on break that night the glowing monster he saw coming out of the fog straight for him was none other than the ship he had been reporting on all day. The Morro Castle was charging at Convention Hall and Burley yelled into his microphone "My God! She's coming in right here!" before the ship hit a jetty 20 feet from shore, turning her sideways, and blocking Burley's windows in Convention Hall with the brightly burning, smoking, screaming side of the Morro Castle. Reporter Thomad Tighe witnessed the crash and described it as "She came toward the shore with fire belching from every porthole. With rain beating down in torrents and a northeast gale blowing, she was a ghost coming out of the night. Fire and smoke drove in sheets over Convention Hall as she came to rest.” The journey of the Morro Castle was finally over, and by the time it ended 134 people were dead.

On the morning of September 8th the Coast Guard arrived in Asbury Park, New Jersey and made their was to the wreck of the Morro Castle. They were not the only ones crossing the beach that day, overnight thousands and thousands of people gathered on the beach to view the still smoking skeleton of what had once been a thing of dreams. For five hours the Coast Guard searched the wreckage and were met with nothing but horror. Decks were strewn with furniture, clothing, purses, shoes, skeletons, and piles of soot that may have been a person only a day before. Some rooms were torched to the point that only black and white walls remained. When Coast Guard director R.W. Hodge touched a railing it burned his hand. By the afternoon the number of people viewing the ship reached nearly 100,000, guided by signs along all the main roads guiding tourists to the spot and lured by the opportunity to pay a small price to go out and touch the wreckage. The same day the Tampa was finally docked in Staten Island, New York after a twelve hour delay due to the tangled towline. The press was waiting for them and they snapped photos and wrote quickly as Rogers was escorted out and away on a stretcher to a hospital. He smiled and waved at the reporters the entire time.

People gather on the Asbury Park boardwalk to view the wreck

All over the country people were asking the same questions, what happened to the Morro Castle? Everyone except the Ward Line who had their lawyers inform the ship's officers that they were not to speak to reporters and that what happened was "entirely an Act of God.” Despite the warning from the Ward Line, the public hearings showed the crew member's true feelings with multiple accounts all stating that they believed what happened that night was a deliberate attack. When asked about the fire Warms said "It was incendiary. I think someone put something in that Writing Room." Officers told how it moved unnaturally fast, that there was a chemical smell, the color of the flames, but it all fell on the deaf ears of The Ward Line and the Steamboat Inspection Service who scrambled for other causes stretching to to even blame spontaneous combustion, faulty wires, lightning strikes, and quickly dropped stories of Communist conspiracy.

Causes were cloudy but what became very clear was the astronomically unsafe conditions on board Captain Willmott's ship. The image of luxury was of utmost importance on the ship and some of the tasks asked of officers when they were not busy that caused Alagna to write his petition made the guest happy but also put them in terrible danger. One task was the round the clock polishing of the brass on board with a polish, already a chemical concoction, that was laced with kerosene to make the application easier on crew member's elbows. A huge amount of the ship was constructed from wood and another chemical polish was slathered all over the everything wooden on a weekly basis to keep everything shining. New layers of paint were applied every few weeks with the attention being on appearance rather than safety. I large number of lifeboats were unable to launch because of the layers and layers of dried paint cementing them to the ship. All the plywood used on board was not fireproof and was chosen because it was lightweight. The staterooms were lined in thin sheets of wood that were stuck together with eight layers of flammable glue before being bathed in varnish. The deck planking, made of Oregon pine was caulked with a mixture of glue, cotton, and oakum which melted in the extreme heat and stuck to passengers feet at they were trying to escape trapping them to the deck as they burned. The location of the Writing Room as the starting point of the blaze only added to the problems. From inside the storage closet the flamed went into a vent and spread behind a false ceiling where the Morro Castle's Lyle gun was kept along with the twenty-five pounds of gunpowder used to operate it.

Morro Castle lifeboat still fixed to the ship

Chemicals were not the only things that doomed the Morro Castle, fault also lay thick on both construction and crew. True, the ship was fitted with a state of the art fire detection system, but that system only covered the cargo, staterooms, and engine room and the fire doors meant to close automatically once a certain temperature was reached had all of their wires removed requiring them to be manually closed. Although the cargo was equipped with the detection system, it had been turned off. Part of the cargo on this voyage was a shipment of salted hides and on September 5th Captain Willmott ordered the system be turned off to prevent the stench spreading throughout the vessel. The same pathways that allowed the ship to be "sea-cooled" also gave the fire an oxygen-filled and totally unobstructed path to all areas.

The sheer confusion on the night of the fire was increased tenfold due to the fact that the crew members flat out did not know what to do in case of a blaze and even if their instincts led them the Morro Castle was not equipped to to allow those instincts be followed. Captain Willmott believed his ship was the safest place in the world and because of that he flat out refused to conduct any safety drills despite them becoming law after the sinking of the Titanic. When the idea was brought to the captain of doing drills to show the passengers how safe they were it was quickly shot down with Willmott stating "No, I don't want the men to run around and excite passengers. We have an old sea tradition, excitement brings panic." On the rare occasion that a drill could be conducted it was carried out by having crew members go to their posts briefly before continuing with their days. But, if you were busy catering to passengers you did not even take part in that. When Cruise Director Robert Smith proposed the idea of making games out of the safety drills for passengers Willmott immediately shut him down saying it would put ideas in people's heads that something actually could happen, which he refused to believe.

