Tragedies I
Past and Present
General Slocum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The General Slocum was a steamship launched in 1891. She caught fire and burned
to the water line in New York's East River on June 15, 1904. More than 1,000 people
died in the accident, making it New York City's worst loss-of-life disaster until the
September 11, 2001 attacks.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 The ship
2 Past problems
3 The disaster
4 Aftermath
5 Survivors
6 Popular culture
7 References
8 Further reading
9 See also
10 External links
The ship was named for Civil War officer and New York Congressman Henry Warner
Slocum. She 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 16
knots. The ship had three decks. She usually had a crew of 22, including Captain
William H. Van Schaick and two pilots.
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 her ability to be steered.
In July 1898 she collided with the Amelia near The Battery.
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.
In June 1902, she ran aground with 400 passengers aboard. The passengers had to
camp out, as she remained stuck throughout the night.
The "General Slocum" in Flames...
The disaster
Firefighters working to extinguish the General SlocumThe 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. She
was to sail up the East River and then eastward across Long Island Sound to Locust
Grove, a picnic site in Eatons Neck, Long Island.
The ship got underway at 9:30am. As she was passing East 90th Street, a fire started
in a storage compartment in the forward section, possibly caused by a discarded
cigarette or match. The first notice of a fire was at 10am - eyewitnesses located the
initial blaze at several locations, including a paint locker filled with flammable liquids
or a cabin filled with gasoline. Captain Van Schiack was only notified ten minutes
after the fire was discovered - a twelve year old boy had tried to warn him earlier,
but was not believed.
On board the Slocum, where the Captain has ultimate safety authority, he did not
demand that hoses and faulty lifejackets be replaced. The fire hoses fell apart when
the crew attempted to put out the fire. Also, the crew had never had a fire drill.
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 sank instead of floated, 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.
It has been suggested that the manager of the life preserver manufacturer actually
placed iron bars inside the Cork preservers to meet minimum weight requirements
at the time. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted, but not
convicted. Many of the life preservers had been filled with cheap and less effective
granulated cork and brought up to proper weight by the inclusion of the iron
weights. Canvas covers, rotten with age, split and scattered the powdered cork.
Captain 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 and oil tanks.) By going into headwinds and failing to immediately ground
the vessel, he actually fanned the fire. Highly flammable paint also helped the fire to
spread out of control.
Some passengers attempted to jump into the river, but the clothing of the day made
swimming almost impossible. Many died instantly when the 3-level floors of the
overloaded boat collapsed; others were mauled by the still turning paddles.[2]
By the time the General Slocum was beached at North Brother Island, just off the
Bronx shore, an estimated 1,021 people had been killed by fire or drowning, with 321
survivors. Two of the 30 crewmembers died. The Captain lost sight in one eye due to
the fire. Reports indicate that Van Schaick deserted the Slocum as soon as she ran
aground, jumping into a nearby tug, along with several crew. Some say his jacket
was hardly rumpled. He was hospitalized at Lebanon Hospital.
There were many acts of heroism among the passengers, witnesses, and emergency
personnel. Staff and patients from the hospital on North Brother Island participated
in the rescue efforts, forming human chains and pulling victims from the water.
Aftermath
Victims of the General Slocum washed ashore at North Brother IslandSeven 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. President Theodore
Roosevelt declined to pardon Captain Van Schaick, and he was not released until
the federal parole board, under the William Howard Taft administration, voted to free
him on August 26, 1911.[3] He was pardoned by President Taft on December 19, 1912,
and died in 1927 [1].
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 neighborhood of Little Germany declined following the disaster - many socially
prominent people had been lost, and with the trauma and arguments that followed
the tragedy, most of the German settlers eventually moved uptown.
Survivors
The General Slocum disaster memorial in Tomkins Square Park, Manhattan, New
York City. Tomkins Square Park is in the heart of Alphabet City, what was once Little
Germany.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 Adella Liebenow,
lost two older sisters in the fire. Mrs. Wotherspoon also had the distinction of being
the youngest survivor of the disaster. Though still a one year child, Mrs.
