She lived up to expectations by completing the maiden 1,100+ mile southbound trip in just under 59 hours, and the return trip took only 58 hours. Morro Castle began her maiden voyage on August 23, 1930. In a growing age of passenger ships having cruiser sterns, Morro Castle and Oriente were constructed with the classic counter sterns. The cost of each ship was estimated at about $5 million. Each ship was luxuriously finished to accommodate 489 passengers in first and tourist class, along with 240 crew members and officers. Each ship was 508 feet (155 metres) long, measured 11,520 gross register tons (GRT) and had turbo-electric transmission, with General Electric twin turbo generators supplying current to propulsion motors on twin propeller shafts. In March 1930 Morro Castle was christened, followed in May by her sister ship Oriente. Naval architects were hired by the line to design a pair of passenger liners to be named SS Morro Castle after the stone fortress and lighthouse in Havana and SS Oriente after Oriente Province in Cuba.Īt the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, work was begun on Morro Castle in January 1929. One company that quickly availed itself of this opportunity was the Ward Line (officially: the New York and Cuba Mail Steam Ship Company), which had been carrying passengers, cargo and mail to and from Cuba since the mid-19th century. Each of these loans, which could subsidize as much as 75% of the cost of the ship, was to be paid back over 20 years at very low interest rates. shipping companies to replace old and outdated ships with new ones. Congress passed the Merchant Marine Act of 1928, creating a $250 million construction fund to be lent to U.S.
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