A Tale of Two Ships in the Night

AUGUST 23 MARKS the 95th anniversary of the maiden voyage of the ill-fated SS Morro Castle. The Morro Castle was an American ocean liner that mysteriously caught fire in the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 1934 on its return trip to New York City from Havana, Cuba. The ship ultimately ran aground in front of Convention Hall in Asbury Park. Of the 489 passengers and 240 crew members on board, 137 people perished. It was a tragedy that made international headlines with stories of heroes and villains that rival the world’s most famous shipwreck, the Titanic, which sank in 1912.

Some of those heroes worked on a 60-foot fishing charter boat from Brielle called The Paramount, owned and operated by Captain John Bogan Sr. The crew of The Paramount were among the first to respond to the disaster, as the Coast Guard was hours behind due to adverse weather conditions. In total, the crew of The Paramount saved 67 passengers. “We didn’t stop until we heard no more screaming,” Captain John Bogan Jr. said in a New York Herald article.

The Bogan family business is still in operation today, enjoying its fourth generation of ownership. Captain Tony Bogan currently operates the business along with his siblings, Sharon and Howard.

I recently had a chance to speak to Captain Bogan about his family’s legacy and the current state of Bogan’s Deep Sea Fishing Center. He was kind enough to share some stories passed down from his grandfather, John Bogan Jr., who was running the ship alongside his father on that fateful day in 1934. In fact, it was John Jr. who made the overriding decision against his father’s judgment to risk the ship and crew in the inclement conditions, for the sake of those suffering at sea.

The business began in Jersey City as Bogan’s Beach, where the family rented out row boats and eventually purchased a fishing boat. Four years before the Morro Castle disaster, Bogan Sr. moved his business from Jersey City to Brielle. The Army Corps of Engineers had recently announced that they would be making the Manasquan Inlet a permanent inlet, and Bogan Sr. likely foresaw a boom in fishing tourism.

On the morning of the Morro Castle incident, the crew was gathering to go fishing when they got the call.

One notable story Tony shared was that of two survivors, rescued by The Paramount crew, who had coincidentally lived down the street from the Bogans during their time in Jersey City. The survivors later sent the Bogans a thank you letter and expressed their shock at seeing their old neighbors coming to their rescue in the middle of the Atlantic!

“Had it not been for the boat captains and other people in this inlet, a lot more people would have died,” says Tony. “The Coast Guard were warning against it, but they said ‘screw that, we gotta get out there and help these people.’”

A LEGACY ON THE WATER

In the 90-year history of the Bogan family business, the size of the fleet has expanded and contracted with the size of fisheries, as well as with economic and technological developments. Up until the 1960s, there were as many as 11 smaller boats in the fleet, eventually shrinking to fewer, larger boats up to 125 feet in length.

Currently, the fleet has four boats sailing out of Brielle: Jamaica, Jamaica II, The River Queen and The Paramount (not to be confused with the original), as well as a bait and tackle shop and another boat which docks in Point Pleasant.

The business is fundamentally the same as it was back in John Sr.’s days, with about 40% of their clientele hailing from Pennsylvania. (The Manasquan Inlet is the most direct route for many Pennsylvanians to reach the open ocean.) Bogan’s Deep Sea Fishing Center offers half day, 3/4 day, full day, night, overnight and long-range offshore fishing trips, catching everything from fluke to Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Today, memory of the SS Morro Castle shipwreck lives on mostly in the striking images of the charred, hulking ship towering over crowds in front of Convention Hall. It also lives on in the Bogan family business and the New Jersey Maritime Museum in Beach Haven, which houses many artifacts from the wreck. The disaster’s legacy also contributed to many improvements in industry safety standards, including the required use of fire-retardant materials in ship building and enhanced lifeboat procedures.

Ultimately, the tale of the Morro Castle’s demise and the plight of its passengers is not just one of tragedy and horror but of bravery and sacrifice. Hundreds who fled the flames were forced to jump ship into the freezing Atlantic. But fortunately for many, The Paramount crew from Brielle were there to heed the call.

For a more detailed history of the Morro Castle incident, check out the book “Inferno at Sea: Stories of Death and Survival Aboard the Morro Castle” written by Gretchen F. Coyle and Deborah C. Whitcraft of the New Jersey Maritime Museum.

BY DARREN MONROE