There were forty-two fire hydrants on board the Morro Castle the night it went up in flames, but almost none of them were functional. One month before the catastrophe a passenger slipped on some water that leaked from a hydrant and successfully sued the company for $25,000. Rather than fix the leak Willmott ordered the crew to remove all the hoses, nozzles, wrenches, and outlets for the hoses before having them cap off all the hydrants they could. The crew was unaware how to remove the caps but even if they did it would have been little help on the night of the fire, there was no water pressure. The three pumps that supplied water to the hose system had a capacity of 1,300 gallons per minute. However, the system was designed assuming that there would never be a situation where all the hydrants would be used so the max number that could be turned on and functional with water pressure at any one time was six. With the crew turning on every hydrant trying to find one that worked, the water pressure was cut down to a forth of its full strength.

Surely there was no way these conditions were legal. But, on paper the Morro Castle was perfectly safe due to the fact that inspections mainly consisted of strolling the decks and taking meals with Captan Willmott. Inspection records from August 4th, just over a month before the unthinkable, claim that an inspector from the Steamboat Inspection Service was able to test all of the lifeboats by lowering them all into the water and bringing them back up, and examine the hull, steering gear, gangways, telephones, radio equipment, anchors, and all 100 fire extinguishers and 848 life jackets in less than two hours. The Morro Castle was built to the standards of the U.S. Navy, there was simply no need for inspections.

The Morro Castle still burning while moving on September 8th 1934

As the hearings moved along the evidence of an act of arson continued to build. Crew and passengers continued to comment that the speed of the fire was nothing natural and there were reports from people swearing that they saw flamed traveling down staircases, completely defying a natural burning. The color of the flames were another big indicator. Night watchman Pender stuck to his claims that the flames he saw shooting out from the Writing Room storage locker were blue with indicated a chemical fire with temperatures over 1,500 degrees. In addition, chemical flames change color when water is applied and at lease one crew member reported that when they threw water on the flames they changed from blue-white to yellow. Another major thing to consider was where the fire began. While the Writing Room was open to the public the storage locker was hidden with the doors being made to blend in with the wall paneling, something only known by crew members. If the fire was truly an Act of God or an accident the storage locker was the worst place for fate to place a fire, but if it was deliberately caused by an incendiary device there was no better place on the ship to hide one.

If the fire was in fact arson, who could have set it? While the Ward Line was being ripped apart in the press for negligence and Alagna was being painted as the possible violent arsonist due to his issues before leaving New York, Francis Xavier Fay at the F.B.I. was looking into a tip that prompted him to get a background check of a certain crew member. The resulting report was worse than he ever could have and imagined and put a significant spotlight on the man being called the hero, George White Rogers.

The background check on Rogers laid out a lifetime of disturbances dating back to when he was a young child. There were numerous behavioral issues leading to him being thrown out of school after school until finally being expelled at the age of fifteen. In 1919 Rogers enlisted in the Navy as a radio operator and during his time there he became involved in a small chemical explosion where he bent the story repeatedly to paint himself the hero. Rogers was extremely well versed in chemistry and when the Black Tom explosion happened in 1918 he became obsessed telling people his theories on how the explosion was set and describing in detail a way he figured out to turn a simple fountain pen into a bomb. When the Navy explosion happened he was taken to the Navy Hospital feigning unconsciousness and delirium due to pain. He was discharged but while Rogers's story involved him damaging his eyes while jumping into the explosion to save a fellow sailor the medical records state that he was discharged due to dimness of vision. Nine years went by with Rogers jumping from job to job before he began working at electronic stores in New York City, during which employers reported multiple thefts and fires in their shops.

Despite his frightening history and his suspicious behavior before, during, and after the Morro Castle Rogers may have never been looked at twice had disturbances not continued after the fire that made him famous. After his fame began to fade he opened up an electronics shop which mysteriously burned to the ground. His next job was as a radio operator for the police department in Bayonne, New Jersey. Rogers quickly befriended Lieutenant Vincent Doyle but as the two got closer Doyle began to grow uneasy. Rogers grew increasingly vocal about his time on the doomed ship and he began to describe in detail how exactly he "thought" the fire was set, with a fountain pen incendiary device tucked inside the pocket of a waiter's jacket. When Doyle began to press Rogers on his knowledge about the Morro Castle fire Roger's backtracked saying it was just a guess. That was before Rogers built a bomb from missing police department equipment, planted it in a room, and lured Doyle inside where it exploded severely injuring him. This time Rogers was arrested and sentenced to twelve to twenty years in prison, a sentence that was appealed in 1942 when Rogers signed up for parole in exchange for enlisting in the armed services.

Vincent Doyle

By 1944 Rogers was back in Bayonne, New Jersey where he became friends with a retired painter named William Hummel who lived with his daughter just down the street from Rogers. Over the course of their friendship Rogers tried to involve Hummel in several business ventures that never took off with Hummel lending Rogers a total of $7,500. On June 18th 1953 Hummel told Rogers he would need the money back because he and his daughter were moving to Florida. Within the next forty-eight hours Hummel and his daughter were bludgeoned to death in their home. The only reason their bodies were found on July 1st was because Rogers himself told the owner of a radio store that the two were missing before the police even knew about it. Rogers was arrested and sentenced to life in prison but his time in jail was short, he died of a heart attack in January 1958 with his name never formally being attached to the deadly fire that killed 134 people.

Inquiries and accusations flew freely during the hearings after the blaze with Warms, Chief Engineer Eban Abbott, and Ward Line vice-president Henry Cabaud eventually being indicted on various charges. However, an appeals court later overturned Warms' and Abbott's convictions after deciding that the decisions of deceased Captain Willmott greatly contributed to the tragedy that night. In the end no official cause was ever cited for the fire.