Wotherspoon was given the honor of unveiling the Steamboat Fire Mass Memorial
on June 15, 1905 at the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, Middle Village, Queens.[4] 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 2001 movie Spider-Man features a minor character named General Slocum.
The 2005 Hugo award nominated novella "Time Ablaze" by Michael A. Burstein
(Analog, June 2004) concerns a time traveler who comes to record the disaster. The
story was published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
The General Slocum disaster was featured in the documentary My Father's Gun.
The General Slocum disaster is at the center of the novel The Unresolved, by T.K.
Welsh.
The disaster is also mentioned in Kevin Baker's novel "Dreamland."
The story of the General Slocum was described as an "Avoidable Catastrophe" in
Bob Fenster's book, Duh! The Stupid History of the Human Race, in Part One, which
discusses stories involving stupidity.
References
^ Kleinfeld, N. R. (2007-09-02), "A Debate Rises: How Much 9/11 Tribute Is Enough?",
The New York Times,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/nyregion/02fatigue.html?
ex=1346385600&en=7c3b9a843ec42d62&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permali
nk>. Retrieved on 2 September 2007
^ Gentile, "Shipwrecks of New Jersey", 2001
^ Eric Robinson, New-York Historical Society Library
^ "Thousands Sob as Baby UnVeils Slocum Statue", New York Times, June 16, 1905,
p. 9. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
There is a reference to this in Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's autobiography "The Rebel
Girl: An Autobiography- My First Life (1906-1926)"
Further reading
Jay Nash, Darkest Hours. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976. ISBN 0882291408
Werner Braatz and Joseph Starr, Fire on the River: The Story of the Burning of the
General Slocum. Krokodiloplis Press, 2000. ISBN 0974936308
Ed O'Donnell, Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum. Broadway,
2003. ISBN 0767909054
This page was last modified on 19 January 2008, at 11:53. All text is available under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S.
registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers...
The "General Slocum" Momument
in Lutheran All Saints Cemetery...
=============================================
Past and Present
General Slocum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The General Slocum was a steamship launched in 1891. She caught fire and burned
to the water line in New York's East River on June 15, 1904. More than 1,000 people
died in the accident, making it New York City's worst loss-of-life disaster until the
September 11, 2001 attacks.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 The ship
2 Past problems
3 The disaster
4 Aftermath
5 Survivors
6 Popular culture
7 References
8 Further reading
9 See also
10 External links
The ship was named for Civil War officer and New York Congressman Henry Warner
Slocum. She 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 16
knots. The ship had three decks. She usually had a crew of 22, including Captain
William H. Van Schaick and two pilots.
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 her ability to be steered.
In July 1898 she collided with the Amelia near The Battery.
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.
In June 1902, she ran aground with 400 passengers aboard. The passengers had to
camp out, as she remained stuck throughout the night.
The "General Slocum" in Flames...
The disaster
Firefighters working to extinguish the General SlocumThe 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. She
was to sail up the East River and then eastward across Long Island Sound to Locust
Grove, a picnic site in Eatons Neck, Long Island.
The ship got underway at 9:30am. As she was passing East 90th Street, a fire started
in a storage compartment in the forward section, possibly caused by a discarded
cigarette or match. The first notice of a fire was at 10am - eyewitnesses located the
initial blaze at several locations, including a paint locker filled with flammable liquids
or a cabin filled with gasoline. Captain Van Schiack was only notified ten minutes
after the fire was discovered - a twelve year old boy had tried to warn him earlier,
but was not believed.
On board the Slocum, where the Captain has ultimate safety authority, he did not
demand that hoses and faulty lifejackets be replaced. The fire hoses fell apart when
the crew attempted to put out the fire. Also, the crew had never had a fire drill.
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 sank instead of floated, 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.
It has been suggested that the manager of the life preserver manufacturer actually
placed iron bars inside the Cork preservers to meet minimum weight requirements
at the time. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted, but not
convicted. Many of the life preservers had been filled with cheap and less effective
granulated cork and brought up to proper weight by the inclusion of the iron
weights. Canvas covers, rotten with age, split and scattered the powdered cork.
Captain 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 and oil tanks.) By going into headwinds and failing to immediately ground
the vessel, he actually fanned the fire. Highly flammable paint also helped the fire to
spread out of control.
