General Slocum
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The General Slocum was a steamship launched in 1891. It caught fire and burned to the water line in New York's East River on June 15, 1904. Over 1,000 people died in the tragedy, making it New York City's worst loss-of-life disaster until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
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The ship
The ship was named for Civil War officer and New York Congressman Henry Warner Slocum It was built by Divine Burtis, Jr., a Brooklyn boatbuilder. Her keel was 235 feet long and the hull was 37.5 feet wide. The ship was built mostly of white oak and yellow pine. She displaced about 1,200 tons. She had three engines, built by W. & A. Fletcher Company of Hoboken, New Jersey. She was a sidewheel boat. Each wheel had 26 paddles and was 31 feet in diameter. Her maximum speed was about 18 miles per hour. The ship had three decks. She usually had a crew of 22, the Captain and two pilots. The crew on that fateful day included Captain William H. Van Schaick, 61; first pilot Edward Wan Wart, 62; Edward M. Weaver, 28; engineer B. F. Conklin; mate Edward Flanagan; and Michael McGrann, the steward.
Past problems
The General Slocum had seen a series of mishaps since her launch in 1891. Four months after launch, she ran aground off Rockaway. Tugs had to pull her free. On July 29, 1894, when returning from Rockaway one night with some 4,700 passengers, she struck a sand bar so forcefully her electrical generator went out. The passengers panicked; hundreds were injured. In August 1894, she ran aground off Coney Island during a storm. The passengers had to be transferred to another ship. In September, she collided with the tug R. T. Sayre in the East River. She sustained substantial damage and lost steerage. In July 1898 she collided with the Amelia near The Battery. In June 1902, she ran aground with 400 passengers aboard. The passengers had to camp out, as she remained stuck throughout the night. On August 17, 1901 she was carrying what was described as 900 intoxicated Paterson Anarchists. Some of the passengers started a riot and attempted to take control of the vessel from the captain. The crew fought back. The captain docked at the police pier and 17 men were taken by the police.
The disaster
The General Slocum worked as a passenger ship, taking people on excursions around New York City. On June 15, 1904, the ship had been chartered for $350 by the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church in the German district Little Germany, Manhattan. This was an annual rite for the group, which had made the trip for 17 consecutive years. Over 1,300 passengers, mostly women and children, boarded the General Slocum. It was to sail up the East River to a picnic site on Long Island.
Just after the ship set sail, a fire started in a storage compartment in the forward section. Although the ship had lifeboats and life preservers, they were useless. Survivors reported that the life preservers were rotten and fell apart in their hands. The lifeboats were tied up and inaccessible. Desperate mothers placed life jackets on their children and tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sunk instead of floating, due to the condition of the jackets. Also, the population of the boat consisted mainly of women and children, most of whom could not swim.
The Captain, William Van Schaick, badly mishandled the situation. He decided to continue his course rather than run the ship aground or stop at a nearby landing. (Van Schaick would later argue he was attempting to prevent the fire from spreading to riverside buildings.) Some passengers attempted to jump into the river, but the clothing of the day made swimming almost impossible.
By the time the General Slocum was beached at North Brother Island, just off the Bronx shore, an estimated 1,021 passengers had been killed by fire or drowning. Van Schaick and the rest of the crew suffered no fatalities. The Captain lost sight in one eye due to the fire. He was hospitalized at Lebanon Hospital.
There were many acts of heroism among the passengers, witnesses, and emergency personnel.
Aftermath
Seven people were indicted by a Federal grand jury after the disaster: the Captain; two inspectors; and the president, secretary, treasurer and commodore of the Knickerbocker Steamship Company. Only Captain Van Schaick was convicted. He was found guilty on one of three charges: criminal negligence, failing to maintain proper fire drills and fire extinguishers. The jury could not reach a verdict on the other two counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He spent three years and six months at Sing Sing prison before he was paroled. He was pardoned by President Taft on December 19, 1912.
The Knickerbocker Steamship Company, which owned the ship, paid a relatively light fine despite evidence they may have falsified inspection records. The remains of the General Slocum were recovered and converted into a barge, which sank in a storm in 1911. The disaster motivated federal and state regulation to improve the emergency equipment on passenger ships.
The huge loss of life destroyed the cultural center of the German society in Little Germany, and within a year Little Germany ceased to exist.
Survivors
On January 26, 2004, Adella Wotherspoon died at the age of 100. Mrs. Wotherspoon had been the last surviving passenger from the General Slocum's disastrous voyage. Mrs. Wotherspoon, then a six-month old named Adele Liebenow, lost two older sisters in the fire. The previous oldest surviving member was Catherine Uhlmyer (1893-2002).
Popular culture
There is a reference to the disaster in James Joyce's Ulysses, the events of which take place on the following day (June 16, 1904).
The first scenes of the film Manhattan Melodrama recreate the disaster.
The 2005 Hugo award nominee Time Ablaze by Michael A. Burstein (Analog, June 2004) concerns a time traveller who comes to record the disaster. The story was published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
See also
External links
- US Coast Guard Accident Report (http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/moa/boards/slocum.pdf)
- Ship Ablaze General Slocum Website (http://www.general-slocum.com/) devoted to it.
- Maritime Industry Museum: General Slocum (http://www.maritimeindustrymuseum.org/slocum.htm)
- New York Historical Society: General Slocum (http://www.nyhistory.org/slocum)
- Slocum Photo Archive (http://www.astorialic.org/photo/slocum/slocum_index.shtm)
- Brothers: NYC's worst maritime tragedy (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/YOU%27D%20NEVER%20BELIEVE/brothers/brothers.html) Photos of the islands in 2004 and images of the General Slocum from Forgotten New York (http://www.forgotten-ny.com).