The wreck of the Morro Castle remained in Asbury Park attracting millions of tourists who paid to wade out to touch it and purchased pressed pennies and postcards with the haunting charred remains emblazoned on them like a tranquil beach scene. It was not until the stench of the ship began to deter people that the wreck was finally declared a total loss and removal was arranged. On March 14th 1935 she was hauled away from Asbury Park and taken to Gravesend Bay in New York before making her final voyage to Baltimore, Maryland on March 29th where she was finally scrapped.

The wreck of the Morro Castle in Asbury Park November 1934

Morro Castle postcard

The story of the Morro Castle is the stuff of mystery novels. A luxury cruise ship returning from paradise when the captain died during one of two vicious storms, a mystery fire, a run away wreck that became a tourist destination, and a villain that was given many names but who took their identity to the grave. Despite all the unbelievable pieces of the story, it is hard to ignore that the tragedy of the Morro Castle was something that was a direct result of human hands, from the layers of chemicals that turned it into a powder keg to the person who set the blaze that transformed one last night of dreaming into one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.

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Sources:

The Morro Castle: Tragedy at Sea by Hal Burton (1973)

Inferno at Sea: Stories of Death and Survival Aboard the Morro Castle by Gretchen F. Coyle and Deborah C. Whitcraft (2012)

Fire at Sea: The Mysterious Tragedy of the Morro Castle by Thomas Gallagher (2003)

When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and its Deadly Wake by Brian Hicks (2006)

Shipwreck: The Strange Fate of the Morro Castle by Thomas Gordon and Max Morgan Witts

Please check out the New Jersey Maritime Museum online at:

https://njmaritimemuseum.org/

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defreitaszack-blog · 7 years

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A Titanic Experience

While many were taking their loved ones to fancy dinners, or were gifting expensive jewelry for Valentines Day, I decided to do something different. For Valentine’s Day this year (my first actual Valentine’s Day with a girlfriend) my girlfriend and I went to the Titanic Exhibit at The Peoria Riverfront Museum in Peoria, IL.

For a slightly high fee of $18 per adult, we got entrance into the Titanic Exhibit and the rest of the museum. Although the other attractions were noteworthy….or at least memorable…they weren’t worth much, so the only thing we were really interested in was the Titanic.

**I just wanna point out how dumb their “No Photography” rule is when the first thing you see upon entering is a photographer using flash on their camera. I’m not really sure how that makes any sense, but moving on…**

As we entered the exhibit we were greeted by a photographer from the museum, we passed on her sales pitch and walked around the corner to start the show. We were surrounded by pictures of the ship, both interior and exterior, showing sides of the Titanic many have not seen. Artifacts were placed in special glass cases in the center of the room. Just a few that were in the exhibit include: an electric fan, two bottles of perfume, a chandelier, plates and other kitchen ware, and the list goes on but you get the idea.

Copies of the blueprints of each deck of the ship were posted on the wall, showing just how much detail truly went into the building of Titanic. Two TVs in the first room showed short videos on specific parts of the Titanic, however, they both weren’t playing anything when we were there. On one wall were the menus for first class, second class, and steerage, as well as the actual menu for the night of April 15, 1912 for the first class passengers. Around a corner were two representations of passenger rooms: one first class, and one steerage. The attention to detail was tremendous, even for today’s standards.

In the next room was a small replica of what the Titanic’s boilers would have looked like. An interesting set of mirrors were setup so you could visualize what the boiler room would have looked like to the men who worked there. Just around the next corner was a huge chunk of ice which they welcomed you to touch to understand just what an iceberg is like. (To be honest this still is super weird to me.) After the iceberg I saw something that really disturbed me: a picture of a scuba diver assisting in the recovery of a large chunk of hull plating. To my knowledge, none of the wreck that big has ever been recovered…so that’s weird that they would show that. But, it’s alarming knowing just how at-risk shipwrecks are these days that they would show salvage of a shipwreck.

In the final room, a sobering conclusion to the exhibit. We were each given a “ticket” with a passengers name and story on the back. In the last room we got to find out who survived…and who died. My passenger was Thomas Cardeza, a first class passenger that had one of the two most expensive suites on Titanic. Both he and his mother survived the crash. My girlfriend was Eva Hart, a young second class passenger. Eva and her mother survived, but her father was lost. Throughout the exhibit they had shown specific stories of individuals: Benjamin Guggenheim, Bruce Ismay, the Strauss’, and other lesser known passengers. In the last room they concluded their stories as well.

The exhibit blew me away. The history that was at my fingertips, and the information surrounding me was jaw dropping. I had imagined what it would be like to visit one of the Titanic exhibits in the past, but I never thought I’d actually get the chance. To share this experience with my girlfriend made the entire day perfect.

But as everyone knows, my obsession with Titanic goes farther than the just the story of the real Titanic….it’s also my favorite movie.

I could write a book on the movie of Titanic (yes, I know…a book on a movie on a real story sounds so interesting) but I’ll keep this short. Titanic is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and I still feel this way today. The cliche mocking of the movie for how it ends with Jack and Rose is just proof that it’s a good movie, it’s the only thing people ever point out to me! But as I was saying…

The tale of Jack and Rose is simple: a boy falls for a girl he can’t have. Throw in the largest ship ever and the worst maritime disaster ever and the drama is natural. The intensity is real. The threat isn’t manufactured in Hollywood, it was an actual threat that everyday people thought could never happen. The despair is eerie, and the emotion is haunting.

