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An Astoria. L. I. stenographer named Una Cullen was sitting with another girl and two men in the lounge just before 3 a. m. For most of the ship's company it had been a dreary evening. They had sat in depressed groups after dinner, gone below later to pack while stewards and stewardesses whisked up & down the corridors comforting two-thirds of the passenger list which were deathly seasick. But Miss Cullen and her friends were bound to make a night of it. stay up and see the dawn over New York Harbor. They never saw it, for suddenly a cloud of smoke began to pour from the library. Some seamen were slopping buckets of water on a blaze. They told Miss Cullen and her friends: "Don't worry! It will be put out easy." Miss Cullen ran down to wake up her roommate and get a coat.
Without rhyme or reason the whole midships suddenly seemed to sprout fire. In his cabin on the hurricane deck, First Assistant Radio Officer George I. Alagna was awakened by a heavy trampling of feet. He noticed that it was 2:56 in the morning. Alagna heard someone scream: "We can't control the fire! The pressure's gone!" Then he awakened his chief, pudgy George W. Rogers, who went to the wireless room and took over from the second assistant. The room went dark as the ship's electric power failed. With a flashlight the radio men turned on the reserve battery current. "Sparks" Rogers then sent out his station call, KGVO. He next sent his QRT "Clear the air!'' Then CQ "Attention, please!" Then "All stations please stand by!" Meanwhile the operator in a little stucco Radio Marine Station at Tuckerton, N. J. had relayed a query from a ship in the Morro Castle's neighborhood: "Was a nearby ship afire?" A pillar of flame could be seen. But it was not until 3:25 that Alagna could fight his way back through the flames with authority from Captain Warms, desperate on the bridge, to send out the dread SOS. "Di-di-di-da-da-da-di-di-di! The flames are under the radio room. KGYO. KGYO 20 miles south of Scotland Light . . . SOS. SOS, Di-di-di-da-da-da-di-di-di. . . . Can't hold out much longer. . . ." Blind, almost knocked out by the bitter smoke. "Sparks" Rogers and Alagna stumbled out of the wireless room. By that time the Morro Castle was an inferno from stem to stern.
The fire must have been raging half an hour before anyone down in the engineering force knew anything about it. At about 3 o'clock the bridge signalled the engine room to stand by. A few minutes later came an order to search the engine room for signs of fire. At 3:10 full speed ahead on the starboard engine was ordered. The steering gear had burned away and Captain Warms wanted to swing the Morro Castle around for a swing toward the shore. At 3 :30 came the order to stop the engines. Engineers groped through smoke and darkness to reach the valves and controls to shut off the big boilers.
Pandemonium broke loose below decks after the shutoff. Men fought like beasts to get out of the hold. Three times Oiler Antonio Georgia started up the narrow stairs and three times his legs were caught and he was dragged down.