Evening star., 1934-09-20
LINERS OFFICERS
TOLD NOT TO TALK,
ALAGNA TEST|F|ES
Advised to Cooperate and
Line Would Take Care
of Them, He Says.
TELLS PROBERS ADVICE
WAS GIVEN ON TAMPA
Declares a Mr.. Wright Called
Them All Together in
Salon of Cutter.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, September 10
George I. Alagna, first assistant radio
operator of the Moro Castle, testified
before a Federal inquiry board today
that officers and crew of the burned
vessel were advised to cooperate with
the Ward Line and good care will be
taken of you"
The radio operator gave sensational
testimony as he told how he was
called into the salon Of the Coast
Guard cutter Tampa, on being brought
back from the ship to be given advice
by "a man I supposed to be a repre-
sentative of the Ward Line"
Rogers DeIirious.
AIaena told how Chief Radio Oper-
Ator Rogers became delirious when he
was taken aboard the Coast Guard
cutter, and kept calling for Alagna.
II spent the night with him, u
Alagna said. The next morning he
seemed quite recovered.
II was called on then by Mr.. Free
man to present myself in the Tampa S
salon. When I got there the men
were all in semi-circle about a Mr.,
Wright.
Nov boys he said, a terrible
thing has happened, an act of God.
"'I want to say q few things for
the benefit Of the men who have not
been involved in such things before.
Then he gave us some instructions
on things we should and should not
do"
Told Not to Talk.
In answer to demand by Hoover
for these things, Alagna said he was
told not to talk TO newspaper men or
any one else.
"'You Will all be taken care off, we
were told.
ct do not represent the Ward Line,
the man said, and I want no publicity
In this affair.
"'All I ask is that you boys CO.
operate with the Ward Line and you
will be well taken care Of. You will
be taken of at Staten Island, and
from there a tug will take you to the
pier in Manhattan
Alagna said he was tcld to say
nothing-''this will all blow over"
Warns Delayed SOS.
Alagna previously charged that Act
ing Capt. w. F. Warns ordered an
s o s sent from the burning ship only
after strong pleading" on Alagna's s
fifth trip to the ships bridge for in
structions.
Alagna described conditions on the
bridge as "unintclligible and confused. "
He said Capt. Warns "just kept pac-
ing" and he had to follow him about
and then doubted If the captain recog-
nized him.
The man at the wheel, Alagna tes-
titled, Just turned the wheel around
and around as though it was out OF
order and that by the time he had
made his fourth trip to the bridge, the
wheel had been abandoned
Finally, he said, he saw Capt.
Warns leaping over the bridge rail
to the foredeck and he exclaimed to
George Rogers, chief operator who
had joined him after sending the
S o s:
Look at the yellow rat leaving us
here-deserting u.s.
Smoke and Leaping Flames.
Alagna, whose testimony has been
awaited with eagerness because of
charges he is understood to have made
before Federal grand jury investi-
eating the disaster, told a story of
smoke and leaping flames and fire
hose twisting slowly under low pres
sure.
When he first went into the radio
room, two or three minutes after being
awakened by tramping feet about
am, Alagna said there was smoke,
but no fire at the radio. The smoke
came from directly below the radio
room, he said.
Before he entered the room he saw
A