Ghosts on The Jersey Shore: How a historical shipwreck may have brought the Paranormal
The Final Voyage of the SS Morro Castle
You are first officer William Warms. It’s the middle of the night, September 7th, 1934, when you are rushed into the captain’s chambers. The captain, one Robert Rennison Willmott, has died mid-voyage, currently about eight nautical miles off the coast of New Jersey. With this strange and sudden tragedy, you have just been made captain of the SS Morro Castle.
You are roughly a day’s trip from your destination, New York City, but after two days crossing the Atlantic ocean, and now a dead man preserved in the ships’ cold storage, you find yourself overwhelmed by the sudden promotion. You shake it off, splash some cold water on your face, searing against the sun-burn you received from a week spent in Havana just days before.
There was talk of a nor’easter further to the east, and the winds had begun whipping the sides of your vessel earlier today. Now, almost 1 AM, you find yourself sitting at the wheel, fighting the storm crashing overhead.
By 2:50, you receive the news. A fire has been detected in a storage locker within the First Class Writing Room on B Deck. Within thirty minutes, your ship has become engulfed in flames.
By the morning, the Morro Castle would arrive not in New York, but to the bottom of the sea, and you would be on your way to Long Beach Island in a small escape boat, one of only 80-odd escapees. You would be leaving behind the corpses of 137 crew and passengers, many of whom would never see their remains recovered.
Nearly a century later, though theories sporadically arrive, no one truly knows what happened that night. Did the otherwise healthy Captain Willmott really suffer a freak-tragedy? Was the fire some kind of electrical malfunction? Or was there some kind of heinous evil aboard the ship that night? And did they perish with their victims, or arrive on our shore an unsuspected victim of a tragedy they themselves wrought?
Full Disclosure – There is no Closure
The sudden, mysterious sinking of the SS Morro Castle is one of the less-talked about naval disasters in our country’s history. Everyone knows of the Titanic, but New Jersey is home to a remarkably similar, and perhaps far more eerie shipwreck. Although tragic, you may be wondering, what does a nearly 100-year-old naval disaster have to do with modern-day NJ ghost tours and sightings?
Well, many people who believe in the paranormal hold a coinciding second belief, that spirits still walking our mortal plane are here for one solitary purpose; closure. We’ve seen and heard this dozens of times, ghosts haunting their childhood homes where they befell some misdeed in their living years, or the phantom of an actor who died on opening night, haunting the stage where he never got to perform.
This is a well-known trope of ghost stories, but it lends itself to the story of the SS Morro Castle. 137 victims died on that stormy night in 1934. Perhaps they too find themselves without closure, haunting the shores of a state they never even called home. Perhaps they might even reveal themselves to those daring enough to join a haunted walking tour along the coast.
The Jersey Shore – Ghosts Galore
There are ghost sightings and haunted areas scattered throughout New Jersey, and especially its coastal regions like Asbury Park, Long Beach Island, and Ocean Grove. Many of these have direct ties to real people or events, but many do not.
Take for example, the “Lady of Wesley Lake.” Many people around Wesley Lake, situated between Asbury Park and Ocean Grove claim to have encountered a mysterious ghostly woman near the coast in the dead of night. Stranger still, the lake seems to split the psyche, as it’s said you can only see the phantom from Asbury Park, but can only hear her from Ocean Grove.
As for her origin, no one is really sure. But, a misplaced and lost soul wandering the Jersey Shore may just be tied to the SS Morro Castle.
The superstitious among you may recognize the shipwreck as a perfect cauldron of all ingredients for a good ghost story. Ghosts seeking closure, dressed in old garb, lost in a tragedy at sea, and perhaps most frighteningly, if there is truth to these theories, perhaps vengeful spirits remain.
Paranormal NJ
Whether you’re a skeptic, a believer, or just someone who loves a good ghost story, the Jersey Shore has no shortage of chilling tales and eerie encounters. If you’re ready to explore these haunted hotspots for yourself, visit ParanormalBooksNJ.com or sign up for one of our guided ghost tours.
We offer immersive haunted walking tours that dive deep into the real ghost stories and forgotten tragedies of New Jersey’s coastal towns.
And, we’d love to hear from you! What are your theories on the SS Morro Castle? Have you had a chilling experience yourself? If you’re ever looking to dive into the paranormal, we’re the one-stop shop for Central Jersey supernatural. You never know what, or who, you might encounter in the shadows.
