General Slocum Disaster (1904): Fire on New York's East River

The General Slocum disaster was a fire aboard a paddle steamer on New York’s East River on 15 June 1904. The boat was carrying a church outing of German-American families from Manhattan’s Little Germany when fire broke out, and an estimated 1,021 people died, most of them women and children. It was the deadliest event in New York City’s history until 11 September 2001.

Background: Little Germany

In the late nineteenth century the Lower East Side of Manhattan was home to one of the largest German-speaking communities in the world, known as Kleindeutschland or Little Germany. Its churches, clubs, beer halls and shops served tens of thousands of immigrants and their children.

Each year St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on East Sixth Street held an outing to mark the end of the Sunday school year. For 1904 the church chartered the General Slocum, a large sidewheel excursion steamer built in 1891 and owned by the Knickerbocker Steamship Company, to take its members to a picnic ground on Long Island. Because the trip took place on a Wednesday, most passengers were women and children; many fathers were at work.

What happened

The General Slocum left its pier on the Lower East Side at about 9:30 am on 15 June 1904 with around 1,350 people on board. Shortly after it passed into the East River near East 90th Street, a fire broke out in a forward storage room where straw, oily rags and lamp oil were kept. The cause is usually attributed to a discarded match or cigarette.

The crew had never held a fire drill. The fire hoses were old and burst when water was turned on. Captain William Van Schaick, informed of the fire, decided to keep going at full speed to North Brother Island, about a mile ahead, rather than run the boat aground nearby. Moving into the wind fanned the flames, which swept from front to back.

Passengers found that the cork life preservers were old and rotten. Some crumbled, and some were reported to have been weighted with iron to reach the required weight. Lifeboats were tied down and could not be launched. Many people jumped into the water, where heavy clothing and an inability to swim caused most of them to drown, while others were trapped by the flames.

The burning boat finally ran aground off North Brother Island. Staff and patients from the island’s hospital, along with nearby tugboats and other vessels, rescued many people. Bodies washed ashore for days.

Key people and responsibility

William Van Schaick, the captain, survived with injuries. A federal grand jury indicted him along with company officials and the inspector who had passed the boat. Only Van Schaick was convicted, in 1906, of criminal negligence for failing to train the crew and maintain fire equipment. He was sentenced to ten years in Sing Sing prison, released on parole in 1911 and pardoned by President William Howard Taft in 1912.

The Knickerbocker Steamship Company and its officers escaped conviction, despite evidence that they had neglected safety equipment. A government inspector, Henry Lundberg, had approved the vessel only weeks before the disaster.

Consequences

President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a federal commission, which found the steamboat inspection system badly flawed. Its report led to stricter rules on life preservers, fire equipment and crew training, and to reform of the federal Steamboat Inspection Service. Several senior officials were dismissed.

For the German-American community the loss was devastating. Some families lost every member. Grief and painful memories drove many survivors to leave the Lower East Side, and the community increasingly moved uptown to Yorkville. Little Germany, already shrinking as newer immigrants arrived, effectively disappeared within a few years.

A memorial fountain was dedicated in Tompkins Square Park in 1906, and many victims are buried in the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Queens. The last known survivor, Adella Wotherspoon, died in 2004 at the age of 100.

Legacy

The General Slocum disaster faded from public memory, partly because of the decline of German-American identity during the First World War. It is nonetheless one of the worst American peacetime disasters, and it shaped maritime safety rules. Later passenger disasters such as the Empress of Ireland in 1914 and the Eastland disaster in Chicago in 1915 again exposed gaps in shipping safety.

Timeline

• 1891: The General Slocum is launched in Brooklyn as an excursion steamer.
• 1904, May: The boat passes a federal safety inspection.
• 1904, 15 June, about 9:30 am: The steamer leaves the Lower East Side carrying St. Mark’s church outing.
• 1904, 15 June, around 10:00 am: Fire breaks out near East 90th Street; the captain heads for North Brother Island.
• 1904, 15 June: The burning boat beaches at North Brother Island; about 1,021 people die.
• 1904: A federal commission reports serious failures in steamboat inspection.
• 1906: Captain William Van Schaick is convicted of criminal negligence; a memorial is dedicated in Tompkins Square Park.
• 1912: President Taft pardons Van Schaick.

Why it matters

The General Slocum fire showed how corporate neglect and lax government inspection could turn a church picnic into a mass tragedy. It forced reform of American steamboat safety and marked the end of one of New York’s great immigrant neighbourhoods.