The Wreck of The Morro Castle Cruise Ship – From Asbury Park to West Conshohocken

West Conshohocken Sesquicentennial

Celebrating 150 Years of Incorporation

The Wreck Of The Morro Castle Cruise Ship

From Asbury Park to West Conshohocken

By Jack Coll

11-25-24 (published 12/5/2024)

     This article centers around a photograph that was sent to me about 20-25 years ago.  I received an envelope in the mail, if my memory serves me correct it was from Barbara Crane Snear, or Barbara Snear Crane, and the envelope contained about six photographs.  (Remember this was 25 years ago)  I think there was two photos of the Matsonford Bridge, a photo of “Hanging Rock” in Gulph Mills, a photo or two that were  un-recognizable, and a picture of a ship  that looked like it was beached.  Written on the back of the photo was, “The Morro Castle burned wreckage at Asbury Park N. J.”  The Morro Castle photo I didn’t pay much attention to,  as it was not Conshohocken, West Conshohocken or even in Pennsylvania.  I believe all of the photos were taken in the early to mid-1930’s.

     Years later I ran across an article from the Conshohocken Recorder newspaper dated September 11, 1934.  The headline read in big bold letters, “Survivor of Morro Castle” and in the sub-headline it read, “Elma Hill, Granddaughter of Mrs. J. Rufus Barr is Saved After Seven Hours Battle Against Ocean Waters.”

     I never heard the name of Elma Hill, but J. Rufus Barr was a name I ran across many, many times when researching West Conshohocken.  This information sent me scrambling into my personal library in hopes of tracking down that original photograph of the Morro Castle on the Asbury Park New Jersey beach.

     So,  recently I ran across the Conshohocken Recorder Newspaper article in my files and thought that with West Conshohocken celebrating a 150 years of incorporation I would dig into this Morro Castle article and see where it takes me, and the story became so interesting to me that it led me to “The New Jersey Maritime Museum” located in Beach Haven, New Jersey.

     The New Jersey Maritime Museum specializes in shipwrecks throughout the centuries among a host of other Maritime history displays.  The museum is also a rich, research facility organized exclusively for educational purposes, and a public display of historic maritime artifacts, photographs, books and documents, not to mention an entire large room dedicated to the shipwreck of the Morro Castle passenger ship.

      Before we get-too the New Jersey Maritime Museum, let’s start at the beginning.  Having researched the history of West Conshohocken many, many times over the years, the name J. Rufus Barr has appeared many, times during my research for one reason or another.  For more than a half of a century Barr was the borough’s only pharmacist and one of the borough’s most prominent citizens known to nearly every single resident in the borough at that time.

     J. Rufus Barr, (no relation to West Conshohocken former Council woman Patricia Barr)  was the son of Charles and Mary Ann (Fulton) Barr, was born near Newtown Square in Delaware County in 1854.  Although his father owned a farm with more than 200 acres, at the age of 14 the family moved to Chester where his father engaged in the flower and feed business until 1873.  At the age of 20, young J. Rufas Barr entered the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. 

      In 1880 at the age of 26 Barr moved to Ford Street in West Conshohocken and remained there until his death in 1929.  During his nearly fifty years as a resident in the borough he made quite an impact on the community.  He went to work for Dr. William McKenzie who conducted  a drug store on Front Street, by 1885, Barr opened his drug store and from that point on he was the towns only druggist.  Barr married Maria B. Williams of Chester and over the years the couple had ten children.

     The couple’s oldest child, Varena, who of course resided in West Conshohocken, married a Conshohocken resident, Robert Hill, the two settled in Conshohocken where they would often spend time at Robert’s brother, Clarence Hill’s House who resided at 925 Fayette Street, Clearence was an executive at W. A. Case and Sone Mfg. Company.

