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The General Slocum Disaster

Often overshadowed by the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the General Slocum steamboat disaster on June 15, 1904, was nonetheless the deadliest New York City disaster prior to September 11, 2001. The official number of deceased was 1021 people: mostly women and children.

The legacy of this disaster not only includes the tremendous loss of life but the reshaping of an entire New York City neighborhood, Kleindeutschland. Already losing community members to Yorkville and the outer boroughs by the turn of the 20th century, the Slocum disaster accelerated the exodus of Germans from Little Germany and ushered in the more diverse immigrant communities that settled on the Lower East Side.

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Urban Archive

1

6th Street Synagogue

6th Street Synagogue

On June 15, 1904, a passenger steamboat had been charted to carry members of the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church (seen here) to a summer picnic on Long Island. The majority of church members onboard were women and children (as it was a Wednesday). The total passenger and crew count on that day was nearly 1400.

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Hell Gate Channel

Hell Gate Channel

General Slocum was a sidewheel passenger steamboat. Built in 1891 in Brooklyn, she was named after Civil War General and New York Congressman Henry Warner Slocum. During the steamboat's 13 years ferrying passengers, it was involved in a number mishaps, groundings, and collisions.

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Hell Gate Channel

Hell Gate Channel

The boat caught fire as it passed East 90th Street. The tragedy began with a small fire in the Lamp Room which quickly spread. With the ship ablaze, inaccessible lifeboats, rotting life jackets, and a crew who had never practiced a fire drill, passengers began jumping into the choppy waters of the river. As women and children entered the water, they horrifyingly sunk instead of floating, due to the disintegrated cork in the life preservers. Worse still, like most Americans at the time, the passengers did not know how to swim (and their heavy clothing further weighted them down).

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North Brother Island

North Brother Island

The captain pushed through the Hell Gate Chanel, fanning the flames, before grounding the ship at North Brother Island. In total more than 1000 people died, with some five dozen unidentified.

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General Slocum Memorial

General Slocum Memorial

Most of the unidentified victims were buried in a mass grave in the Lutheran Cemetery (now All Faiths) in Queens. On the first anniversary of the disaster, this memorial was dedicated. Twenty feet tall and over eight feet square at the base, it was constructed of granite and bronze. On the sides of the monument were four statues representing Memory, Grief, Hope, and Faith. On the front of the monument, a bronze relief depicted the burning ship with an appropriate dedication explaining the intent of the memorial. At the ceremony, 18-month-old Adelle Liebenow, who was the youngest survivor, pulled the ribbon to reveal the monument.

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German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse

German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse

The Lower East Side's Little Germany (or Kleindeutschland) never recovered from this tragedy. Already shrinking, as second and third generation Germans moving uptown or to the outer boroughs, the General Slocum was one of the final nails in the coffin. While only a small percentage of the German community was lost, many of those who perished were members of the church and the neighborhood's most established families.

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