Editing PS General Slocum (section)

==1904 disaster==
[[File:Community Synagogue St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, built in 1847 for the German immigrant community, was converted to a synagogue in 1940 due to demographic changes in the neighborhood.]]
''General Slocum'' worked as a passenger ship, taking people on excursions around New York City. On Wednesday, June 15, 1904, the ship had been chartered for $350 by [[German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark|St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church]] in the [[Little Germany, New York|Little Germany]] district of [[Manhattan]]. This was an annual rite for the group, which had made the trip for 17 consecutive years. Nearly 1,400&nbsp;passengers, mostly women and children, boarded ''General Slocum'', which was to sail up the East River and then eastward across the [[Long Island Sound]] to Locust Grove, a picnic site in [[Eatons Neck]], [[Long Island]]. The official post-disaster report stated there were 1,358 passengers and 30 officers and crew; fewer than 150 of the passengers were estimated to be adult males over 21. Of those on board, there were 957 deaths and 180 injuries.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|6;23}} Less than twenty minutes elapsed between the start of the fire and the collapse of the hurricane deck.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|58–59}}

===The fire===

The ship got underway from the recreation pier at Third Street on the East River at 9:30&nbsp;am; it passed west of Blackwell Island (now [[Roosevelt Island]]) and turned east, remaining south of [[Wards Island]].<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|6}} As it was passing East 90th Street, a fire started in the forward cabin or Lamp Room,<ref name=O'Donnell>{{cite book | last = O'Donnell | first = Edward | title = "Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat "General Slocum" | location = New York | publisher = Broadway Books | year = 2003 | isbn = 0-7679-0905-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/97 }}</ref>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/97 97–98]}} the third compartment aft from the bow under the main deck;<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|7}} the fire was possibly caused by a discarded cigarette or match. The disastrous fire was fueled by the straw, oily rags, and lamp oil strewn around the room.<ref name="O'Donnell"/>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/97 98–102]}} The first notice of a fire was at 10 a.m.; eyewitnesses claimed the initial blaze began in various locations, including a paint locker filled with flammable liquids and a cabin filled with gasoline. Passengers on the main deck were aware of the fire at the entrance to [[Hell Gate]].<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|12}} Captain Van Schaick was not notified until 10&nbsp;minutes after the fire was discovered. A 12-year-old boy had tried to warn him earlier, but was not believed. After he was notified of the fire, Van Schaick ordered full speed ahead; approximately 30 seconds later, he directed the pilot to beach the ship on North Brother Island. Following this last command, Van Schaick descended to the hurricane deck and remained there until he was able to jump into shallow water after the ship was beached.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|10–11}}

Although the captain was ultimately responsible for the safety of passengers, the owners had made no effort to maintain or replace the ship's safety equipment. The main deck was equipped with a [[Standpipe (firefighting)|standpipe]] connected to a steam pump, but the fire hose attached to the forward end of the standpipe, a {{cvt|100|ft}} length of "cheap unlined linen," had been allowed to rot and burst in several places. When the crew tried to put out the fire; they were unable to attach a rubber hose because the coupling of the linen hose remained attached to the standpipe. The ship was also equipped with hand pumps and buckets, but they were not used during the disaster; the crew gave up firefighting efforts after failing to attach the rubber hose.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|9–10}} The crew had not practiced a fire drill that year,<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|20}} and the [[Lifeboat (shipboard)|lifeboats]] were tied up and inaccessible. Some claimed the lifeboats were wired and painted in place.<ref name="O'Donnell"/>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/107 108–113]}}

Survivors reported that the [[Lifebuoy|life preservers]] were useless and fell apart in their hands, while desperate mothers placed [[personal flotation device|life jacket]]s on their children and tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sank instead of floating. Most of those on board were women and children who, like most Americans of the time, could not swim; victims found that their heavy wool clothing absorbed water and weighed them down in the river.<ref name="O'Donnell"/>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/107 108–113]}}

It was discovered that Nonpareil Cork Works, supplier of cork materials to manufacturers of life preservers, placed {{cvt|8|oz}} iron bars inside the [[Cork (material)|cork]] materials to meet minimum content requirements ({{cvt|6|lb}} of "good cork") at the time. Nonpareil's deception was revealed by David Kahnweiler's Sons, who inspected a shipment of 300 cork blocks.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|71–72}} 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, rotted with age, split and scattered the powdered cork. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted but not convicted. The life preservers on the ''Slocum'' had been manufactured in 1891 and had hung above the deck, unprotected from the elements, for 13&nbsp;years.<ref name="O'Donnell"/>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/117 118–119]}}