There are two scenes in the movie that really deserve to be pointed out, for either what is actually shown or what it could mean to people. The first one that I wanna tackle is the giant elephant in the room: Rose and Jack and the piece of debris. First of all, we know Jack could have fit (Mythbusters doesn’t lie) but that’s not the point of the scene. Jack is a drifter from America who somehow made his way to France and won his ticket in a game of poker. He bums cigarettes and he borrows a tuxedo even, he takes and he takes and he takes. But when Rose’s life is in danger, at risk, he gives up on getting on the debris to make sure Rose survives (if he had flipped the piece of debris trying to get on she would’ve landed in the water and died like Jack). We’ve all had to let go of something, or someone, and we can all identify with how Rose felt letting Jack slip away.

The second scene is much more subtle, and much less in depth. The quick scene from the boiler room after the water starts to pour in is emotionally and historically important. Emotionally, we’ve seen the hell that these men have worked in during previous scenes and now they’re the first at risk. One of the crew barely makes it under the door as it’s closing. Historically, the foreman of boiler room 6 did in fact barely make it under the door as water was filling up the room. His testimony at the investigation trials was haunting, they were the first to experience the water. From the bottom of the Titanic, only a handful of them would make it all the way up to the top deck and into a lifeboat.

Five Fun Facts About Titanic:

1) The famous picture of the Titanic in harbor before she departed on her maiden voyage shows her left side being dock side (I don’t know nautical terms lol). When they filmed this scene they encountered a problem: only the right side of the ship had been constructed as that was the side they would shoot in all other scenes. To correct this, they simply flipped the shot in post. This meant the cast had to do things the opposite way.

2) The Titanic was one of three Olympus class streamliners made for the White Star Line. Its older sister, the Olympic, had a collision not long after launching but lasted until being scrapped in 1935. Her younger sister, Britannic, was launched two years after the Titanic sinking. She was sunk during WW1 off the Greek island of Kea.

3) Thomas Andrews was the head designer of the Titanic. He was a skilled shipbuilder, but was given the job because his uncle was William Pirrie, Harland and Wolff’s owner. An argument between Pirrie and Alexander Carlisle resulted in Carlisle quitting his post and Andrews getting the job. The Olympic and Titanic were the only two ships Andrews worked on.

4) The last remaining survivor of the Titanic was Millvina Dean. She died in 2009 at the age of 97….she was two months old at the time of the sinking.

5) The film was the first film to be released on video while it was still in theaters.

#titanic #movies

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

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In the Accelerator over the Sea

In our oceans the scale of disasters is measured in millions, billions, and trillions, while solutions amount to single digits: individuals or institutions working to impact a chosen issue with approaches often both brilliant and quixotic. Putting such individuals in close contact with both whales and billionaires is the strange alchemy being attempted by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance’s Accelerator at Sea.

I and a few other reporters were invited to observe said program, a five-day excursion in Alaska that put recent college graduates, aspiring entrepreneurs, legends of the sea, and soft-spoken financial titans on the same footing: spotting whales from Zodiacs in the morning, learning from one another in the afternoon, and drinking whiskey good and bad under the Northern lights in the pre-dawn dark.

The boat — no, not that big one, or that other big one… yes, that one.

In that time I got to know the dozen or so companies in the accelerator, the second batch from the SOA but the first to experience this oddly effective enterprise. And I also gathered from conversations among the group the many challenges facing conservation-focused startups.

(By way of disclosure, I should say that I was among four press offered a spot on the chartered boat; Those invited, from penniless students to deep-pocketed investors, could join provided they got themselves to Juneau for embarkation.)

The picture painted by just about everyone was one of impending doom from a multiplicity of interlinked trends, and as many different approaches to averting or mitigating that doom as people discussing it.

What’s the problem?

In Silicon Valley one grows so used to seeing enormous sums of money expended on things barely categorizable as irritations, let alone serious problems, that it is a bit bewildering to be presented with the opposite: existential problems being addressed on shoestring budgets by founders actually passionate about their domain.

Throughout the trip, the discussions had at almost every occasion, be it looking for bear prints in a tidal flat or visiting a local salmon hatchery, were about the imminent collapse of natural ecosystems and the far-reaching consequences thereof.

Overfishing, rising water temperatures, deforestation, pollution, strip mining, microplastics — everywhere we looked is a man-made threat that has been allowed to go too far. Not a single industry or species is unaffected.

It’s enough to make you want to throw your hands up and go home, which is in fact what some have advised. But the people on this boat are not them. They were selected for their dedication to conservation and ingenuity in pursuing solutions.

Of course, there’s no “solution” to the million of tons of plastic and oil in the oceans poisoning fish and creating enormous dead zones. There’s no “solution” to climate change. No one expects or promises a miracle cure for nature’s centuries of abuse at human hands.

But there are mitigations, choices we can make and technologies we can opt for where a small change can propagate meaningfully and, if not undo the damage we’ve done, reduce it going forward and make people aware of the difference they can make.

Small fish in a big, scary pond

The trip came right at the beginning of the accelerator, a choice that meant they were only getting started in the program and in fact had never met one another. It also meant in many cases their pitches and business models were less than polished. This is for the most part an early-stage program, and early in the program at that.

That said, the companies may be young but the ideas and technologies are sound. I expect to follow up with many as they perfect their hardware, raise money, and complete pilot projects, but I think it’s important to highlight each one of them, if only briefly. The accelerator’s demo day is actually today, and I wish I could attend to see how the companies and founders have evolved.

Some accelerators are so big and so general-purpose that it was refreshing to have a manageable number of companies all clustered around interlinked issues and united by a common concern. If young entrepreneurs trying to change the world isn’t TechCrunch business, I don’t know what is.

