How, though? They had no means of putting out the fire, the hoses, lifejackets and lifeboats would still have been useless, and the captain likely would've still chosen to ground the ship. The end result of a lot of people who couldn't swim wearing heavy clothes jumping into the water likely wouldn't have changed much.
@@jamesfowley4114lies and dishonesty are both learned, infants don’t have a concept of what they are doing so they do what is effective. Depending on the situation being truthful or lying is advantageous but that doesn’t mean that lies are more natural than honesty. Humans have evolved to be social with each other which sure means lying but it also means being honest with others so they can be honest with you
The Slocum's impact on the german population was so great that its widely accepted that the Lower East Side basically stopped being a German community after that one singular event. That so many people either perished or moved away it totally changed the demographic for the neighborhood
The church building still stands, but it has been a synagogue since 1940 because so many left, primarily for uptown Manhattan. This is still the largest non-terrorism tragedy in NYC history.
Many moved uptown, and later out to Brooklyn and Queens. The General Slocum was a definite factor in this, but overgrowding in the LES as well as new immigrants moving in were also part of the reason.
The early 1900s was really a wild time for infrastructure because you just casually have disasters like these where a 75% fatality percentage of 1000+ people is common. Even the Titanic, which had a higher death count, didn't even have that high of a fatality percentage.
I think you're being a bit brash in your assertion with majority percentages and terms like common and casual. Yes life was cheaper compared to our standards, but I think you overstate that quite a bit here 😬
Van Schaick was thought to be unjustly accused by the maritime community in NY because it was considered the steamship company's responsibility to keep emergency gear in good condition. Then again, who was supposed to tell the company but the captain?
Probably knew the judge or something. That's the most insane level of criminal negligence I've ever seen. Basically falls to the level of intent to murder.
Most likely the company claimed that it was some rogue workers who were responsible and the management knew nothing about it. In an age before strict product liability laws it would have been hard to prove that the company managers did know what was happening on the shop floor.
Probably on the argument that if the equipment had been inspected or tested, the shoddy work would have not played any role. Still the life jacket company should have been held responsible and obviously would be today.
@@Mutantcy1992not to excuse the life jacket company but I suspect the life jackets that had the metal in them were still functional when in good condition. I can't imagine they were packed with metal. I would be curious what the true condition and how the faulty jackets were actually assembled.
@@Mutantcy1992That's definitely true and yet it doesn't explain the boat company itself also getting away with it when they definitely were also responsible for the ship's safety. Again, not really surprising though.
@Mutantcy1992 The life jackets were okay when sold. The vessel owners let them rot. The iron adulterated cork the cork company was indicted for was sold AFTER the Slocum burned, and had NOTHING to do with the Slocum. The owners were entirely at fault
@mrbyamile6973 Exactly. They were definitely functional when sold. The cork company used an eight ounce bar to make up for slightly underweight blocks. That's 8 ounces of iron, and at least 88 ounces of cork per 6 pound preserver, if used as intended. It was a shady practice, not a deadly one.
My great great grandmother and her sister were on board and survived. I remember my dad telling me about this event, thank you for shedding more light on it.
I think my favorite part of these videos is learning what obscure title each disaster holds. Like narrator could legit say “the second deadliest accident involving a piece of cake in Norway for the next 50 years” and I’d just be like… “Yes. That is quite interesting. Proceed.”
The reason that this shipwreck and many others were overshadowed by the loss of the Titanic is relatively simple. Robert Ballard put it best: we remember the Titanic more than other seriously deadly shipwrecks because of the human drama that played out on her decks. She took a long time to sink, and so there was lots of time for people to make decisions and act, and it is those decisions that fascinate us. We imagine how we would have acted if we were in their position. It’s not the rich people, since Lusitania also had very rich people (the Vanderbilts instead of the Astors) and isn’t as well remembered. And it isn’t the death toll, since there have been many shipwrecks with higher death tolls, such as the Sultana, the Doña Paz, and Wilhelm Gustloff.
2 hours and 40 minutes is a VERY long time for a ship to sink, typically. Most shipwrecks occur due to storms, and the ships capsize within minutes. The fact that Titanic took that long to go down while isolated in the middle of a flat calm ocean, in the middle of the night, with no one to help, allowed for a great deal of drama to be observed, remembered, and recorded.
The Titanic was also famous before she sailed, in an age when ocean liners were in the papers literally every day, and on her maiden voyage, and left many unanswered questions. The Slocum was just a crummy old boat, and everyone knew every detail in short order
Molly Brown was on the RMS Titanic. Lady was a walking curse! A boilerman on the Titanic (the ONLY one to survive because of insane luck) was later on two other ships carrying the notorious Molly Brown. Those ships also sank. He managed to survive. On the fourth one, he demanded to see the passenger manifest. When he saw Molly’s name, he quit, retired, and moved to Ireland. That fourth ship… sank. He would not be on a ship that also had Molly Brown on board
Let's also consider that most of the people on board the Slocum were poor or working-class. They were also of German extraction and, by the standards of the times, considered second-class citizens compared the upper-crust WASPs on board the Titanic.
My great grandmother, Louise Gailing, was babysitting for a family on the General Slocum. Some of the kids she was babysitting died, but she was able to jump off the ship and swim a baby to shore. She was given an "Act of Heroism" award from the city of Nutley, New Jersey.
As a side note, the KleineDeutchland (apologies for my spelling) neighborhood effectively disappeared after the disaster. Given how many families had experienced losses, many of them chose to move away and try to put their lives back together somewhere that didn't have as many painful memories. The families that stayed were not enough to maintain the neighborhood as "Little Germany." So the neighborhood changed, as neighborhoods inevitably do. But this time, though, it was for a very sudden, tragic reason.
The Slocum was a factor, but immigrants mostly left the lower East side as soon as they could afford to anyway. For instance, as poor as Jews here were, the average stay was five years. They moved to Yorktown, Brownsville, Staten Island, wherever they could buy a lot or house. German immigration had already slowed, and soon stopped. Hungarians and Russians replaced Germans, Puerto Ricans replaced them, Dominicans came next. Everybody wants to make like The Jeffersons, and move on up.
Yorkville on the Upper East Side soon became Manhattan's main German neighborhood. It maintained its German character until the 1960's and 1970's, and some vestiges remain.
@@R32R38 You know, some years back I visited a Hungarian butcher shop/smokehouse in Yorkville. My fiance said it smelled EXACTLY like his father's Czech butcher shop/smokehouse. There also used to be a Czech restaurant in the neighborhood. So yes, there was a definite central European presence there.
This is a disaster that deserves to be far better known than it actually is. I first learned about it from a UA-cam video years ago, which led to me reading Edward O’Donnell’s book Ship Ablaze.
I learned about when I was a kid (possibly before I was even 10) in Highlights for Children magazine. I think the story was told from the perspective of a little girl in the hospital.
I really really appreciate how these videos always have captions. Most creators don't bother giving their videos captions unless a video goes viral, and these always have captions from the moment they're uploaded. Thank you for that.
@@06eyM3for not native english speakers captions are really good as although i can understand it without them it secure you what you are hearing with the subs
It's bad enough the life vests were decaying and useless, but to hear that some of them were filled with IRON instead of cork to save money sent a chill through me. jfc. That is terrifying.
And I bet if you took the people responsible for that choice and showed them a child and a bathtub, then ordered them to drown said child, they’d be horrified. Evil isn’t always a deliberate action; it can be a careless or selfish one.
