"El Desastre del Morro Castle" by Leopoldo González interpreted by Trio Matamoros.
When the Morro Castle departed Havana for the final time on September 5th 1934, she carried aboard her 318 passengers and a crew of 231. On September 7th, as the voyage drew near to its conclusion, the series of events that culminated in disaster commenced. That night,the weather deteriorated a fire was discovered in a storage locker in the port side B deck Writing Room. The ship was kept sailing into the wind for a regrettably long time, driving the fire aft, up through the lounge well, and out onto the boat deck. Passengers, unable or unwilling to risk running through the flames to reach the boats congregated on the open decks aft on B, C and D Deck. The vast majority of those who escaped in the Morro Castle lifeboats were crew members, a fact later to draw much negative criticism, mitigated somewhat by the fact that they were quartered forward on the ship and had a knowledge of onboard shortcuts and crew staircases that the passengers did not possess. Those trapped at the stern began jumping when it appeared that the flames were about to burst from the superstructure on to the aft decks. Many broke their necks or knocked themselves out jumping improperly with life preservers on, while others jumped or were thrown from the ship without any life saving devices only to weaken and drown struggling in the increasing storm.
Passengers who did not awaken in time had to jump from the cabins in which they found themselves trapped by the fire. Few survived.
Full story at http://www.garemaritime.com/features/morro-castle/index.php
Passenger list: http://www.garemaritime.com/features/morro-castle/16.php
http://cruiselinehistory.com/?p=3405