The problems may be multifarious, but I managed to group the startups under two general umbrellas: waste reduction and aquatic intelligence.

But before that I want to mention one that doesn’t fit into either category and for other reasons deserves a shout out.

Coral Vita grows corals at many times their normal rate and implants them in dying reefs.

Coral Vita is working on a special method of fast-tracking coral growth and simultaneously selecting for organisms resistant to bleaching and other threats. The founder, Gator Halpern, impressed the importance of the coral systems on us over the trip, as did filmmaker Jeff Orlowski, who directed the harrowing documentaries Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral. (He gave a workshop on storytelling — important when you’re pitching a film or a startup.)

Gator is using a special method to grow corals at 50 times normal rates and hopefully resuscitate reefs around the world, which is awesome, but I wanted to put Coral Vita first because of a horribly apropos coincidence: Hurricane Dorian, the latest in a historically long unbroken line of storms, struck his home and lab in the Bahamas while we were at sea.

It was literally battering the islands while he was supposed to pitch investors, and he used his time instead to ask us to help the victims of the storm. That’s heart. And it serves as a reminder that these are not armchair solutions to invented problems.

If you can spare a buck, you can support Coral Vita and victims of Dorian in the Bahamas here.

Waste reduction

The other companies were addressing problems equally as destructive, if not quite so immediately so.

Humans produce a lot of waste, and a lot of that waste ends up in the ocean, either as whole plastic bags scooping up fish, microplastics poisoning them, or heavier trash cluttering the sea floor. These startups focused on reducing humanity’s deleterious effects on ocean ecosystems.

Cruz Foam is looking to replace one of my least favorite substances, Styrofoam, which I see broken up and mixed in with beach soil and sand all the time. The company has created a process that uses an incredibly abundant and strong material called chitin to create a lightweight, biodegradable packing foam. Chitin is what a lot of invertebrates use to form their shells and exoskeletons, and there’s tons of it out there — but the company has been careful to find ethical sourcing for the volume it need.

Cruz Foam’s chitin-based product, left, and Biocellection’s plastic reduction process.

Biocellection is coming from the other direction, having created a process to break down polyethylenes (i.e. plastics) into smaller molecules that are useful in existing chemical processes. It’s actually upcycling waste plastic rather than repurposing it as a lower grade product.

Loliware was in SOA’s first batch, and creates single-use straws out of kelp material — a timely endeavor, as evidenced by the $6M round A they just pulled in, and backlog of millions of units ordered. Their challenge now is not finding a market but supplying it.

Dispatch Goods and Muuse are taking complementary approaches to reducing single-use items for take-out. Dispatch follows a model in use elsewhere in the world where durable containers are used rather than disposable ones for delivery items, then picked up, washed, and reused. Kind of obvious when you think about it, which is it’s common in other places.

Muuse (formerly Revolv) takes a more tech-centric approach, partnering with coffee shops to issue reusable cups rather than disposable ones. You can keep the cup if you want, or drop it off at a smart collection point and get a refund; RFID tags keep track of the items. Founder Forrest Carroll talked about early successes with this model on semi-closed environments like airports and college campuses.

Repurpose is aiming to create a way to go “plastic neutral” the way people try to go “carbon neutral.” Companies and individuals can sponsor individual landfills where their plastics go, subsidizing the direct removal and handling costs of a given quantity of trash.

Finless Foods hopes to indirectly reduce the huge amount of cost and waste created by fishing (“sustainable” really isn’t) by creating lab-grown tuna tissue that’s indistinguishable from the real thing. It’s a work in progress, but they’ve got a ton of money so you can probably count on it.

Intelligence and automation

The technology used in the maritime and fishing industries tends toward the “sturdy legacy” type rather than “cutting edge.” That’s changing as costs drop and the benefits of things like autonomous vehicles and IoT become evident.

Ellipsis represents perhaps the most advanced, yet direct, application of the latest tech. The company uses camera-equipped drones using computer vision to inspect rivers and bodies of water for plastics, helping cleanup and response crews characterize and prioritize them. This kind of low-level data is largely missing from cleanup efforts, which gave rise to the name, which refers to both the peripatetic founder Ellie and the symbol indicating missing or omitted information

Ellipsis uses computer vision to find plastic waste in water systems.

For larger-scale inspection, autonomous boats like Saildrone are an increasingly valuable tool — but they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and have their own limitations.

EcoDrone is a lower-cost, smaller, customizable autonomous sailboat that costs more like $2,500. Plenty of missions would prefer to deploy a fleet of smaller, cheaper boats than put all their hopes into one vessel.

Sea Proven is going the other direction, with a much larger autonomous ship: 20 meters long with a full ton of payload space. That opens up entirely new mission profiles that use sophisticated, large-scale equipment and require long-term presence at sea. The company has two ships now embarking on a mission to track whales in the Mediterranean.

Nets and traps are notoriously dumb, producing a huge amount of “bycatch,” animals caught up in them that aren’t what the fishing vessel was aiming (or licensed) to collect. Smart Catch equips these huge nets with a camera that tracks and characterizes the fish that enter, allowing the owner to watch and monitor them remotely and respond if necessary.

Meanwhile “dumb” traps can still be smarter in other ways. Stationary traps in stormy seas are often lost, dragged along the sea bed to an unknown location, there to sit attracting hapless crab and fish until they fall apart centuries from now. Blue Ocean Gear makes GPS-equipped buoys that can be tracked easily, reducing the risk of losing expensive fishing kit and line, and preventing “ghost fishing.”

