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.“
did fire hydrants used to be shittier. like less well constructed. i feel like "broken fire hydrants spraying the street" are a thing in fiction set in NYC in like the 70s and 80s but not modern stuff
100% intentional, only happens in the summer. There may be other reasons why that doesn’t seem to happen any more, but I think the main one is that opening a fire hydrant was a classic method to amuse and delight children (and spare them from the summer heat). And the big change is: children don’t go out to play any more. At least not that much, and not in the big city.
If you look at mid-20th century street photos, from American cities and especially New York, kids are everywhere, they play in the street, they sit on the pavement and read comic books, they climb, they run, they play hopscotch. And in the summer, they crack open a fire hydrant (or maybe an adult does it for them) and they fool around with the water.
by Bruce Davidson, East 100th Street, Harlem, 1966
That happens A LOT less these days. Public spaces have shrunk, parents are more controlling in that regard, leaving kids unsupervised is becoming less and less acceptable, leaving kids in a place that's not fenced seems scary now, there is WAY more traffic, there are cars everywhere, and crime, uh, crime has gone down actually, but you know how it is.
Also, things used to be less private. Before Manhattan got gentrified, people used to sleep outside during heat waves, laying on the fire escapes, because it was too hot to sleep inside and they just didn't care if their neighbours saw them in their nightgowns.
And more generally, people (and kids) spent a lot of time outside because inside sucked: it was too poor, too cramped, too hot, and there was no internet. In many places the inside still sucks, of course, but the overall verdict remains: if the kids don't open fire hydrants in the streets any more, it's because the kids aren't there.
(See after the cut for a tiny sample of the MILLION photos with children playing in the streets of 20th century New York.)
paolo-streito-1264
gregorygalloway
4rba
the1920sinpictures
http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/upload/q7619876.jpg
artmagnifique
nevver
bestboxerever
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqzB5FAokXa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
brutgroup
transgenderer
st-just
theoutcastrogue
vintageeveryday