Blazing Star: The Loss of the Angelina Lauro

Greetings from the US Virgin Islands!

My wife and I are on a Caribbean cruise aboard the Norwegian Escape this week, and today we’re in Saint Thomas. We have an excursion booked for Shipwreck Cove, where we’ll snorkel the wreck of the freighter Cartanza Senora (where I hope to get some underwater shots). But this is far from the only ship to have been wrecked in the Virgin Islands over the years. One—a cruise ship—caught fire right next to where the Norwegian Escape is currently docked.

On March 30, 1979, a fire broke out in a crew galley while the MS Angelina Lauro was docked in Saint Thomas. The ship burned out of control for four days until firefighters succeeded in extinguishing the blaze. The burnt-out hulk of the Angelina Lauro sat at the pier for months after the blaze and awaited her ultimate fate.

This is the story of a ship’s fiery demise and reinforces why crew members need to maintain constant vigilance.

Through Peace and War

Like many cruise ships in the 1970s, the Angelina Lauro began life as an ocean liner.

Originally named MS Oranje and built for Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (the Netherland Line), the new liner was launched on September 8, 1935. The Netherlands’ Queen Wilhelmina christened the ship and named it in honor of the ruling House of Orange-Nassau.

The Netherland Line intended Oranje to be a running mate to the MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt for service between Amsterdam and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). She was a mid-sized ship at 20,117 GRT at 656 feet (200 m) in length. Oranje carried a crew of 383 as well as 740 passengers in four classes: 283 in First Class, 283 in Second Class, 92 in Third Class, and 82 in Fourth Class. The liner had a service speed of 22 knots (25 mph; 41 km/h).

World War II interrupted Oranje’s maiden voyage. Laid up in Surabaya for a time, the Royal Australian Navy ultimately pressed her into service as a hospital ship. Despite being under Australian command, Oranje remained crewed and flagged by the Dutch.

After the war, Oranje returned to civilian service in 1946. Facing a decline in passenger numbers due to the Indonesian War of Independence, the ship began doing world cruises. In January 1953, Oranje collided with the Willem Ruys in the Red Sea. Despite damage on both ships, there were thankfully no casualties.

In 1964, Italy’s Flotta Lauro Lines purchased Oranje and Willem Ruys. After a major refit, Oranje reemerged as a practically new ship: the Angelina Lauro. She could now carry 800 passengers in a one-class configuration. Angelina Lauro became a popular cruise ship, sailing exciting new itineraries until the Costa Line chartered her in 1977.

Inferno in the Harbor

The Angelina Lauro was making regular week-long cruises by early 1979. She left San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 24, 1979 with 1,049 people aboard: 669 passengers and 380 crew. Saint Thomas was the ship’s last port of call before returning to San Juan. On March 30, the ship arrived at the West Indian Dock in Charlotte Amalie Harbor at around 8 am.

With approximately half of all passengers and crew ashore, the Angelina Lauro was quiet for most of the day. Starting at 3:20 pm, however, some crew members began smelling smoke from multiple locations around the ship. At 3:45 pm, the bridge got a report about a fire in the B Deck crew galley.

The fire grew quickly, creating chaos aboard the Angelina Lauro. Despite efforts from the ship’s crew and shoreside firefighters, heavy smoke filled the ship’s passageways and rooms, severely hampering firefighting efforts. An evacuation effort began, with all passengers and crew offboarded by 5:45 pm.

For four long days, fire consumed the Angelina Lauro. By the time the blaze was extinguished on April 3, the cruise ship was virtually destroyed. Miraculously, only two people sustained minor injuries. The Angelina Lauro, however, was a total loss.

Chain of Failures

Investigations conducted by the US Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed that an unattended skillet caused the fire. Set to the highest setting, it overheated cooking grease and other nearby combustible materials. The investigations uncovered several critical failures that made the situation worse:

1. Lack of Effective Communication: There was a failure to promptly report the fire when it was first detected. This resulted in a roughly 30-minute delay before appropriate actions could be taken. In addition, there were no timely announcements to passengers during the evacuation.
2. Lack of Effective Control: Despite many agencies involved in the firefighting operation, no one took overall command of the incident or organized a plan of attack during the first 12 to 15 hours of the fire.
3. Ineffectiveness of Safety Systems: The Angelina Lauro’s fire detection and sprinkler systems failed to provide early warning or to extinguish the fire in the concealed overhead spaces.
4. Combustible Materials: The extensive use of combustible materials, despite being treated to be fire-retardant, on the Angelina Lauro provided ample fuel for the fire.

Salvage, Sinking, and Shipwreck

Determined to save whatever could be salvaged, the Hamburg-based German salvage company Eckhardt & Company was hired. They successfully refloated the Angelina Lauro on July 2, 1979. Eventually, Flotta Lauro Lines decided to sell the ship for scrap and arranged the sale with shipbreakers in Taiwan. On July 30, the Angelina Lauro began her final journey under tow, heading toward Asia.

As she made her way through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific, it looked like the ship might reach her destination without incident. Towing a “dead” ship is notoriously challenging. However, on September 21, the Angelina Lauro—her hull damaged and weakened from the fire—started taking on water. Slowly, the ship began to list. She stayed afloat for three more days but eventually rolled over on the evening of September 23. The Angelina Lauro slipped beneath the waves early the next morning at position 11°43′ North and 121°43′ West.

Fiery Lessons

For as long as ships have sailed the world’s oceans, fire has been sailors’ greatest fear, from the sailing vessels of old to today’s cruise ships. Some notable recent ship fires include the Lakonia (the ex-Johan van Oldenbarnevelt) in 1963, the Yarmouth Castle in 1965, and the Achille Lauro (the ex-Willem Ruys) in 1994. These disasters underscore just how deadly and devastating such incidents can be aboard a ship.

The fire aboard the Angelina Lauro serves as a reminder of the importance of strict safety protocols and ongoing training for crew members in emergency response situations. It also highlights the essential roles of effective communication and leadership during emergencies. Despite the confusion aboard during the fire, it’s a miracle that no one died.