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On 15 June 1904, 1,342 German-American immigrants, members of the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, boarded the General Slocum, 235-foot paddle-wheel excursion steamer, for their 17th annual picnic. The boat left the Lower Manhattan at 9:30 am and was headed for Long Island.

About a half hour into the voyage, a 12-year-old boy notified Captain Van Schaick that smoke was coming from a closed room on board. The Captain ignored the boy. Within minutes smoke began pouring out of cabin doors and portholes; the old wooden steamship was quickly ablaze. Even though he was close to shore, Captain Van Schalck decided to stay on course, afraid of spreading the fire on land. Instead, continuing on at normal speed fanned the flames and spread the fire on the crowded Slocum.

The owners of the Slocum had made no effort to maintain the safety measures of the ship: lifeboats were painted in place, fire hoses were rotted and broke apart as soon as men attempted to use them. The life preservers were more than a decade old and were filled with sawdust and iron bars (to bring them up to minimum weight standards).

By the time the Slocum sank near North Brother Island in the Bronx, 1,021 people were dead. The bodies washed up on shorelines all over the New York area for days. It was the largest loss of life in New York City until 11 Sept. 2001.

8 people were indicted in the aftermath: the captain; 2 inspectors; and the president, secretary, treasurer, and commodore of the Knickerbocker Steamship Company. Only Captain Van Schaick was convicted (of 1 of 3 charges of criminal negligence).  Van Schaick was sentenced to 10 years in prison; he served 3 and was pardoned by President Taft in 1912.

James Joyce references the Slocum disaster in Ulysses (which takes place the following day): “Terrible affair that General Slocum explosion. Terrible, terrible! A thousand casualties. And heartrending scenes. Men trampling down women and children. Most brutal thing.“

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