     Robert and Varena had three daughters including Elma, (sometimes spelled as Alma) She attended the Hoffecker Grade School located at Third Avenue and Harry Street, but moved to Glenside in her early teens, graduating from Cheltenham High School, before studying at Temple University;

    At the age of 26, Elma was working at the Royal Indemnity Company at 5^th and Walnut Streets, in Philadelphia.

     During the summer of 1934, Elma had decided to take a vacation trip to Havana, Cuba, by way of a cruise on the ill-fated Morro Castle.  (During the 1930’s, Havana was a flourishing and fashionable city dubbed the “Paris of the Caribbean,” attracting an ever increasing number of tourist).

     Although Elma had planned to travel with a friend, Miss Henrietta Rae of Glenside, previous to the start of the voyage, Miss Rae’s father was taken ill forcing Miss Rae to cancel her travels.

     Elma boarded the Morro Castle in New York on Saturday, September 1, 1934, bound for Havana, Cuba.  In her own words Elma later wrote, “The voyage down was stormy and even then, the boat was seventy-five miles off its course in order to avoid trouble.  Upon our arrival at Havana, I with others making the trip, had a marvelous time at that place and visited many points of interest.”  She went on to say, “The trip was uneventful, except that on the last evening, the eve of the fire, the captain of the ship died of a heart attack.”

     Shortly after three o’clock in the morning Elma was awakened by a person knocking on the door of her stateroom.  A steward advised her that there was a “slight fire” and advised her to throw a coat over her pajamas, get a life preserver and get to the upper deck.  Her stateroom was well below deck and she had to climb a lot of stairs holding onto the railing as there were no lights, but smoke filled stairs and hallways, Elma noted that it smelled like burning paint.

     When Elma reached the deck, she could not see or breath through the heavy black clouds of smoke, as she arrived a lifeboat was pulling away from the ship and she waited on deck with hundreds of other passengers for directions as she buried her nose and mouth inside her coat so she could breath.  She also noted that as members of the crowd looked around, they noticed that no members of the ship’s crew were visible.  After about 45 minutes, the deck of the ship was too hot to stand on and a number of the passengers decided to jump from the burning vessel with the assumption that a life boat would pick them up within a short period of time.

     As the passengers on deck began to feel the heat of the fire Elma decided to jump ship.  Elma jumped approximately thirty feet into the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean and began her wait for rescue.  Elma was in the water for more than seven hours and found it necessary to keep moving constantly in order to keep from becoming numb, which was a real effort as there was a terrific undertow.  As she stated, she slowly drifted away from the ship in total darkness but didn’t lose view of the ship because of the fire.

     The minutes turned into hours and finally daylight broke.  As the morning fog broke, and when her body rose to the top of the waves, she could see other boats in the water, but none seem to be going to the aid of the  Morro Castle.  After hours of treading water, a fishing boat came by so full of victims that it was unable to pick Elma up, as she started to become hysterical in the water it was maybe a half hour later that another fishing boat came by and picked her up. 

     Passengers dead and alive were taken to a fire house in Spring Lake, where Elma recalls being wrapped in a blanket and getting needed first aid at the fire house.

      A resident in Spring Lake offered her clothes, Elma was later placed on a special local train to Elizabeth, NJ where Elma noted that she had the best of care on the short trip.  She was provided with a special coach with railroad officials in charge, which no one was allowed to enter.  At Elizabeth she was met by more railroad officials and was placed on the train for Jenkintown Pa., where she was met and greeted by family.

     Elma Hill’s “story of rescue was epic” according to a newspaper headline, a movie news cameraman interviewed her in the clothes given to her by Mrs. John McDermott in Spring Lake.  During the interview Elma conveyed the terror experienced by all those who jumped from the burning ship.  She noted that in the water one of the life boats from the Morro Castle came close to her and she called out to the sailor who was steering it.  He looked at her, she said, then turned his head and went on without her.

     The burned-out Morro Castle Ship eventually was towed into Asbury Park and grounded just outside the Convention Hall pier at 6^th Avenue where it became a tourist attraction.