@@stevesgaming7475Not that I have any faith in any version of the American legal system, but I imagine they weren't found liable mainly because the vests weren't properly maintained in the first and because the broken down cork was deadlier in this situation than what relatively little iron that they put in as filler. It's still an abominable practice of course, but if the broken down cork is really what seems to have killed a bunch of kids, then the company's shitty practices genuinely weren't at fault, as frustrating as that is. It's more galling to me that the ship company got away with apparently falsifying inspections, but it's sadly still unsurprising.
As always, a great video. My great-grandparents were supposed to be passengers on the General Slocum. It was five months after my great-aunt was born and a few years before my grandmother was born. The family arrived late to the dock, and missed the boat, luckily. When I was a child, my parents were insistent that I take swimming lessons. I remember one of my aunts telling me that a fire on a boat can be just as dangerous as a sinking boat.
My grand mother was on that boat she had just missed the last one, very unfortunatly we can say, she and her uncle were on the deck when the fire started, she was at the bar and recall the barman hitting the fire with a broomstick in a state of hysteria, while my uncle was totaly drunk pissing all over the place shouting ITS TIME !!! ITS TIME !!! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE !!! LETS FUCK TOGETHER ONE LAST TIME BABY!! My grand mother was so drunk as well her memories were not clear from there, all she know is that at some point she just passed out and woke up in an evengelist church next morning. with some light burns and a nasty hangover, her uncle was never found. she never knew how she arrived there. Its kind of a mystery. She always had a fire extinguisher in every room along with a botte of vodka in a emergency box since then, i remember joking that even the toilets had one, i stole quite a few.. first she installed locks and then she refused me the entrance to the house.😓 I don't why i share this family story with a stranger, its kind of weird ... Well i guess i needed to get it out.
I'm glad they had you take swimming lessons. Even being able to dog-paddle can be helpful. If you don't know what to do, you understandably start to panic and thrash. (I've seen it firsthand, fortunately my friend and I were able to help the woman).
An incredible tragic event that cost so many lives and the life of a beautiful ship, all within sight of one of the world's great cities. Nowhere near enough heads rolled over this, as usual.
Companies are never - NEVER - held accountable. The corporations and the American government will only listen when they are forced to, through force like with riots.
"one of the world's great cities." There are no great cities. Filthy crime ridden cesspools, every one of them. Unless you mean "great" as in large or historic. Like The Great War.
My grandmother was supposed to go on this picnic but, that morning her father decided that she should work instead. That little change, probably saved her life. She was still haunted by the loss of many friends 60+ years later.
Believe it or not, this disaster was overshadowed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Even though this disaster kills nearly nine times, as many people.
My guess is because it happened in the middle of Manhattan, was seen closeup by many more people (the women jumping), was covered more extensively by the press, and had the criminal factor of the escape doors being deliberately locked to keep the women in. As I recall, those responsible also got a slap on the wrist. I think the laws are set up so that if you're engaged in moneymaking, cutting corners is just expected, and workers are kinda considered expendable. It's the American way.
I read about this in my younger years. The German American community in that region was dramatically affected by this. So many factors went into play to make this an absolute nightmare. Can't imagine what the survivors endured with PTSD.
This is similar to the SS Eastland disaster in Chicago in 1915. The ship rolled over onto its side on the Chicago River and 844 people drowned, it was supposed to take the families of workers across Lake Michigan to a Western Electric company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. It wiped out several Czech immigrant neighborhoods in nearby Cicero, Illinois.
Thank you for providing context to one of my favorite recently-discovered songs ‘Downed and Drowned’ by The Longest Johns. “General Slocum’s wheels of wood Caught ablaze like they never should Floats of cork filled with weights instead Sent families off to the riverbed.” This one interested me but I never looked it up, this filled in a lot of info for me. Thank you!
I grew up in Middle Village queens. My backyard butted up against st john cemetery where they have a memorial/ tomb stone for the Slocum. It is barely known about when mentioned to people. always fascinated me
I have always disliked the fact that some disasters gets all the glory and attention, and some are almost forgotten, often because they “only” involve average people from the lower rung of society. There is three disasters I always think about when someone mentions Titanic - Sultana, General Slocum, and Eastland, so many people died in these disasters, one of them was filled with soldiers finally going home, the two other with women and children going out for a rare occasion of relaxation and fun, but those souls haven’t got any movie, no widely popular songs are written in their honour, and no UA-camr had to this day covered them all (not that I’m aware of, anyway) Thank you a million times for honouring all of these people, and indeed many more who perished in all sorts of disasters, many brought on by greed and lack of respect for safety. You are one of a kind good sir. every single video you post to this platform is a template for how to cover such difficult topics with care and respect, and also making them interesting and captivating at the same time.
A fun fact about the Slocum's wreck: it wasn't scrapped, but was instead salvaged and turned into a towed barge that was used up and down Long Island sound. It foundered during bad weather in 1911 and was found by Clive Cussler, the author of the Dirk Pitt and NUMA series, decades later.
What a horrible disaster! I have a book of NYC stories straight from the newspapers of the day (mostly tabloids) and this was the first time i had heard of this disaster. Its been largely forgotten today.
I have taken for granted knowing how to swim. I often wonder at how a boat can capsize so close to land and ppl still die. Then i remember what it was like when i was thrown from my uncle's speedboat... i was shocked and terrified when i hit the water and flailed for help until my father walked up to me and said, "its shallow, stand up!" 😅 i felt so silly but it was really scary and i can see how ppl drown in shallow water now And like the video said... back then ppl didnt know how to swim. Add to that sinking life jackets and its just tragic!
I was about to say the same thing, keep in mind how people dressed during that time period, particularly the women. Very extravagant dresses and hats, ankle boots, much different than today where laziness is the fashion.
Don‘t forget the number of underdresses women had to put up with. They wore much more material than you can see from the outside… Speaking of, my clothes just came out of the washer, and holy cow, is there a lot of water in it after spinning at 1400. Cotton can absorb up to 80 % of its own weight in liquids, so your clothes suddenly weigh almost twice as much, and the layers cling to each other, removing your ability to move properly.
It's fascinating that even today most Americans can't swim. According to the Red Cross 54 percent either can’t swim or don’t have all of the basic swimming skills, so essentially half the population would still be at high risk of drowning if in such an emergency. I'd fall into that statistic as well, as I never properly learned to swim (and have nearly drowned before). I think a lot of people overestimate how many people can actually swim to a level that is adequate to save themselves.
@@BrianKingsbury-nl9deNot really that surprising given how many Americans still don't live anywhere near water even if I agree that people generally should know how to swim (as someone who doesn't care to go in the water). If anything, then I'm surprised it's only about half.
That ending made me feel so sad, they’re not wrong though. It’s crazy how the company only got small fine and the equipment were not at fault. Those families deserved to be compensated for their trauma and losses. RIP to all the families 🕊️
I first heard about this many years ago. There was a body of a child that was towed to shore along with many other bodies. When she got to the morgue she sat up and said that she wasn't dead. Please do a video on the Kingsland Disaster. It took place September 21, 1910 near Kingsland, Indiana where two interurbans (or trolleys , NOT streetcars) collided head on on a blind curve killing 41. The line was the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company. It was the worst crash of the interurban era.
You should cover the MS Estonia sinking. It happened in the 90s and was absolutely tragic. I know someone who's family member died there and I feel like it's rarely covered.
