~ The Old Sachem ~ The General Slocum Disaster

By Bill Stewart

The PS General Slocum was a sidewheeler built in 1891 that became a disaster on June 15, 1904. The ship carried 1,358 passengers plus crew. The ship was chartered by the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for $350, and the passengers came mostly from the German-American community of the Lower East Side of New York. The passengers were mostly women and children for a fun-filled day outside the city.

The enjoyment of an East River ride up the river allowed the passengers the fun of watching the shoreline out of the North Shore of Long Island. But the enjoyment quickly turned to a disaster. The ship left the dock at 9 a.m. and about an hour later a fire started. This led to panic among the passengers as they faced the prospects of either drowning or being burned alive. Most of the passengers were wearing clothing that prohibited them from swimming and most probably could not swim against the river. Bodies would wash ashore for days afterward, and only 321 passengers survived. A total of 1,037 passengers were lost to the fire or drowning.

The captain, William Henry Van Schaick, was worried about the insurance of bringing the ship to shore. Instead, he directed the burning ship, General Slocum, to North Brother Island because he feared that gas tanks and a lumber yard would be dangerous at the landing of 130th Street close to the Bronx.

Testimony following the disaster pointed to few safeguards on the ship. Survival vests were rotten; life boats also were unusable as they, too, were rotten. Fire drills were never used on the ship and the crew was untrained to assist the passengers to safety. The Knickerbocker Steamboat Company and captain Van Schaick came under investigation. The president of the company, Frank A. Barnaby, defended the actions of the captain and crew.

A jury was formed of the United States Circuit Court and on January 27, 1906, the captain was found guilty of criminal negligence in that he failed to maintain fire drills required by law. The presiding judge Thomas sentenced Van Schaick to 10 years of hard labor. He only served part of the sentence at Sing Sing prison; he received a pardon from President William Howard Taft in 1911 under the urging of the captain’s wife. Frank Barnaby and the Knickerbocker Steamship Company escaped justice.

The loss of so many people aboard the ship devastated families; suicides and depression resulted from the losses. Jewish and Italian families were impacted because of their family members on the ship.

In Tompkins Square Park there is a Tennessee marble obelisk dedicated to the victims of the General Slocum disaster. A fountain was erected in remembrance of the victims in 1906 by the Sympathy Society of German Ladies, and a saying is included which states “They were earth’s purest children, young and fair”.

This became the worst manmade disaster in the New York City area until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

  (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, who is better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column – sometimes about sports. He also opines on current or historical events or famous people.)