Connectivity at sea can be problematic, with satellite often the only real option. Sure, Starlink and others are on their way, but why wait? A system of interconnected floating hubs from ONet could serve as hotspots for ships carrying valuable and voluminous data that would otherwise need to be processed at sea or uploaded at great cost.

And integrating all that data with other datasets like those provided by universities, ports, municipalities, NGOs… good luck getting it all in one place. But that’s the goal of SINAY, which is assembling a huge ocean-centric meta-database where users can cross-reference without having to sort or process it locally. Clouds come from oceans, right? So why shouldn’t the ocean be in the cloud?

Accelerator at Sea

The idea of commencing this accelerator program with a trip to southeast Alaska is a fanciful one, no doubt. But an influx of support for the accelerator’s parent organization, the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, made it possible. The SOA raised millions from the mysterious Pine and not-so-mysterious Benioffs, but it also made a deep impression on the founder of Lindblad Expeditions, Sven Lindblad, who offered not just to host the event but to attend and speak at it.

He joined several other experts and interesting people in doing so: Former head of Google X Tom Chi, Value Act’s Jeff Ubben, Gigi Brisson and her Ocean Elders, including Captain (ret.) Don Walsh, the first man to reach the bottom of the Challenger Depths in the Marianas Trench. He’s hilarious, by the way.

I met SOA founder Daniela Fernandez at a TechCrunch event a few years ago when all this was just one of many twinkles in her twinkly eyes, and it’s been rewarding to watch her grow a community around these issues, which have passionate supporters around the globe if you’re willing to look for them and validate their purpose. It’s not a surprise to me at all that she has collected such an impressive group.

The boat, departing from Juneau, made a number of stops at local places of interest, where we would meet locals in the fishing industry, whale researchers, and others, or hear about the local economy ecology from one of the boat’s designated naturalists. In between these expeditions we did team-building exercises, honed pitches, and heard talks from the people mentioned above on hiring practices, investment trends, history.

These people weren’t just plucked from from the void — they are all part of the extended community that the SOA and Fernandez have built over the last few years. The organization was built with the idea of putting young, motivated people together with older, more experienced ones, and that’s just what was happening.

In a way it was what you might expect out of an accelerator program: Connecting startups with industry veterans and investors (of which there were several present) and getting them the advice and exposure they need. There was a pitch competition — the “Otter Sanctuary” (you had to be there).

But there was something very different about doing it this way — on a boat, I mean. In Alaska. With bears, whales, and the northern lights present at every turn.

“For the first time ever, we brought together a community of ocean entrepreneurs from all around the world and allowed them to become fully immersed in the environment that they have been working so hard to protect,” said Craig Dudenhoffer, who runs the accelerator program. “It was amazing to see the entrepreneurs establishing lifelong relationships with each other and with members of the SOA community. It might seem counter-intuitive for a technology entrepreneur, but sometimes you have to disconnect from technology in order to reconnect with your mission.”

In a normal startup accelerator, and in fact for the remainder of this one, aspiring entrepreneurs are living on their own somewhere, coming into a shared office space, attending office hours, meeting VCs in their offices or at demo days. That’s just fine, and indeed what many a startup needs — a peer group, a focal point in space and time, goals and advice.

On the boat, however, these things were present, but secondary to the experience of, say, standing next to someone under the aurora. I’m aware of how that sounds — “it was an experience, man!” — but there’s something fundamentally different about it.

In an office in the Bay Area, there is an established power structure and hierarchy. Schedules are adjusted around meetings, priorities are split, time and attention are devoted in formal 15-minute increments. On the boat there was no hierarchy, or rather the artificial one to which we would cleave in the city was flattened by the scale of what we were learning and experiencing.

You’d be in a zodiac or pressed against the railing with your binoculars, talking about whales and the threat of microplastics with whoever’s next to you in a normal fashion, only to find out they’re a billionaire who you’d never be able to meet directly with at all, let alone on equal terms.

Sitting at breakfast one day the guy next to me started talking about hydrogen-powered trucking — I figured I’d indulge this harmless idealist. In fact it was Jeff Ubben and Value Act was investing millions in an ecosystem they fully expect to take over the west coast. This sort of encounter was happening constantly as people engaged naturally, acting outside the established hierarchies and power structures.

Part of that was the gravity of the issues the startups were facing, and which we were reminded of repeatedly by the impending hurricane, the hatchery warning of salmon apocalypse, the visibly collapsing ecosystems, and perhaps most poignantly by the changes seen personally by Don and Sven, who were been on the seas professionally long before I was even born.

“It’s like salmon eggs”

On the last night of the trip, I shared a glass of wine with Sven to talk about why he was supporting this endeavor, which was undoubtedly expensive and certainly unusual.

“From a business perspective, I depend on the ocean — but there’s a personal connection as well. I’m constantly looking for ways to protect what we depend on,” he began. “We have a fund that generates a couple million dollars a year, and we find different people that we believe in — that have an idea, a passion, intelligence. You meet someone like Daniela, you want to go to bat for them.”

“When you’re 21 or whatever, you have all these idealistic thoughts about making a difference in the world. They need support in a variety of ways — advice, finance, mentorship, all these things are part of the puzzle,” he said. “What SOA has done is recognize people that have a good idea. Left to their own devices most of them would probably fail. But we can provide some support, and it’s like with salmon eggs – maybe instead of one in a million surviving, maybe two, or five survive, you know?”

“Tech is a valuable tool, but it has to serve to support an idea. It isn’t the idea. Eliminating plastics and bycatch, making data more useful, putting sonar sensors on robotic boats, all very interesting. We need solutions, actions, ideas, as fast as we can, to accelerate the change in behavior as fast as we can.”