@@mindyschocolate As I saw this reply I searched but I can't find it. I found it covered by another chanel and then MS Poseidon by fascinating horror. But no MS Estonia by Fascinating Horror.
There was a Discovery documentary released about it recently. In it they said the Estonia had been used to transport arms and that was why they didn't want to recover the ship. They sent a Swedish navy diver team to retrieve the weapons and after that they wanted to pour rubble over the ship so no-one could dive for it. A man wanted to retreive the body of his girlfriend but was stopped by the Swedish coast guard.
@@Ozymandias1 Ooh! I've only ever seen one documentary episode on it (that is from the early 2000s I think) and that one youtube video I found on it. I wanna check out that doc you're talking about now.
I, a Pennsylvanian, was looking for the self-depreciating New Jersey resident (or the New Yorker with strong NJ feelings) in the comments to do this quote justice. 😂
I've been so intrigued by ship sinkings recently, ever since the titan implosion it resparked my interest in the titanic. Since then I've been researching other ship sinkings and such. I already am a huge fan of this channel so I was excited to see you cover this topic! I'm going a cruise this October, hoping nothing happens to me out at sea 🙌
If you haven't found him yet, big old boats is a wonderful channel. maritime horrors account, though posting once in blue moon, also has a nice catalog
One story I have been patiently waiting for on FH. A huge disaster with a big sense of impending doom from the outset. The words "If only" kept going over and over in my head at the end. And the haunting words of the survivor at the end summed it up so well as to why this disaster is largely forgotten
I am attending trade school right now as preparation to enter the merchant mariner industry, and hearing about disasters on vessels like this always leaves me feeling privileged to be alive and going into the industry after over a century of setting and refining international regulations. So far in class we have studied the Titanic and the sinking of the Costa Concordia from 2012, so I haven't heard about this yet (I am only four weeks into the first of three quarters of school to be fair), thank you for covering it!
I've been watching this channel for a while and rarely do I hear information that absolutely shocks me. The idea that there were iron bars in the life preservers to save money on cork was mind-boggling! What a *literally* horrifying piece of history.
This is one of the saddest stories I've heard - unimaginable. If I watched my three children drown or burn up, I'd have to jump in and drown, too. I couldn't live after that.
I hate that so many tragedies of this era or earlier are forgotten, and I equally hate that the answer to "why was this forgotten" is almost always "the Titantic."
Another fantastic video. In terms of New York disasters which go overshadowed, this is certainly one. Another which comes to mind is the crash of American Airlines flight 587 which took place in Queens only months after 9/11.
I've had family in Queens for the past century and have spent almost half of my life living there, and yet, it was *last week* that I learned about the American Airlines crash. I was a baby at the time, but it's baffling how, not only did I never hear about it from older Queens residents, I never heard about it from the Internet until that moment either. I can't imagine how terrifying a time that must have been to be cognizant of.
When that music kicks in at the end of each of your videos and I'm left in the dark with my fascination and horror of what I just learned about... man it really does give me chills all over.
“General Slocum’s wheels of wood, caught ablaze like they never should, floats of cork filled with weights instead sent families off to the riverbed.” Those lyrics are making a lot more horrifying sense now. Over 900 people, that’s is… beyond tragic.
There is a memorial fountain in Tompkins Square Park, not far from the church and departure dock of the ship, with a plaque describing this disaster. It remains well maintained and many New Yorkers are familiar with the story. Thanks for an illuminating episode and the subtle mention of it being the deadliest disaster in New York "for nearly 100 years."
Oiley rags can produce heat while drying...it was investigated as a cause of the fire at my neighbour's fire. Hay or straw also produce heat while drying and have been proven to spontaneously combust in barns when stored with too much moisture. Seems like the lamp-room may have ignited itself.
My thought exactly. They suggested a spark or cigarette. Oily rags combusting is far more likely. I know someone who lost a barn to hay combustion. People just aren't mindful of these things
The late author Clive Cussler conducted a search for this ship, as outlined in his book "The Sea Hunters 2". She had undergone extensive modifications after the fire and basically only the hull remained.
Such a heartbreaking tragedy, especially since so many of the victims were children. I can just imagine the fathers saying goodbye to their kids in the morning before they went off to work, not knowing they would ever see them alive again. And all these kids so excited about a picnic and a fun trip on a boat, which was an especially big deal if you were part of a poor working-class family. And the fact that this tragedy was 100% preventable is positively infuriating. I can't believe that somehow, the owners of this boat managed to pass inspections for 13 years without ever replacing the equipment. I can't imagine the terror people felt on board the burning ship when life preservers fell apart in their hands, hoses leaked and were unable to put out fires, and life jackets tied onto kids who were dropped into the water, eventually killed them instead of saving their lives. And the lifeboats were wired in place because they were considered a nuisance, and the crew probably thought that they wouldn't be needed since they were travelling so close to land, and that people would probably be able to swim to shore. I can imagine all those people struggling in the water, especially the women in their long skirts with many petticoats, long-sleeved shirts, big hats held on with hairpins, and heavy shoes -- many of them probably didn't stand a chance. Boats did come to rescue some of the people, and while some people WERE saved, there were other despicable people who went up to struggling people in the water who thought they were going to be rescued, and these sick people would simply just steal bracelets and watches off the victims' wrists and leave them to drown. On the other hand, on North Brother Island, there were not only doctors and nurses and hospital staff that helped out with the rescue, but even some of the patients helped too! There was an eleven-year-old girl who was rescued that day. She almost didn't get to go on the Slocum at all, because at the store where her mother got the tickets for her and her two younger siblings, the storekeeper only gave out two tickets for the smaller children. The girl was disappointed and started crying, and the shopkeeper was touched by her tears and found an extra ticket for her. The girl survived the disaster, but lost her mother and siblings. However, she lived to be 106 years old! Another family didn't fare quite so well. One couple lost both of their young daughters. One daughter's body was never found, and all that was recovered from her was one of her tiny shoes. It was truly tragic that it took a tragedy of this magnitude, for safety precautions about excursion ships to be taken seriously. Some of these lessons, sadly, didn't sink in even after the loss of the Titanic and many of its passengers. And the owners of the General Slocum seemed to get off with what was basically a slap on the wrist, even after the massive loss of life, and the incompetence and carelessness that eventually led to it. This disaster was eventually overshadowed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire seven years later, the Titanic sinking the following year, and then WW1 two years later. This disaster deserves to be more widely remembered than it has been. RIP to the victims of the General Slocum.
I can't even fathom that this event happened, in a time when news could spread around the world in a few days/weeks, and we still ended up with the Titanic. Like why do ship builders and cruise lines hate life boats so much? They're literally called LIFE boats.
I think it's more of a "we won't actually need this" mentality. You see it in many types of stories, not just boats and ships. A live theater near my home burned years ago because they had no sprinklers. They thought they wouldn't need them and got a waiver when the original was built. (No one was killed or severely hurt, but the building was destroyed.)
Used to be based on tonnage, so was adequate when ships displaced less. Why the lifeboat requirement wasn't always based on passenger numbers is anyone's best guess. That changed after Titanic.
My god, how many things in a row could go wrong? I dont think they could've made a more dangerous situation if they tried. Truly despicable and tragic.
The more of these I watch the more I am convinced no normal person gets justice while companies and the rich get away with a slap on the wrist. It's disgusting.
