Dereliction of Duty Charge Against Ship's Officers and Crew: Incendiarism Suspected RAVE charges of dereliction of and crew of the ill-fated s.
New York, Sept 11. duty were levelled against officers Morro Castle to-day as passengers testified at the Federal inquiry here to the tragic events of Saturday morning, when fire gutted the Ward Line flagship off the New Jersey coast.
Some witnesses deposed that li lifeboats left the side of the flaming steamer carrying only three passenj gers and 90 members of the crew. Another told of a woman, with a child in her arms, sent hurtling into raging sea by a boom some fool had not made fast.
Dr. Gouvernour Phillips, prominent New York physician and social leader, fatly refuted claims' of the Chief Officer, Mr. William Warms, and other officers that a prompt alarm had been sounded. The physician said that there was no alarm and that he and his wife had been awakened by the smell of smoke. He testified that they dashed on deck, but found no lifeboats available. Dr. Phillips declared that the officers I were making no effort to control the crew or to direct the passengers.
These allegations were denied in part by the Chief Engineer, Mr. Eben Abbott, - who testified before the Department of Commerce Board of Inquiry that he did not take a lifeboat until a half-hour after the fire had started.
He said That he then entered one of the boats at the orders of Acting Captain Warms.
Mr. Abbott unequivocally stated that the alarm was sounded, statements of some passengers to the contrary notwithstanding.
Tu response to the alarm, the chief engineer told the board, he stopped air-pumps ventilating the holds in order to keep fresh oxygen from the flames, but that fire broke out so rapidly in widely scattered parts of the vessel and spread with such rapidity that it was utterly impossible to control the blazes—United
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.