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px">
File:EM NOVA-YORK. A grande catastrophe do vapor de passeio General Slocum. Morte horrível de 1.200 pessoas!.jpg|The great catastrophe of the passenger steamboat '''''General Slocum''''' ([[Angelo Agostini]], ''[[O Malho]]'', 1904)
File:Victims of the General Slocum (1904).jpg|Victims of ''General Slocum'' washed ashore at [[North Brother Island, East River|North Brother Island]]
File:Recovery of victims from the General Slocum.jpg|Carrying away a body from North Brother Island
</gallery>

===Beaching on North Brother Island===

Captain Van Schaick decided to continue his course rather than run the ship aground or stop at a nearby landing. By going into headwinds and failing to immediately ground the ship, he fanned the fire and promoted its spread from fore to aft; the investigating commission later faulted Van Schaick for passing up opportunities to beach the vessel in [[Little Hell Gate]] (west of the [[Randalls and Wards Islands|Sunken Meadows]]) or the Bronx Bills (east of the Sunken Meadows), which also would have put the prevailing winds astern, keeping flames from spreading along the length of the ship.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|18}} Van Schaick later argued he was trying to avoid having the fire spread to riverside buildings and oil tanks. Flammable paint also helped the fire spread out of control, driven aft mainly along the port side of the ship; passengers, who were on the upper promenade and hurricane decks, were forced into the aft starboard quarter.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|19}}

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Ten minutes after the ship was beached, the fire had essentially engulfed the vessel; no more than twenty minutes had elapsed since the first flames came up from the Lamp Room.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|19}} Some passengers jumped into the river to escape the fire, but the heavy women's clothing of the day made swimming almost impossible and dragged them underwater to drown. An estimated 100 to 500 died when the overloaded starboard section of the hurricane deck collapsed, casting those passengers into deep water,<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|24}} and others were battered by the still-turning paddles as they tried to escape into the water or over the sides.<ref name=gentile>{{cite book |last=Gentile |first=Gary |title=Shipwrecks of New Jersey |date=2001 |publisher=G. Gentile Productions |isbn=978-1883056094}}</ref> The commission estimated that 400 to 600 people drowned after the ship was beached, as they jumped off the aft portion of the boat into deep water; those jumping off the bow landed in shallower water.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|18}}

''General Slocum'' remained beached on [[North Brother Island, East River|North Brother Island]] for approximately 90 minutes before breaking free and drifting east for approximately {{cvt|1|mi}}; by the time she sank in shallow water off the [[Bronx]] shore at Hunts Point,<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|25}}&nbsp;<ref name=SpliceToday2019-05-10>{{cite news|url = https://www.splicetoday.com/writing/the-burning-decks |title = The Burning Decks |work = [[Splice Today]] |first = Kevin | last = Walsh |date  = May 10, 2019|access-date = 10 May 2019}}</ref> an estimated 1,021&nbsp;people, including 2 of the 30 crew members, had either burned to death or drowned. There were 431&nbsp;survivors. The actions of two tugboats which arrived a few minutes after the ''Slocum'' was beached were credited with saving between 200 and 350 people.<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|24–25}}

The 1904 [[United States Coast Guard|Coast Guard]] Report estimated the following figures for casualties of a total of 1,388 persons involved in the disaster:<ref name=USCI-Slocum>{{cite report |url=https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/5p/CG-5PC/INV/docs/documents/Slocum.pdf |title=Report of the United States Commission of Investigation upon the Disaster to the Steamer "General Slocum" |date= October 8, 1904 |publisher=Government Printing Office}}</ref>{{rp|23}}

{| class= "wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
! '''Status''' !! '''Passengers''' !! '''Crew'''
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Total on board || 1,358 || 30
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | {{pad|2em}} Adults || 613 || –
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | {{pad|2em}} Children || 745 || –
|-
| style="font-size:20%;background:#ddd;" colspan=3 | &nbsp;
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Dead || 955 || 2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | {{pad|2em}} Identified dead || 893 || 2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | {{pad|2em}} Missing & unidentified dead || 62 || 0
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Injured || 175 || 5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Uninjured || 228 || 23
|}

The captain lost sight in one eye owing to the fire. Reports indicate that Captain Van Schaick deserted ''General Slocum'' as soon as it settled, jumping into a nearby [[tug]], along with several crew. He was hospitalized at [[Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center|Lebanon Hospital]].