Nobody ever questions the safe and condition of things until there is a problem…then when people die or are injured all these issues come to light. It’s always so tragic because it was preventable. At least to some extent.
Too true. Only after being trained as a Fire Safety Director about 30 years ago, I automatically look for fire exits, equipment, and violations when I enter a building. That doesn't come naturally.
This disaster happened within the confines of New York City. The Titanic perished in the north Atlantic. So locally, this ranks among one of the all time largest disastrous life losses. The triangle shirtwaist fire and of course September 11th come to mind as obvious rivals.
Growing up in New York I was aware of the General Slocum disaster and would say it was a very well know event in the history of our city. At least as recently as the 1980’s it was a well know event. Perhaps on a national level it was forgotten or overshadowed but locally it was a prominent event covered in school as part of NYC history. I’m glad you brought this tragedy to light for the younger audience that may have never heard of the General Slocum. You may have already covered this story but if you haven’t please consider telling the sad and horrific tale of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire.
Thank you. People are constantly claiming things weren't taught, well known enough, kept secret, yada yada. Horsefeathers! They're just poorly informed, or downright ignorant. If it's in a book, they'll never see it.
You just know that a disastrous accident between 1880 and 1910 is going to be a wild story. Absolutely batshit insane what people got away with back then.
On UA-cam is an old history channel special (from when they covered history) about this. Ships Ablaze. It has archive interviews with the last two survivors, including the youngest survivor at 6 months old. The book it’s based off of is pretty good too. And it’s likely the death count was off since there was a…liberal…view to accurate passenger counts
@@rockstermaniac there’s the stuff her parents and other relatives told her. According to the book her dad made a scrapbook of news articles relating to the fire that she still had.
Adding bulky and not floating material to life jackets just so it feels heavy is surely something that all involved should have been reemed to the same degree as murder for. Its one thing to have them rot, its another for them to have been knowingly be made incorrectly to save a dime.
North Brother Island is probably somewhere on the list for an episode all on its own. I didn't know the captain went to jail, but the name Knickerbocker is not exactly a good one for disasters, you had the steamship company that was involved with this one. You had the theater collapse (which I swear FH has done a vid on at some point), and the disaster that occurs when you order the ice cream sundae tooo
True! A similar steamer named the Knickerbocker had multiple accidents in New York before and after the Slocum. New York's Knickerbocker beer failed in the 60s. If you got the Staten Island ferry Knickerbocker, you were definitely gonna be late for work. No wonder nobody uses the name anymore
As the person responsible for the condition of fire hoses, life jackets, and other safety gear on all of the ships in my company's fleet, this one just *hurts* . This is why you inspect and replace your gear *before* you need it.
As somebody in a sort-of-manufaturing job making safety-sensitive parts, hearing that some of the life preservers were sabotaged from the start makes me angry.
@@Halinspark same here. It's one thing to half-ass your job at some white collar desk job or at your minimum wage job at the local movie theater, but making sabotaged life jackets? That's not "I don't give a fuck" that's "I actively want people to die for the bottom line".
First heard about this from The Longest John's in a song "downed and drowned". It only gets a short few lines, but when there it sounds awful that it happened.
Haven’t finished the video yet, but something tells me if a ship has so many problems within a short time, that your ship is probably cursed Ofc they had a room that was a fire hazard. Unfortunate that so many died and were injured
Thank you for giving me a few seconds of blank screen at the end of the video to pause it until the next video pops on screen right where someone would tap pause.
I have watched as, over the past fifty years, that an essential US industry, railroads, seems to have forgotten some of the hard lessons learned from tragedies such as this. And it is for the same reason, that of making increasing corporate shareholder value the primary, and at times the only, reason for a company's existence. Among the top killers and causes of suffering for humans -greed.
Thanks for the video, there's also another video on UA-cam about the Slocum disaster including an interview with a survivor. This was the greatest loss of life in a single day in the history of NY state until 9/11l.
Thank you for bringing this story to light. I’d never heard of it. How tragic. Both for the loss of all the lives and how the Titanic took precedence due to $. 😔
@3:00 How was the Evangelical Lutheran Church "using the General Slocum for 17 consecutive years for their annual picnic", when the ship was only in service for 13 years?
The Captain being imprisoned and the ship owner and life jacket manufacturer staying free is an injustice in itself! One rule for me and another for everyone else!!
If only that boy had been believed. Even an extra 10 minutes could have made a huge difference.
How, though? They had no means of putting out the fire, the hoses, lifejackets and lifeboats would still have been useless, and the captain likely would've still chosen to ground the ship. The end result of a lot of people who couldn't swim wearing heavy clothes jumping into the water likely wouldn't have changed much.
After the boy was believed the captain ordered full speed ahead still despite a fire
He had a good reason for that, no good would have come from beaching a burning ship near fuel depots.
@mehrimazedeh children learn to manipulate their parents before they learn to talk. Lies are natural and honesty is learned.
@@jamesfowley4114lies and dishonesty are both learned, infants don’t have a concept of what they are doing so they do what is effective. Depending on the situation being truthful or lying is advantageous but that doesn’t mean that lies are more natural than honesty. Humans have evolved to be social with each other which sure means lying but it also means being honest with others so they can be honest with you
The Slocum's impact on the german population was so great that its widely accepted that the Lower East Side basically stopped being a German community after that one singular event. That so many people either perished or moved away it totally changed the demographic for the neighborhood
The church building still stands, but it has been a synagogue since 1940 because so many left, primarily for uptown Manhattan. This is still the largest non-terrorism tragedy in NYC history.
How heartbreaking. :(
Apparently I'm not the only General Slo cum 😉
I probably wouldn't have been born, had the population not moved away to the 4 corners of the country. Just a thought.🙏🏼
Many moved uptown, and later out to Brooklyn and Queens. The General Slocum was a definite factor in this, but overgrowding in the LES as well as new immigrants moving in were also part of the reason.
The vision of seeing your child descending into the deep due to faulty life preservers is heart rending
The early 1900s was really a wild time for infrastructure because you just casually have disasters like these where a 75% fatality percentage of 1000+ people is common. Even the Titanic, which had a higher death count, didn't even have that high of a fatality percentage.
I would argue over 66% fatality rate(Titanic) is till pretty abysmal.
waitwaitwait
you had me at "900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey"
with whom i can sympathize 😅
I think you're being a bit brash in your assertion with majority percentages and terms like common and casual. Yes life was cheaper compared to our standards, but I think you overstate that quite a bit here 😬
William Van Shite was the captain? Figures 😂💩
Van Schaick was thought to be unjustly accused by the maritime community in NY because it was considered the steamship company's responsibility to keep emergency gear in good condition. Then again, who was supposed to tell the company but the captain?
How was the life preserver manufacturer QuarkWorks not held responsible for literally making steel bar filled sink jackets? Insane.
Probably knew the judge or something. That's the most insane level of criminal negligence I've ever seen. Basically falls to the level of intent to murder.
Lead, even worse
"This thing that's supposed to float? Fill it with chunks of heavy stuff!"
Most likely the company claimed that it was some rogue workers who were responsible and the management knew nothing about it. In an age before strict product liability laws it would have been hard to prove that the company managers did know what was happening on the shop floor.
Because NO ONE was held responsible back then. Hardly is now.
The individual captain got punished (justly) and yet the corporations got away with it. Times haven't changed that much, have they?
Probably on the argument that if the equipment had been inspected or tested, the shoddy work would have not played any role.