     So, the Conshohocken Recorder article, and the photograph of the doomed Morro Castle passenger ship, led me to the New Jersey Maritime Museum.  With just a photograph and a Recorder article I felt there must be more to the story then what I had.

     The Conshohocken Recorder reported all her belongings were lost, her clothing and jewelry were left in her room on the boat.  She placed her money in her lifebelt, but the belt worked loose and the money was lost in the ocean.  All her belongings were lost except the ring and watch she was wearing when she jumped into the waters.

      Every inch of her body was beaten black and blue by the angry waves,  Elma stated, “People were drowning all around me. Others were hysterical and screaming, others were praying and crying out loud for aid.  It was a scene of horror such as I would never imagine.”

     So, Donna and I traveled up the New Jersey Parkway to exit 63, that led us to my first ever visit to the beautiful seashore town of Beach Haven where the New Jersey Maritime Museum is located.  Once inside the museum I was fascinated with the materials and artifacts on display.  I was more fascinated when I walked into the large room dedicated strictly to the burned-out Morro Castle Ship.

     The displays were many with endless information, The museum pays tribute to the 135 passengers and crew who lost their lives, (out of a total of 549 passengers and crew on board).  The thing is I was looking for Conshohocken and West Conshohocken information among the hundreds of photograph books, dozens upon dozens of investigation logs, newspaper clippings from all over the world about the burning inferno, and endless artifacts to look at and inspect.

     Man was I surprised when I picked up a book published in 2012, written by Gretchen F. Coyle and Deborah C. Whitcraft titled “Inferno at Sea.”  There have been dozens of books written about the Morro Castle not to mention books with chapters written about the doomed ship.       

     The “Inferno at Sea” book covered the story of the Morro Castle from beginning to end, including stories of death and survival.  As I paged through the Table of Contents, I was absolutely shocked when I noticed Chapter Eleven under Survivors, there it was, a chapter on Elma Hill.  Even more fascinating was Elma Hill’s Elgin watch, the one she was wearing when she jumped from the ship into the ocean, there it was on display in the museum, the site of the watch left me near breathless.

     The chapter on Elma told her entire story of survival.  The final paragraph in her chapter states: “Elma Hill, (they spell her name Alma in the book) came of age in the 1930’s, a strong woman who survived economic depression in the United States and personal upheaval from her Morro Castle experience.  She remained a tough, gusty woman who lived her life to the fullest.  Through she never dwelled on her Morro Castle experience with her descendants, her death revealed many newspaper clippings, letter, records, the identification bracelet she coveted, and her never repaired silver Elgin watch.”

     While the authors of the book called Elma, “a tough, gusty woman,” I call Elma, “ West Conshohocken tough and Conshy Strong.”  I’ve written a number of West Conshohocken stories and articles over the past year in honor of the borough’s sesquicentennial celebration, I’ve written about people, places and things, all interesting and all with ties to West Conshohocken.

     The fire on the Morro Castle was world-wide news, the burned out wreckage of the ship was towed from Asbury Park to Baltimore nearly six months later on March 29, 1935 where it was scrapped.  Not long ago “The Mystery of the Morro Castle” was featured on the television show Weird New Jersey.  There was plenty of mystery connected to the fire, Captain Robert Willmott suffered a fatal heart attack after eating dinner the night before the fire, a theory of arson by a crew member attracted strong support over the years and the high casualties, (135 dead, with many more injuries) was chiefly blamed on the crew’s incompetent handling of the emergency.

     For more information on the Morro Castle, you can visit the Maritime Museum in Beach Haven, New Jersey.  For more information on Elma Hill and her full story of survival in the ocean, (I only told a very small piece of her story) you can pick-up the book, “Inferno at Sea,” written by Gretchen Coyle and Deborah Whitcraft  while you’re at the museum or ask the museum to have a copy mailed to you.

This is perhaps the most amazing story I could tell about a former borough resident.