Some passengers attempted to jump into the river, but the clothing of the day made
swimming almost impossible. Many died instantly when the 3-level floors of the
overloaded boat collapsed; others were mauled by the still turning paddles.[2]
By the time the General Slocum was beached at North Brother Island, just off the
Bronx shore, an estimated 1,021 people had been killed by fire or drowning, with 321
survivors. Two of the 30 crewmembers died. The Captain lost sight in one eye due to
the fire. Reports indicate that Van Schaick deserted the Slocum as soon as she ran
aground, jumping into a nearby tug, along with several crew. Some say his jacket
was hardly rumpled. He was hospitalized at Lebanon Hospital.
There were many acts of heroism among the passengers, witnesses, and emergency
personnel. Staff and patients from the hospital on North Brother Island participated
in the rescue efforts, forming human chains and pulling victims from the water.
Aftermath
Victims of the General Slocum washed ashore at North Brother IslandSeven 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. President Theodore
Roosevelt declined to pardon Captain Van Schaick, and he was not released until
the federal parole board, under the William Howard Taft administration, voted to free
him on August 26, 1911.[3] He was pardoned by President Taft on December 19, 1912,
and died in 1927 [1].
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 neighborhood of Little Germany declined following the disaster - many socially
prominent people had been lost, and with the trauma and arguments that followed
the tragedy, most of the German settlers eventually moved uptown.
Survivors
The General Slocum disaster memorial in Tomkins Square Park, Manhattan, New
York City. Tomkins Square Park is in the heart of Alphabet City, what was once Little
Germany.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 Adella Liebenow,
lost two older sisters in the fire. Mrs. Wotherspoon also had the distinction of being
the youngest survivor of the disaster. Though still a one year child, Mrs.
Wotherspoon was given the honor of unveiling the Steamboat Fire Mass Memorial
on June 15, 1905 at the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, Middle Village, Queens.[4] 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 2001 movie Spider-Man features a minor character named General Slocum.
The 2005 Hugo award nominated novella "Time Ablaze" by Michael A. Burstein
(Analog, June 2004) concerns a time traveler who comes to record the disaster. The
story was published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
The General Slocum disaster was featured in the documentary My Father's Gun.
The General Slocum disaster is at the center of the novel The Unresolved, by T.K.
Welsh.
The disaster is also mentioned in Kevin Baker's novel "Dreamland."
The story of the General Slocum was described as an "Avoidable Catastrophe" in
Bob Fenster's book, Duh! The Stupid History of the Human Race, in Part One, which
discusses stories involving stupidity.
References
^ Kleinfeld, N. R. (2007-09-02), "A Debate Rises: How Much 9/11 Tribute Is Enough?",
The New York Times,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/nyregion/02fatigue.html?
ex=1346385600&en=7c3b9a843ec42d62&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permali
nk>. Retrieved on 2 September 2007
^ Gentile, "Shipwrecks of New Jersey", 2001
^ Eric Robinson, New-York Historical Society Library
^ "Thousands Sob as Baby UnVeils Slocum Statue", New York Times, June 16, 1905,
p. 9. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
There is a reference to this in Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's autobiography "The Rebel
Girl: An Autobiography- My First Life (1906-1926)"
Further reading
Jay Nash, Darkest Hours. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976. ISBN 0882291408
Werner Braatz and Joseph Starr, Fire on the River: The Story of the Burning of the
General Slocum. Krokodiloplis Press, 2000. ISBN 0974936308
Ed O'Donnell, Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum. Broadway,
2003. ISBN 0767909054
This page was last modified on 19 January 2008, at 11:53. All text is available under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S.
registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers...
The "General Slocum" Momument
in Lutheran All Saints Cemetery...
=============================================
| Wreckage of General Slocum Many women and children died in this Tragedy. "They were from 'Kleindeutschland'' on the way to a picnic, when disaster struck!" |
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The General Slocum Memorial in Tomkins Square Park, Manhattan, New York City... Tomkins Square Park is in the heart of Alphabet City, what was once Little Germany (Klein Deutschland) |
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