His earnest replies soon became emotional, however, as his core concern for the ocean and planet in general took over.

“We’re fucked,” he said simply. “We are literally destroying the next generation’s future. I’ve been with colleagues and we’ve wept over glasses of wine over what we’re doing.”

“I have two personalities,” he explained. “And most of my friends, associates, scientists have these dual personalities, too. One is when they look in the mirror and talk to themselves — that tends to be more pessimistic. But the other is the external personality, where being pessimistic is not helpful.”

“Something like this really activates that optimism,” he said. “At the end of the day young people have to grab their future, because we sure haven’t done a great job of it. They have to get out there, they have to vote, they have to take control. Because if the system really starts to collapse… I don’t think anyone even begins to understand the magnitude of it. It’s unfathomable.”

The Accelerator at Sea program was a fascinating experience and I’m glad to have taken part. I feel sure it was valuable for the startups as well, and not just because of the $25,000 they were each spontaneously awarded from the investors on board, who in closing remarks emphasized how important it is that startups like these and the people behind them are supported by gatekeepers like venture firms and press.

The combination of good times in nature, stimulating experts and talks, and a group of highly motivated young entrepreneurs was a powerful mixture, and unfortunately one that is difficult to describe even in 3,000 words. But I’m glad it exists and I look forward to following the progress of these companies and the people behind them. You can keep up with the SOA at its website.

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elizabethnightingale4 · 6 years

