ABSTRACT
The blackened hulk of the cruise liner Morro Castle lying off thebeach at Asbury Park, New Jersey, was a grisly remnant of thedisaster in which 134 passengers and crew had burned to death or drowned in September 1934. On the beach a horde of salesmen hawking souvenir postcards and candy bars to tourists gave shape to former President Coolidge’s stand that “the business of America is business.” For most Americans, the Morro Castle was a distraction from worry over jobs and paychecks. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal fight to bring the nation out of the Depression had just begun-and the still smoking ship was less depressing and more interesting than the bread lines of the unemployed.