Still the life jacket company should have been held responsible and obviously would be today.
@@Mutantcy1992not to excuse the life jacket company but I suspect the life jackets that had the metal in them were still functional when in good condition. I can't imagine they were packed with metal. I would be curious what the true condition and how the faulty jackets were actually assembled.
@@Mutantcy1992That's definitely true and yet it doesn't explain the boat company itself also getting away with it when they definitely were also responsible for the ship's safety. Again, not really surprising though.
@Mutantcy1992 The life jackets were okay when sold. The vessel owners let them rot. The iron adulterated cork the cork company was indicted for was sold AFTER the Slocum burned, and had NOTHING to do with the Slocum. The owners were entirely at fault
@mrbyamile6973 Exactly. They were definitely functional when sold. The cork company used an eight ounce bar to make up for slightly underweight blocks. That's 8 ounces of iron, and at least 88 ounces of cork per 6 pound preserver, if used as intended. It was a shady practice, not a deadly one.
My great great grandmother and her sister were on board and survived. I remember my dad telling me about this event, thank you for shedding more light on it.
My Grandmother lost her aunt and 2 cousins. She never met them. It happened a few years before she was born.
Can you tell me where she and her family settled in New York after this happened?
I think my favorite part of these videos is learning what obscure title each disaster holds. Like narrator could legit say “the second deadliest accident involving a piece of cake in Norway for the next 50 years” and I’d just be like… “Yes. That is quite interesting. Proceed.”
The reason that this shipwreck and many others were overshadowed by the loss of the Titanic is relatively simple. Robert Ballard put it best: we remember the Titanic more than other seriously deadly shipwrecks because of the human drama that played out on her decks. She took a long time to sink, and so there was lots of time for people to make decisions and act, and it is those decisions that fascinate us. We imagine how we would have acted if we were in their position. It’s not the rich people, since Lusitania also had very rich people (the Vanderbilts instead of the Astors) and isn’t as well remembered. And it isn’t the death toll, since there have been many shipwrecks with higher death tolls, such as the Sultana, the Doña Paz, and Wilhelm Gustloff.
2 hours and 40 minutes is a VERY long time for a ship to sink, typically. Most shipwrecks occur due to storms, and the ships capsize within minutes. The fact that Titanic took that long to go down while isolated in the middle of a flat calm ocean, in the middle of the night, with no one to help, allowed for a great deal of drama to be observed, remembered, and recorded.
The Titanic was also famous before she sailed, in an age when ocean liners were in the papers literally every day, and on her maiden voyage, and left many unanswered questions. The Slocum was just a crummy old boat, and everyone knew every detail in short order
Molly Brown was on the RMS Titanic. Lady was a walking curse!
A boilerman on the Titanic (the ONLY one to survive because of insane luck) was later on two other ships carrying the notorious Molly Brown. Those ships also sank. He managed to survive. On the fourth one, he demanded to see the passenger manifest. When he saw Molly’s name, he quit, retired, and moved to Ireland. That fourth ship… sank. He would not be on a ship that also had Molly Brown on board
The death toll definitely did have an impact; the Titanic passengers suffered horrific casualties.
Let's also consider that most of the people on board the Slocum were poor or working-class. They were also of German extraction and, by the standards of the times, considered second-class citizens compared the upper-crust WASPs on board the Titanic.
My great grandmother, Louise Gailing, was babysitting for a family on the General Slocum. Some of the kids she was babysitting died, but she was able to jump off the ship and swim a baby to shore. She was given an "Act of Heroism" award from the city of Nutley, New Jersey.
As a side note, the KleineDeutchland (apologies for my spelling) neighborhood effectively disappeared after the disaster. Given how many families had experienced losses, many of them chose to move away and try to put their lives back together somewhere that didn't have as many painful memories. The families that stayed were not enough to maintain the neighborhood as "Little Germany."
So the neighborhood changed, as neighborhoods inevitably do. But this time, though, it was for a very sudden, tragic reason.
little Germany is „kleines Deutschland„
The Slocum was a factor, but immigrants mostly left the lower East side as soon as they could afford to anyway. For instance, as poor as Jews here were, the average stay was five years. They moved to Yorktown, Brownsville, Staten Island, wherever they could buy a lot or house. German immigration had already slowed, and soon stopped. Hungarians and Russians replaced Germans, Puerto Ricans replaced them, Dominicans came next. Everybody wants to make like The Jeffersons, and move on up.
Yorkville on the Upper East Side soon became Manhattan's main German neighborhood. It maintained its German character until the 1960's and 1970's, and some vestiges remain.
@@R32R38 You know, some years back I visited a Hungarian butcher shop/smokehouse in Yorkville. My fiance said it smelled EXACTLY like his father's Czech butcher shop/smokehouse. There also used to be a Czech restaurant in the neighborhood.
So yes, there was a definite central European presence there.
Smart people move away from the city as soon as they're able.
"....900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey." As a NJ native, I laughed out loud. Absolutely fantastic.
The times, they are (not) a'changin ... :D
@@daffers2345 Ha! We're still the same horrible people.
Who could have guessed that a bunch of anarchists would get out of control?
We can make this happen today!
Again!!😂
This is a disaster that deserves to be far better known than it actually is. I first learned about it from a UA-cam video years ago, which led to me reading Edward O’Donnell’s book Ship Ablaze.
David Rackoff wrote a beautiful piece about it for the first episode of This American Life to air after 9/11. I recommend giving it a listen.
I think I did listen to that, a long time ago when I was combing the Internet for more information on the topic.
Ship Ablaze is a great book. Goes into a lot of detail about what slimeballs the steamship company owners were.
I learned about when I was a kid (possibly before I was even 10) in Highlights for Children magazine. I think the story was told from the perspective of a little girl in the hospital.
Highlights? On the level?
I really really appreciate how these videos always have captions. Most creators don't bother giving their videos captions unless a video goes viral, and these always have captions from the moment they're uploaded. Thank you for that.
Narrators voice so clear, captions not necessary. But are certainly nice when u cant use sound (in a meeting, at church etc)
@@06eyM3for not native english speakers captions are really good as although i can understand it without them it secure you what you are hearing with the subs
It's bad enough the life vests were decaying and useless, but to hear that some of them were filled with IRON instead of cork to save money sent a chill through me. jfc. That is terrifying.
Astonishing isn't it. How they weren't jailed for that is utterly beyond me.
And I bet if you took the people responsible for that choice and showed them a child and a bathtub, then ordered them to drown said child, they’d be horrified.
Evil isn’t always a deliberate action; it can be a careless or selfish one.
maybe the company was compensated by weight of the delivered life wests lol
@@stevesgaming7475Not that I have any faith in any version of the American legal system, but I imagine they weren't found liable mainly because the vests weren't properly maintained in the first and because the broken down cork was deadlier in this situation than what relatively little iron that they put in as filler. It's still an abominable practice of course, but if the broken down cork is really what seems to have killed a bunch of kids, then the company's shitty practices genuinely weren't at fault, as frustrating as that is.
It's more galling to me that the ship company got away with apparently falsifying inspections, but it's sadly still unsurprising.
@@esteemedmortal5917 It’s inexcusable. They should have been jailed for life.
Please never change the format of these videos! The info, the music, photos, and the narration are one of my favorite videos to watch!!
Totally agree! I seriously love their videos!
There is a similar channel called "Well I Never" that you might also like.
Definitely got a good format going for these videos. Highly respectful too.
