| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | General Slocum |
| Namesake | Henry Warner Slocum |
| Owner | Knickerbocker Steamship Company |
| Port of registry | United States |
| Builder | Divine Burtis, Jr., of Brooklyn, New York |
| Laid down | December 23, 1890 |
| Launched | April 18, 1891 |
| Maiden voyage | June 25, 1891 |
| Fate |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Sidewheeler passenger ship |
| Tonnage | 1,284 grt |
| Length | 264 ft (80 m) |
| Beam | 37.5 ft (11.4 m) |
| Draft | 7.5 ft (2.3 m) unloaded; 8 ft (2.4 m) - 8.5 ft (2.6 m) loaded |
| Depth | 12.3 ft (3.7 m) |
| Decks | three decks |
| Installed power | 1 × 53 in bore, 12 ft stroke single cylinder vertical beam steam engine |
| Propulsion | Sidewheel boat; each wheel had 26 paddles and was 31 ft (9.4 m) in diameter. |
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Crew | 22 |
The PS General Slocum[note 1] was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions.
On June 15, 1904, General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River of New York City.[1] At the time of the disaster, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church (German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan) to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 out of the 1,342 people on board died.[2]
The General Slocum disaster was the worst maritime disaster of the 20th century until the Titanic surpassed it eight years later in 1912. It remains the worst maritime disaster in New York City history, and the second-worst on United States waterways, after the explosion and sinking of the steamboat Sultana, and until the September 11 attacks in 2001 was the deadliest manmade disaster of any sort in the New York area.[3]
The events surrounding the General Slocum fire have been explored in a number of books, plays, and movies.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "The General Slocum An Unlucky Craft. Has Had Collisions And Accidents by the Score. Has Run Ashore Many Times. She Was a Crack Harbor Boat Thirteen Years Ago. Capt. Van Schaick's Good Record". The New York Times. June 16, 1904. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
The General Slocum was one of the best known vessels about New York Harbor. Since the time of her launching, in 1891, she has been employed in so many different capacities, and on so many different runs, that possibly five out of every ten people in New York City have at some time been aboard of her, or have seen her at close range.
- ^ Sante, Luc (2003). Low life: lures and snares of old New York (1st Farrar, Straus Giroux pbk. ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux. p. 16. ISBN 0374528993. OCLC 53464289.
- ^ Kleinfield, N. R. (September 2, 2007). "A Debate Rises: How Much 9/11 Tribute Is Enough?". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
Few are alive anymore who can recall June 15, 1904, when 1,021 people died in the burning and sinking of the steamer 'General Slocum,' the deadliest New York disaster until Sept. 11, 2001.