Doris Lillian Wacker. She was born 21 July 1916 in New Jersey to Herbert and Lillian A. (nee Brunnenmeister) Wacker. She had a brother, Kenneth H., born ca. 1923. She had been travelling on the Morro Castle with her parents and had shared cabin 214 with Marjorie Budlong (a survivor). She was rescued by the Paramount together with her mother. She married twice; first William Wright Fitzsimmons 13 February 1942 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey, and then Howard Nicholas Manske in 1955. She was widowed in 1958 when Mr. Manske passed away. She passed away on 6 February 2010 in Reidsville, Tattnall, Georgia, as a Mrs. Manske.
”Miss Doris Wacker of Roselle Park, N. J., a passenger, was the first witness today. She occupied room 214 on B deck. She and a friend, Miss Budlong, decided to stay up all Friday night, the last of the voyage, to get a view of New York harbor at dawn.
‘We walked to the writing room and my friend and I wrote in the autograph album of a Cuban we met on the boat. That was about 1:15 a. m. About 2:10 we went to our room. At 2:40 a. m. I went out of my room to a deck and then I saw the fire.
‘There Is No Danger’
I saw no flames, but there was a lot of smoke and a few minutes later I saw the whole lounge seemed to be burning. I saw some stewards and they seemed to be throwing something on the flames. I met a girl and she told me she asked them if she could do something. She told me that they said: ‘There is no danger. Do not call anybody.’
I asked the stewards if I should do something and one said: ‘Keep quiet. There is no danger.’
Helps Parents Dress
I then went to my girl friend, when the flames started shooting out of the room. I also called the Cuban girl and my father and mother. I got life preservers from my room and I then helped my father and mother to dress. We helped each other with the preservers and found we did not know how to use them, because we tied each others’ life belts at the back. Then we had to change them. We went out on B deck, to the rear. Quite a lot of people were congregating.
Q: Did you see any stewards getting passengers out?
A: None.
Floated 7 Hours
On the rear deck some of the crew came to pacify us and said we had better go down to C deck, where there was less fire and smoke. By that time the fire was creeping back toward us and all of a sudden the fire spread the width of the boat. Then the passengers all asked each other: ‘What shall we do? Shall we jump?’
My mother then said she felt hot and she felt the deck with her hand and said it was hot. With fire nearly all around us and beneath us we thought we had to jump. We did, found each other in the water and we floated around seven hours, when we were picked up by a fishing boat.
Crew Drunk in Bunks
Q: Did you hear anything about drunkenness among the crew?
A: In Havana, Wednesday morning, the breakfast service was poor and the steward was put out, saying: ‘What can I do? They are laying drunk in their bunks.’
Q: Did you observe any officer directing the stewards fighting the fire?
A: No.
(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 19 September 1934, p. 20)
Elsewhere in the newspaper she said she and her mother were rescued, but that her father died from exposure and submersion during the ordeal.
Doris L. Manske Reidsville, GA/Palm Beach Gardens, FL – REIDSVILLE – Doris L Manske died peacefully at Community Hospice in Vidalia, GA on Saturday, February 6, 2010 after a brief illness. She was preceded in death by her husband, Howard Manske in 1959. Doris was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on July 21, 1916 to Lillian and Herbert Wacker. Upon graduation from high school, her parents took her on her first cruise as a graduation gift from New Jersey to Havana aboard the first ship ever christened that was supposedly ‘fireproof’ÉThe Morro Castle (details in recently published book). Unfortunately, this ship burned on the return leg of the cruise. Doris, with her mother and father abandoned ship. She and her mother were rescued, her father drowned. In years to follow her favorite holiday was aboard a cruise ship for exotic ports. Following this tragic event which gained national media attention, it was time to think about earning a living and she opened a dance studio in Roselle Park, NJ which was quite successful for a number of years prior to relocating to Palm Beach County, FL in 1947. There she became involved in fashion retailing with Burdine’s Department Stores (Federated Department Stores). She enjoyed a very successful career and retired after 35 plus years to travel, play bridge and volunteer for The Arts. In 2003 she relocated to Reidsville, GA where she remained until her death. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Douglas K. and Francine Manske of Reidsville, GA. (Savannah Morning News)
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 19 September 1934
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