@@Drew-bc7zjDisturban history is also somewhat in the same category. Also really good.
As always, a great video. My great-grandparents were supposed to be passengers on the General Slocum. It was five months after my great-aunt was born and a few years before my grandmother was born. The family arrived late to the dock, and missed the boat, luckily. When I was a child, my parents were insistent that I take swimming lessons. I remember one of my aunts telling me that a fire on a boat can be just as dangerous as a sinking boat.
My grand mother was on that boat she had just missed the last one, very unfortunatly we can say, she and her uncle were on the deck when the fire started, she was at the bar and recall the barman hitting the fire with a broomstick in a state of hysteria, while my uncle was totaly drunk pissing all over the place shouting ITS TIME !!! ITS TIME !!! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE !!! LETS FUCK TOGETHER ONE LAST TIME BABY!! My grand mother was so drunk as well her memories were not clear from there, all she know is that at some point she just passed out and woke up in an evengelist church next morning. with some light burns and a nasty hangover, her uncle was never found. she never knew how she arrived there. Its kind of a mystery.
She always had a fire extinguisher in every room along with a botte of vodka in a emergency box since then, i remember joking that even the toilets had one, i stole quite a few.. first she installed locks and then she refused me the entrance to the house.😓
I don't why i share this family story with a stranger, its kind of weird ... Well i guess i needed to get it out.
I'm glad they had you take swimming lessons. Even being able to dog-paddle can be helpful. If you don't know what to do, you understandably start to panic and thrash. (I've seen it firsthand, fortunately my friend and I were able to help the woman).
An incredible tragic event that cost so many lives and the life of a beautiful ship, all within sight of one of the world's great cities. Nowhere near enough heads rolled over this, as usual.
Companies are never - NEVER - held accountable. The corporations and the American government will only listen when they are forced to, through force like with riots.
"one of the world's great cities." There are no great cities. Filthy crime ridden cesspools, every one of them. Unless you mean "great" as in large or historic. Like The Great War.
My grandmother was supposed to go on this picnic but, that morning her father decided that she should work instead. That little change, probably saved her life. She was still haunted by the loss of many friends 60+ years later.
Believe it or not, this disaster was overshadowed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Even though this disaster kills nearly nine times, as many people.
My guess is because it happened in the middle of Manhattan, was seen closeup by many more people (the women jumping), was covered more extensively by the press, and had the criminal factor of the escape doors being deliberately locked to keep the women in. As I recall, those responsible also got a slap on the wrist. I think the laws are set up so that if you're engaged in moneymaking, cutting corners is just expected, and workers are kinda considered expendable. It's the American way.
@@nicholasschroeder3678 It's the amoral capitalist way.
One would hear a similar story a couple years ago outta Bangladesh.
This disaster was overshadow by some comedians pretending to be walking on the moon taking a ride on a jeep lol 🤣🤣🤣😚
@@TetrzLesonduclairon-qb7cnDon't be an ass.
@@TetrzLesonduclairon-qb7cnWhat ? That doesn't even make sense.
I read about this in my younger years. The German American community in that region was dramatically affected by this. So many factors went into play to make this an absolute nightmare. Can't imagine what the survivors endured with PTSD.
This shit is the most horrible watching kids drowning caused by faulty lifejackets !!! ... Shiiit the titatnic was much softer in comparaison.
@@TetrzLesonduclairon-qb7cn Children also drowned in the Titanic disaster
This is similar to the SS Eastland disaster in Chicago in 1915. The ship rolled over onto its side on the Chicago River and 844 people drowned, it was supposed to take the families of workers across Lake Michigan to a Western Electric company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. It wiped out several Czech immigrant neighborhoods in nearby Cicero, Illinois.
Thank you for providing context to one of my favorite recently-discovered songs ‘Downed and Drowned’ by The Longest Johns.
“General Slocum’s wheels of wood
Caught ablaze like they never should
Floats of cork filled with weights instead
Sent families off to the riverbed.”
This one interested me but I never looked it up, this filled in a lot of info for me. Thank you!
great band name
I grew up in Middle Village queens. My backyard butted up against st john cemetery where they have a memorial/ tomb stone for the Slocum. It is barely known about when mentioned to people. always fascinated me
I have always disliked the fact that some disasters gets all the glory and attention, and some are almost forgotten, often because they “only” involve average people from the lower rung of society. There is three disasters I always think about when someone mentions Titanic - Sultana, General Slocum, and Eastland, so many people died in these disasters, one of them was filled with soldiers finally going home, the two other with women and children going out for a rare occasion of relaxation and fun, but those souls haven’t got any movie, no widely popular songs are written in their honour, and no UA-camr had to this day covered them all (not that I’m aware of, anyway) Thank you a million times for honouring all of these people, and indeed many more who perished in all sorts of disasters, many brought on by greed and lack of respect for safety. You are one of a kind good sir. every single video you post to this platform is a template for how to cover such difficult topics with care and respect, and also making them interesting and captivating at the same time.
By far the two worst maritime disasters were the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945 and the Dona Paz in 1987, but they have been largely forgotten.
Seems so, though there are good youtube videos on all those vessels. There was a Slocum movie long ago. I think Clark Gable was in it.
Just thinking about watching your child sink and drown, when you think they're going to flot is horrible. I have the shivers when he sayed that.
A fun fact about the Slocum's wreck: it wasn't scrapped, but was instead salvaged and turned into a towed barge that was used up and down Long Island sound. It foundered during bad weather in 1911 and was found by Clive Cussler, the author of the Dirk Pitt and NUMA series, decades later.
What a horrible disaster! I have a book of NYC stories straight from the newspapers of the day (mostly tabloids) and this was the first time i had heard of this disaster. Its been largely forgotten today.
I have taken for granted knowing how to swim. I often wonder at how a boat can capsize so close to land and ppl still die. Then i remember what it was like when i was thrown from my uncle's speedboat... i was shocked and terrified when i hit the water and flailed for help until my father walked up to me and said, "its shallow, stand up!" 😅 i felt so silly but it was really scary and i can see how ppl drown in shallow water now
And like the video said... back then ppl didnt know how to swim. Add to that sinking life jackets and its just tragic!
Also look at the clothes from that era. Go overboard in lots of cotton and chance are slim on staying up long enough for rescue.
I was about to say the same thing, keep in mind how people dressed during that time period, particularly the women. Very extravagant dresses and hats, ankle boots, much different than today where laziness is the fashion.
Don‘t forget the number of underdresses women had to put up with. They wore much more material than you can see from the outside…
Speaking of, my clothes just came out of the washer, and holy cow, is there a lot of water in it after spinning at 1400.
Cotton can absorb up to 80 % of its own weight in liquids, so your clothes suddenly weigh almost twice as much, and the layers cling to each other, removing your ability to move properly.
It's fascinating that even today most Americans can't swim. According to the Red Cross 54 percent either can’t swim or don’t have all of the basic swimming skills, so essentially half the population would still be at high risk of drowning if in such an emergency. I'd fall into that statistic as well, as I never properly learned to swim (and have nearly drowned before). I think a lot of people overestimate how many people can actually swim to a level that is adequate to save themselves.
@@BrianKingsbury-nl9deNot really that surprising given how many Americans still don't live anywhere near water even if I agree that people generally should know how to swim (as someone who doesn't care to go in the water). If anything, then I'm surprised it's only about half.