Many acts of heroism were performed by 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, and also used ladders that belonged to construction crews working on repairing the hospital building.

=== Aftermath ===
[[File:TAG Slocum Memorial 01.jpg|thumb|upright|The General Slocum Memorial in the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, is home to the graves of many victims of the disaster.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bauman|first=Valerie|date=June 10, 2017|title=1904 steamboat disaster anniversary marked|url=https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/anniversary-of-1904-general-slocum-steamboat-disaster-marked-1.13727067|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610171603/http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/anniversary-of-1904-general-slocum-steamboat-disaster-marked-1.13727067|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 10, 2017|access-date=2021-08-20|website=Newsday|language=en}}</ref>]]
{{quote box |align=right |width=25em |text={{pad|0.5em}}The evidence before the Commission establishes the fact that the master made no attempt whatsoever to fight the fire, to examine its condition, or to control, assure, direct, or aid the passengers in any way whatever. ... An essential fact of negligence is the utter failure of the master to fight the fire or aid the passengers. In a less degree the pilots, in the same manner, after beaching the boat, and while there were still many passengers on board, failed in their duty to assist and rescue the said passengers. Very little assistance was given or control exercised by any of the officers or crew on behalf of the passengers. |source=''Slocum'' Report (1904)<ref name=USCI-Slocum/>{{rp|11}}}}
Eight 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.

Most boatmen felt that Van Schaick "was unjustly made a scapegoat for the resulting tragedy, instead of the owners of the steamer or the effectiveness of the life saving and fire fighting equipment then required — and the inspections of it by government inspectors".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hrmm.org/history-blog/captain-van-schaick-of-the-general-slocum | title=Captain van Schaick of the "General Slocum" }}</ref> He was the only person convicted. He was found guilty on one of three charges: [[criminal negligence]], for failing to maintain proper [[fire drill]]s and [[fire extinguisher]]s. The jury could not reach a verdict on the other two counts of manslaughter.  He was sentenced to 10&nbsp;years imprisonment. He spent three years and six months at [[Sing Sing Correctional Facility|Sing Sing]] prison before he was paroled.  President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] declined to pardon Van Schaick. Van Schaick was finally released when the federal parole board under the [[William Howard Taft]] administration voted to free him on August 26, 1911.<ref name=robinson>Robinson, Eric. [[New-York Historical Society]] Library</ref> He was [[presidential pardon#United States|pardoned]] by President Taft on December 19, 1912; the pardon became effective on Christmas Day.<ref>{{cite news|author=Staff| date=December 20, 1912| title = Van Schaick Pardoned. Captain of the Ill-Fated Slocum Is Restored to Full Citizenship.| work= [[The New York Times]] | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E0DA1E3AE633A25753C2A9649D946396D6CF| access-date=April 13, 2009}}</ref> After his death in 1927, Schaick was buried in [[Oakwood Cemetery (Troy, New York)]].

The Knickerbocker Steamship Company, which owned the ship, paid a relatively small fine despite evidence that they might have falsified inspection records. The disaster motivated federal and state regulation to improve the [[Boat safety#Safety|emergency equipment]] on passenger ships.

The neighborhood of Little Germany, which had been in decline for some time before the disaster as residents moved uptown,<ref name="O'Donnell"/>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon/page/25 26–34]}} almost disappeared afterward. With the trauma and arguments that followed the tragedy and the loss of many prominent settlers, most of the Lutheran Germans remaining in the Lower East Side eventually moved uptown. The church whose congregation chartered the ship for the fateful voyage was converted to a synagogue in 1940 after the area was settled by Jewish residents.