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What Happened, After

She looked at him and he shared the look, a calculating look. Slowly she from the back of her ratty jeans she pulled a small pistol and held it by the barrel. "Okay." He looked at her confused for a moment before taking his other hand out from behind his back, holding the gun by the barrel and offering his hand. "Thanks." She shook his hand firmly and quickly. "Alright we have to find somewhere safe for the night. Also, there are three other children, I uh, have to grab them really quick-" "Wait, you have kids with you too?" He looked suprised, "I have two siblings with me too." She smiled slightly. "Alright then lets get these kids together now." She smiled. "Have them play for a bit." He grinned. "Sounds great." "Heh" She put her gun and her crude dagger away. "Alright," She turned to go back to the car they had locked themselves in. He watched her go before heading back to his siblings who looked scared. "Hey you two. We have some friends tonight, and some real food." His half starved siblings looked up at him with wide eyes. "Do you mean it?" His sister was holding her twins hand tight. Their tiny bodies were slowly wasting away from his inability to find food in the apocalypse. It was killing him. "Yes silly head. Of course I mean it. Lets go before they decide to leave us." "Are there little kids bubba?" "Yeah bro, and they want to play with you two, so lets go!" He finally got the two of them moving down the road. Cora wasn't sure about these people. The boy looked like he hadn't eaten in a long while, and hunger could make even the most loyal betray their friends. She sighed and knocked the SOS signal to her siblings. Her sister was obsessed with maritime disasters and had insisted they use it. "Hey you three, its safe now. We have some dinner company." "W-wh-what do you mean Sissy?" Kenny looked at her sister, her eyes wide. "Stop st-t-tuttering loud mouth." Meg was always upset with Kenny. "Don't fight. We have to be prepared for anything." "Yeah listen Meg. We have to be on our best behavior." "You're right Davey." She smiled at her brother and patted his head gently. "Alright guys, UP AND AT THEM!" She fake yelled, striking a pose. All three of her siblings rolled their eyes. The three filed out of the car. her brother toof her hand and the other two held hands walking next to her. "Sissy! There are little kids! A boy AND a girl!" Kenny was so excited she clapped her hands together. "Welcome back." He grinned. "Looks like have a mini army on your hands." She chuckled quietly; "Yeah, if they threw fits it'd be hard to handle." she sighed, "theres a town a few miles down the tracks." She points to a rusted railroad track. "We saw a sign a while back for it. I worried poachers might be residing there though because of all the graffiti and nooses on the trees." She trailed off, "but uh, I think its our best shot though. Its getting late and repers come out at night." "Yeah, okay, sounds like a plan. Lead the way General." He grinned again, gesturing for her to lead the way. "Why do I have to lead?" He shrugged, "Well, you seem the best prepared to lead." She glanced at him. "Are you calling me bossy?" He just laughed, "Careful Sugar, you might ruin that pretty face with all those wrinkles." "Already flirting huh?" She started moving ahead. "Heh, it got you to lead didn't it?" She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him a smile barely staying off her face. "You sneaky fucker." He just laughed. "To answer your question though, I wasn't flirting. I'm not really into magenta heads." She laughed now, starting to walk again. "Yeah, when ever we find a hair place I take a new color. Wait for the new one to fade then change it." "What for?" She just shrugged, "Just something I did before the End, and I can't find my regular color any more." He picked up his sister and put her on his shoulders. "What was your 'regular' color?" "I've forgotten what the word for it was but it was like.. Okay it was like a dark purple that faded into a pink at the ends-" "Ombre" "Thats it!" She shifted her giant backpack and moved her duffle bag to her back. "How'd you know that?" "Oh, my girlfriend did that too, just with red and black." "Heh, yeah it was pretty popular before the End." She watched her sisters balance on the rails next to her. "Remember to watch out for traps you two." They replied together, "Yes sissy." "You know its been years since we met someone who wasn't insane." The girl grinned. "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken. We are all mad here. Some of us just hide it better than others." He was quiet, "Damn you were a nerd weren't you?" She snorted, "Didn't you see my shirt?" Shrek is Love-" "Shrek is Life. Someone had a tumblr." "Yeah I did." The children were walking a little further up the tracks, even though no trains had run since the power had shut off, it was never safe to wander too far from one another. She called them back over. "Who was your favorite band?" She laughed a the question, "Well?" "Sorry it's just weird being asked such normal questions after so long. It was probably the Beatles or maybe the Barenaked Ladies. Although I do carry a fondness for any sort of musical." "Oh?" "Yeah, I wanted to be a stage performer before the End." She shrugged, "musical theater and band were my beat yo." "Oh god never say that again." "What you got a problem man?" "Dude don't talk like you're from the sixties either." "Damn son, there is no pleasing you." She grinned "Damn straight." She laughed and took out a water bottle and drank from it. "You know, winter is hot on our heels. My siblings and I are headed down south to stay away from the cold." "Florida's supposed to be like super dangerous." "I was thinking of going to Louisiana. They still have some sort of state there, everyones cool and chillax." He was silent for a while and they walked on in silence for a few yards. "I thought you'd be smarter than to believe in fairy tales." "You have to believe in something otherwise you lose hope an hope is like super important... man." "Pffftt" he looked down and sighed, "Hope is an illusion. We created it to get away from the bad shit in the world." "Wow thats depressing... yo." "Quit it." He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "So uh, can I carry one of your bags or something? I feel bad letting you do all the work." She snickered "And who said chivalry was dead?" "Uh some guy?" She smiled, "Oh gods bro, you can barely hold you siblings, let alone a bag full of shit." "Yeah sorry, I was just trying to help." "Yeah I know." The two passed the next hour in silence listening to the children laughing and running around. A roar was heard over head as a Canadian plane dropped supplies to an unknown group of people who would soon be dead now. Cora whistled and her siblings came running back to her followed by Ashton. "To the trees. Now. No talking, no rough housing, and be very careful." They nodded and followed her over to the wooded area next to the tracks. "Hey what are you doing?" His siblings followed the other children into the woods. "Get off the tracks before you get us all killed." An echo sounded from a not too far away yell."We're gonna eat great tonight."The boy stumbled and Cora yanked him into their spot as from around the far bend came a large crowd of poachers, hooping and hollering. "Yo, Grait!" A scout picked up the water bottle Cora had dropped and handed it over, "It was still spilling out." The one who took the bottle looked to the woods. "Shit" She whispered pulling the kids behind her and hiding them behind a rocky outcropping, dropping the bags beside them. She took out her dagger as the man with dried blood across his face shouted, "Shut up! We aren't alone." The whole group fell silent and Cora looked at her new friend and gestured for him to watch the kids as she moved closer again, watching them through the dense brush. "WHos there? Come out. We won't bite, hard." He grinned, the rotting flesh sewn into his cloths caught her nose and she gagged, covering her nose with her hand, trying to keep from making noise. "Aw are you a she?" Cora quietly tried to size the group up. There were almost thirty grown men, a handful of younger guys and one female. Her neck had a chain attached to a lease, one of the men held it. "Oh we won't hurt you if your of the fairer sex. Come on out." The silence that followed was only broken by a few bird calls. "Go in after her." He ordered, lighting a cigerette and looking away. A few of the men walked into the woods as Cora scaled a spruce tree to keep hidden. "Grait, I think shes long gone. Theres nothing but birds out here." Everyone groaned and made general angry remarks. Such as "This ones getting worn out and refuses to eat." and "we wasted all that time." The party slowly made its way down the tracks and out of sight. Cora waited about ten more minutes to move back down from her tree. "I'm glad there weren't many girls." He looked shaken "She didn't. She didn't have any teeth." He looked horrified as Cora went over and patted the kids heads and grabbed the bags, "Yes. She must have put up quite a fight to be in such a tortured state." "You say that like its nothing!" "I've seen worse-Whats your name?" They looked at each other for a moment. In the past few hours they had talked about a lot of different topics but they never asked each other their names. "It's, it's Steven, I'm 16." She smiled, "I'm Cora, I'm 16 too. Its good to meet you. She walked to the tracks. "We have to keep going and get to the town. "How did you know they were coming before they made noise?" "You haven't been near the north in a long time have you?" "No?" "The Canadians think that they're helping or at least I hope they do, but the air buckets bring little kids and the weak. It makes for easy pickings for the poachers." She sighed going forward on the tracks "And poachers rarely keep others around for long." "Are you saying-" "Animals are too fast for them to catch, the dependents of animals however, such as long pig." She had this look of hate and pain filling her face. "I had another sister once. She was eight when they caught her and I had to choose between abandoning my other siblings, giving away their hiding spot, or letting her die alone. The last bullet I had stopped her from experiencing what the chained woman felt." They were both silent for a while. "I love my siblings more than life." She trailed off again, continuing to walk. "I just.. I keep my eyes and ears open. I watch and remember everything I can. The tracks are a path probably right to the drop off. We knew there were poachers in the area. even if they hadn't come its safer to hide for a while after an air drop." he was quiet for a while. "I wish I'd been able to be a kid for longer." The girl nodded in agreement. "I don't think she'd blame.." He trailed off again and took a bag, patting her back. "Lets go find somewhere to rest for the night?" She smiled, "Thanks, yeah lets find somewhere."

#idk #i just wanted to write..#its not that good but *shrug*

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topfygad · 4 years

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topfygad · 4 years

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Street excursion by way of the Florida Keys

Overseas Freeway

The Overseas Freeway is only one of America’s best feats of engineering and is sort of actually the picture that you just think about of when any person mentions this island chain.

Our eco boat journey within the Florida Keys

Taking a road journey via the Florida Keys: A mini-manual