Surfaced from a watery Jersey Shore grave, Morro Castle anchor finds new life

POINT PLEASANT BEACH - Dive boat captain Bill Cleary may have found a long lost and forgotten artifact of the Morro Castle, the famed ocean liner that caught fire and burned off the Jersey Shore, coming aground in Asbury Park.

It was 89 years ago on Sept. 8, 1934, with the Morro Castle aflame off the coast, that a desperate attempt was made to slow the fire by pointing the ship west toward the Sea Girt Lighthouse, out of the wind, and throw the anchor.

It was too late. The fire burned through and silenced her massive engines, and without power the winches intended to raise the enormous anchor were useless. The surviving officers on the ship were most likely forced to cut through the anchor chain and leave it on the ocean floor off Sea Girt.

For all the years afterward, the anchor was a forgotten detail, lost among the tragedy at sea that claimed 137 lives and among conspiracy theories over how the fire started. The ocean liner was towed and scrapped, so there was no shipwreck to dive or salvage relics from. The anchor simply lay there on the ocean floor, waiting to be found.

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But in 2011, Capt. Marc Vitolo of the commercial fishing vessel Kim Ann was dragging the bottom for fluke about three miles off Sea Girt when his trawl net snagged something and became stuck. He was unable to raise his net, and with his hydraulics smoking, he was forced to abandon it. But before he did, he caught a glimpse of a large anchor and chain as it sunk back down to the bottom, tangled in his expensive fishing gear

Vitolo did not know it at the time, but he had snagged the Morro Castle's five-ton anchor. Cleary said he is "99.9%" sure of it, though it took several years before he drew that conclusion.

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Finding the clues

A dozen years ago Vitolo was hoping Cleary could salvage his net and gave him the coordinates in the ocean where he lost it. Cleary, an attorney who owns the Shipwreck Grill in Brielle and Captain Bill's Landing in Point Pleasant Beach, had been searching for a 19th century shipwreck in the area, so he was doubly intrigued.

Cleary and his dive crew on his boat Depth Charge located the anchor, and Vitolo's net, which unfortunately was beyond salvation. Cleary said the anchor was way too big to belong to the small shipwreck he was searching for. At the time he surmised that a large ship simply dropped an anchor during some relatively uneventful occurrence that can cause ships to do so.

In the years that followed, he continued to return to the site though for practice dives. The anchor was so large that it even attracted lobsters, Cleary said.

Three years ago, while collaborating on another dive off Asbury Park with Paul Whittaker, a state policeman, Whittaker jokingly said maybe they'd find the Morro Castle's missing anchor. That's when the light bulb went off in his head and he began a lengthy archive pursuit to identify the anchor lying off Sea Girt.

The big clue was that it is a Baldt Anchor, which Cleary said was the manufacturer that built the ship's anchor.

Last Nov. 4, Cleary and his dive crew raised the anchor and brought it to the Manasquan River, where it lies in the water at Captain Bill's Landing. He is in the process of building a restoration tank to bring back the original shine of the heavily corroded steel anchor.

The future of the anchor has not been determined. Cleary may donate it to Asbury Park to be placed next to the Morro Castle monument or the New Jersey Ship Wreck Museum in Beach Haven. He's also producing a 90-minute documentary about the find.

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Tragedy at sea

The Morro Castle was en route from Havana to New York City carrying 550 passengers and crew on that late summer trip in 1934 when a fire started minutes before 3 a.m. in a storage locker. The vessel was about eight miles offshore of Long Beach Island.

The fire rendered the 508-foot ship powerless when it consumed the electrical cables and hydraulic lines. Many people leaped into the ocean, snapping their limbs as their bodies hit the water. A total of 137 people perished.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, but historians believe the steam ship’s radioman, George W. Rogers, was behind it.

Rogers was first hailed as a hero for not abandoning his post but he raised suspicion years later when he spoke openly about the event. When one of his superiors within the Bayonne Police Department where he was employed questioned him, he made an attempt on the officer's life.

Then, in 1954, Rogers was convicted of murdering a neighboring couple for money and died three years later in prison.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: SS Morro Castle anchor resurfaces after decades on ocean floor