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September 8, 1934; 1:30 a.m. In the darkest hours of the cool autumn night, with sunrise still several hours away, the Atlantic Ocean seven miles off the New Jersey coast lay silent and still. The stars were masked behind thick rainclouds shrouding the night sky; when morning finally arrived, it would be with the amber glow to the east that an old nautical rhyme admonishes sailors to be wary, foul weather is approaching. But when the rain finally came, it would be welcome, for it would help control the inferno that would soon be blazing out here on the ocean.