The New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company

The turbo-electric powered liner Morro Castle, completed in 1930 along with her sister Oriente, became infamous four years later on 8th September 1934 when a serious fire destroyed her off New Jersey and claimed 133 lives. Oriente, on the other hand, had a long career of 27 years, mostly as an American Army troop transport from 1941 until broken up in 1957. They were owned by the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company, which had been incorporated in 1881 but was more popularly known as the Ward Line, founded by James Otis Ward in 1841.