That ending made me feel so sad, they’re not wrong though. It’s crazy how the company only got small fine and the equipment were not at fault. Those families deserved to be compensated for their trauma and losses. RIP to all the families 🕊️
I first heard about this many years ago. There was a body of a child that was towed to shore along with many other bodies. When she got to the morgue she sat up and said that she wasn't dead. Please do a video on the Kingsland Disaster. It took place September 21, 1910 near Kingsland, Indiana where two interurbans (or trolleys , NOT streetcars) collided head on on a blind curve killing 41. The line was the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company. It was the worst crash of the interurban era.
I love that the General Slocum was named after someone who was a byword for "reliability and dignity" and immediately runs aground.
You should cover the MS Estonia sinking. It happened in the 90s and was absolutely tragic. I know someone who's family member died there and I feel like it's rarely covered.
I think he already did. You’ll have to scroll through all his videos. I don’t remember when he uploaded it.
@@mindyschocolate As I saw this reply I searched but I can't find it. I found it covered by another chanel and then MS Poseidon by fascinating horror. But no MS Estonia by Fascinating Horror.
There was a Discovery documentary released about it recently. In it they said the Estonia had been used to transport arms and that was why they didn't want to recover the ship. They sent a Swedish navy diver team to retrieve the weapons and after that they wanted to pour rubble over the ship so no-one could dive for it. A man wanted to retreive the body of his girlfriend but was stopped by the Swedish coast guard.
@@Ozymandias1 Ooh! I've only ever seen one documentary episode on it (that is from the early 2000s I think) and that one youtube video I found on it. I wanna check out that doc you're talking about now.
theres a documentary about the tragedy on german public broadcasting. only in german though.
“She was subject to a mutiny when she transported 900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey”…
People in Hoboken call the days that that happens “Tuesday”.
Dang! I would have guessed Camden. :B
I, a Pennsylvanian, was looking for the self-depreciating New Jersey resident (or the New Yorker with strong NJ feelings) in the comments to do this quote justice. 😂
Having lived in NYC I too laughed and went "Jersey"🙄😂
I've been so intrigued by ship sinkings recently, ever since the titan implosion it resparked my interest in the titanic. Since then I've been researching other ship sinkings and such. I already am a huge fan of this channel so I was excited to see you cover this topic! I'm going a cruise this October, hoping nothing happens to me out at sea 🙌
Same
Part Time Explorer is another excellent channel where he really dives into the history. He generally covers ships.
If you haven't found him yet, big old boats is a wonderful channel. maritime horrors account, though posting once in blue moon, also has a nice catalog
Take a trip to Belfast and visit the Titanic Experience there: I was there in July, and it was fantastic.
@@GovenorMcLovin Thanks 👍
One story I have been patiently waiting for on FH. A huge disaster with a big sense of impending doom from the outset. The words "If only" kept going over and over in my head at the end. And the haunting words of the survivor at the end summed it up so well as to why this disaster is largely forgotten
I am attending trade school right now as preparation to enter the merchant mariner industry, and hearing about disasters on vessels like this always leaves me feeling privileged to be alive and going into the industry after over a century of setting and refining international regulations. So far in class we have studied the Titanic and the sinking of the Costa Concordia from 2012, so I haven't heard about this yet (I am only four weeks into the first of three quarters of school to be fair), thank you for covering it!
900 Drunk Anarchists sounds like a solid name for a band
I always like "Kangaroo Court"... which one should headline? You know they would tour together
I've been watching this channel for a while and rarely do I hear information that absolutely shocks me. The idea that there were iron bars in the life preservers to save money on cork was mind-boggling! What a *literally* horrifying piece of history.
This is one of the saddest stories I've heard - unimaginable. If I watched my three children drown or burn up, I'd have to jump in and drown, too. I couldn't live after that.
I hate that so many tragedies of this era or earlier are forgotten, and I equally hate that the answer to "why was this forgotten" is almost always "the Titantic."
I read an excellent book about this disaster entitled Ship Ablaze.
Another fantastic video. In terms of New York disasters which go overshadowed, this is certainly one. Another which comes to mind is the crash of American Airlines flight 587 which took place in Queens only months after 9/11.
I remember that at first, everyone was thinking it was another hijacking.
This one was awful feeling-it was too soon after 911!
I've had family in Queens for the past century and have spent almost half of my life living there, and yet, it was *last week* that I learned about the American Airlines crash. I was a baby at the time, but it's baffling how, not only did I never hear about it from older Queens residents, I never heard about it from the Internet until that moment either. I can't imagine how terrifying a time that must have been to be cognizant of.
@@zurirobinson2749 The crash deeply affected the Dominican community in Washington Heights, as most of the dead were from the community.
Despite the seriousness of this story, "900 drunken anarchists from New Jersey" was a hilarious line
When that music kicks in at the end of each of your videos and I'm left in the dark with my fascination and horror of what I just learned about... man it really does give me chills all over.
absolutely insane that they did not properly maintain safety equipment given their long track record of getting into accidents
“General Slocum’s wheels of wood, caught ablaze like they never should, floats of cork filled with weights instead sent families off to the riverbed.”
Those lyrics are making a lot more horrifying sense now. Over 900 people, that’s is… beyond tragic.
"A mutiny broke out while transporting 900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey" is a phrase I really wish I'd penned.
There is a memorial fountain in Tompkins Square Park, not far from the church and departure dock of the ship, with a plaque describing this disaster. It remains well maintained and many New Yorkers are familiar with the story. Thanks for an illuminating episode and the subtle mention of it being the deadliest disaster in New York "for nearly 100 years."
Oiley rags can produce heat while drying...it was investigated as a cause of the fire at my neighbour's fire. Hay or straw also produce heat while drying and have been proven to spontaneously combust in barns when stored with too much moisture. Seems like the lamp-room may have ignited itself.
My thought exactly. They suggested a spark or cigarette. Oily rags combusting is far more likely. I know someone who lost a barn to hay combustion. People just aren't mindful of these things
That ending quote sent chills down my spine omg
We appreciate your insights on this. We will support you and your channel no matter what.
Brilliant ending there. Thanks as always for the respectful and great work.
In Tompkins Square park, you can find a memorial to the disaster. It was pretty much the end for the Kleindeutschland neighborhood of the time.
Oh, I’ve been waiting for you to cover this! Great stuff!
The late author Clive Cussler conducted a search for this ship, as outlined in his book "The Sea Hunters 2". She had undergone extensive modifications after the fire and basically only the hull remained.
Such a heartbreaking tragedy, especially since so many of the victims were children. I can just imagine the fathers saying goodbye to their kids in the morning before they went off to work, not knowing they would ever see them alive again. And all these kids so excited about a picnic and a fun trip on a boat, which was an especially big deal if you were part of a poor working-class family. And the fact that this tragedy was 100% preventable is positively infuriating. I can't believe that somehow, the owners of this boat managed to pass inspections for 13 years without ever replacing the equipment. I can't imagine the terror people felt on board the burning ship when life preservers fell apart in their hands, hoses leaked and were unable to put out fires, and life jackets tied onto kids who were dropped into the water, eventually killed them instead of saving their lives. And the lifeboats were wired in place because they were considered a nuisance, and the crew probably thought that they wouldn't be needed since they were travelling so close to land, and that people would probably be able to swim to shore. I can imagine all those people struggling in the water, especially the women in their long skirts with many petticoats, long-sleeved shirts, big hats held on with hairpins, and heavy shoes -- many of them probably didn't stand a chance. Boats did come to rescue some of the people, and while some people WERE saved, there were other despicable people who went up to struggling people in the water who thought they were going to be rescued, and these sick people would simply just steal bracelets and watches off the victims' wrists and leave them to drown. On the other hand, on North Brother Island, there were not only doctors and nurses and hospital staff that helped out with the rescue, but even some of the patients helped too!