The victims were interred in cemeteries around New York, with 58&nbsp;identified victims buried in the [[Cemetery of the Evergreens]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/shirtwaist-fire/the-general-slocum-disaster |title=The General Slocum Disaster |website=The Evergreens Cemetery |access-date=May 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214143757/http://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/shirtwaist-fire/the-general-slocum-disaster/ |archive-date=December 14, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and 46 identified victims buried in [[Green-Wood Cemetery]],<ref>[https://www.green-wood.com/2015/illustration-of-the-general-slocum-steamship-disaster-le-petit-parisien-july-3-1904/ Illustration of the General Slocum Steamship Disaster, Le Petit Parisien, July 3, 1904] Green-Wood Cemetery</ref> both in Brooklyn. Many victims were buried at Lutheran Cemetery in [[Middle Village, Queens]] (now [[Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery]]) where an annual memorial ceremony is held at the historical marker.<ref>[http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=7177 Slocum Disaster] International Historic Marker Database</ref>

In 1906, a marble memorial fountain was erected in the north central part of [[Tompkins Square Park]] in Manhattan by the Sympathy Society of German Ladies, with the inscription: "They are Earth's purest children, young and fair."<ref name=NY-Library>{{cite web|last=Wingfield|first=Valerie|title=The General Slocum Disaster of June 15, 1904|url=http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/06/13/great-slocum-disaster-june-15-1904|work=NYC Neighborhoods : Manuscripts and Archives Division|publisher=The New York Public Library|access-date=February 10, 2013|date=June 13, 2011}}</ref>

The sunken remains of ''General Slocum'' were [[Marine salvage|salvaged]] and converted into a 625-[[gross register ton]] [[barge]] named ''Maryland'', which sank in the [[South River, New Jersey|South River]] in 1909<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CR19090307.2.10 |title=Old Boat General Slocum Went Under |date=March 7, 1909 |newspaper=Chico Record |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection |access-date=21 May 2021}}</ref> and again in the Atlantic Ocean off the southeast coast of New Jersey near [[Strathmere, New Jersey|Strathmere]] and [[Sea Isle City, New Jersey|Sea Isle City]] during a storm on December 4, 1911, while carrying a cargo of coal. All four people aboard ''Maryland'' survived the sinking.<ref>Anonymous, ''Shipwrecks of the Mid-Atlantic: Maryland, Delaware & Southern New Jersey'' (poster), Sealake Products USA, undated.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://njscuba.net/sites/site_genl_slocum.php |website=New Jersey Scuba Diving |title=General Slocoum / Maryland |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801040916/http://njscuba.net/sites/site_genl_slocum.php |archive-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3330075&view=1up&seq=430 Department of Commerce and Labor Bureau of Navigation ''Forty-Fourth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States for the Year Ending June 30, 1912'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1912, p. 421.]</ref><!--The preceding source has a typographical error indicating a date of 4 December 1912 instead of the correct 4 December 1911.-->

The victims included one Emily Ziegler, the girlfriend of a saloonkeeper named [[John Schrank|John Flammang Schrank]] who later suffered a mental breakdown culminating in an [[attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt]].<ref>Donovan, Robert J. (1962). "The First Pillar". The Assassins. New York: Popular Library. pp. 104</ref>

===Survivors===
On January 26, 2004, the last surviving passenger from ''General Slocum'', [[Adella Wotherspoon]] (née Liebenow), died at the age of 100. At the time of the disaster, she was a six-month-old infant. Wotherspoon was the youngest survivor of the tragedy that took the lives of her two older sisters. When she was one year old, she unveiled the Steamboat Fire Mass Memorial on June 15, 1905, at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, in [[Middle Village, Queens]].<ref name="Unveiling">
{{cite news
| title      = Thousands Sob as Baby Unveils Slocum Statue
| quote = Ten thousand persons saw through their tears a baby with a doll tucked under her arm unveil the monument to the unidentified dead of the Slocum disaster yesterday afternoon in the Lutheran Cemetery, Middle Village, L.I.
| work= [[The New York Times]]
| url        = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40714FC3B5E12738DDDAF0994DE405B858CF1D3
| date       = June 16, 1905
| access-date =June 26, 2007
}}
</ref> Before Wotherspoon's death, the previous oldest survivor was [[Catherine Uhlmyer|Catherine Connelly (née Uhlmyer)]] (1893–2002) who was 11 years old at the time of the disaster.

<gallery class="center" widths="187px" heights="187px">
File:Youngest Slocum Survivor crop.jpg|[[Adella Wotherspoon]]<br/>(June 16, 1905)
</gallery>