There was an eleven-year-old girl who was rescued that day. She almost didn't get to go on the Slocum at all, because at the store where her mother got the tickets for her and her two younger siblings, the storekeeper only gave out two tickets for the smaller children. The girl was disappointed and started crying, and the shopkeeper was touched by her tears and found an extra ticket for her. The girl survived the disaster, but lost her mother and siblings. However, she lived to be 106 years old! Another family didn't fare quite so well. One couple lost both of their young daughters. One daughter's body was never found, and all that was recovered from her was one of her tiny shoes.
It was truly tragic that it took a tragedy of this magnitude, for safety precautions about excursion ships to be taken seriously. Some of these lessons, sadly, didn't sink in even after the loss of the Titanic and many of its passengers. And the owners of the General Slocum seemed to get off with what was basically a slap on the wrist, even after the massive loss of life, and the incompetence and carelessness that eventually led to it. This disaster was eventually overshadowed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire seven years later, the Titanic sinking the following year, and then WW1 two years later. This disaster deserves to be more widely remembered than it has been. RIP to the victims of the General Slocum.
I can't even fathom that this event happened, in a time when news could spread around the world in a few days/weeks, and we still ended up with the Titanic. Like why do ship builders and cruise lines hate life boats so much? They're literally called LIFE boats.
I think it's more of a "we won't actually need this" mentality. You see it in many types of stories, not just boats and ships. A live theater near my home burned years ago because they had no sprinklers. They thought they wouldn't need them and got a waiver when the original was built. (No one was killed or severely hurt, but the building was destroyed.)
Used to be based on tonnage, so was adequate when ships displaced less. Why the lifeboat requirement wasn't always based on passenger numbers is anyone's best guess. That changed after Titanic.
My god, how many things in a row could go wrong? I dont think they could've made a more dangerous situation if they tried. Truly despicable and tragic.
The more of these I watch the more I am convinced no normal person gets justice while companies and the rich get away with a slap on the wrist. It's disgusting.
Rules only benefit those who ignore them.
Tptb manage to gain wealth from these disasters. They never are accountable for the decisions they make.
So many different things went horrifically wrong at every turn during this disaster. It's almost unbelievable.
It's ships like the General Slocum that make me wonder whether or not curses are real.
You have a lot of company. That was believed for centuries by people who sailed them, and yeah, some modern ships are very unlucky
Congratulations on 1m subscribers mate! You deserve it, your channel is awesome and documents some absolutely fascinating horror! ❤🇬🇧
A video on the Drunk Anarchist Riot onboard would be cool as well.
I'm from Queens and learned about this disaster when I saw the memorial plaque in Astoria Park. Glad to see you cover it!
Its an absolute tragedy how it has been ignored i never even heard about this until this video
I love FH's videos - so well made - but I am also constantly impressed by the quality of the comments. Everyone is on topic and polite.
Nobody ever questions the safe and condition of things until there is a problem…then when people die or are injured all these issues come to light. It’s always so tragic because it was preventable. At least to some extent.
Too true. Only after being trained as a Fire Safety Director about 30 years ago, I automatically look for fire exits, equipment, and violations when I enter a building. That doesn't come naturally.
It is always amazing that simple safety measures were not routinely tested or checked.
Wildly enough, the wreck was salvaged and converted to a barge, which went on to sink on two further occasions.
No way!😮
Way. The barge was in use until 1911, when it sank.
It’s that time of the week! Thank you Fascinating Horrors.
This disaster happened within the confines of New York City. The Titanic perished in the north Atlantic. So locally, this ranks among one of the all time largest disastrous life losses. The triangle shirtwaist fire and of course September 11th come to mind as obvious rivals.
Thank you so much for talking about General Slocum! As a Civil War buff I got very excited when I saw the name and I was hoping you'd mention him.
This disaster is mentioned in James Joyce's novel Ulysses, which is set on the following day.
Starting off another good morning with a video from Fascinating Horror
If you think you care TOO MUCH about maintaining a vessel, there is no such thing as caring TOO MUCH about maintaining a vessel.
Growing up in New York I was aware of the General Slocum disaster and would say it was a very well know event in the history of our city. At least as recently as the 1980’s it was a well know event. Perhaps on a national level it was forgotten or overshadowed but locally it was a prominent event covered in school as part of NYC history.
I’m glad you brought this tragedy to light for the younger audience that may have never heard of the General Slocum.
You may have already covered this story but if you haven’t please consider telling the sad and horrific tale of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire.
Thank you. People are constantly claiming things weren't taught, well known enough, kept secret, yada yada. Horsefeathers! They're just poorly informed, or downright ignorant. If it's in a book, they'll never see it.
From what I understand, it was a similar story with the SS Eastland-locals are likely to be aware, but the knowledge doesn't have national reach
@@stellaluna6421 All history is local, unless it involves war, civil rights or rock & roll.
Just In time for bed!!! Love your work man ❤
Tuesday mornings are the BEST!
Tuesday morning where I live
@seandelap8587 some of us keep weird schedules 😅😉 (I'm not sure about OP, speaking for myself). Have a good Tuesday!
@@inkyjill I agree! :)
You just know that a disastrous accident between 1880 and 1910 is going to be a wild story. Absolutely batshit insane what people got away with back then.
On UA-cam is an old history channel special (from when they covered history) about this. Ships Ablaze. It has archive interviews with the last two survivors, including the youngest survivor at 6 months old. The book it’s based off of is pretty good too. And it’s likely the death count was off since there was a…liberal…view to accurate passenger counts
as interesting as that sounds I find myself wondering what good an interview with someone who was 6 months at the time of the accident would do.
@@rockstermaniac there’s the stuff her parents and other relatives told her. According to the book her dad made a scrapbook of news articles relating to the fire that she still had.
Other sources suggest over one thousand lives were lost.
So many issues across-the-board even for that time. The rags alone with the barrels absolutely careless.
Adding bulky and not floating material to life jackets just so it feels heavy is surely something that all involved should have been reemed to the same degree as murder for. Its one thing to have them rot, its another for them to have been knowingly be made incorrectly to save a dime.
❤❤❤. You do a really good job telling us these interesting events. I really look forward to watching your channel. Thank you!❤❤❤❤
North Brother Island is probably somewhere on the list for an episode all on its own. I didn't know the captain went to jail, but the name Knickerbocker is not exactly a good one for disasters, you had the steamship company that was involved with this one. You had the theater collapse (which I swear FH has done a vid on at some point), and the disaster that occurs when you order the ice cream sundae tooo
The Knickerbocker Theater tragedy was covered earlier this year, on/around its 100th anniversary.
True! A similar steamer named the Knickerbocker had multiple accidents in New York before and after the Slocum. New York's Knickerbocker beer failed in the 60s. If you got the Staten Island ferry Knickerbocker, you were definitely gonna be late for work. No wonder nobody uses the name anymore
For a compelling, fascinating telling of the General Slocum disaster,I recommend Ship Ablaze, by Edward T. O'Donnell.
As the person responsible for the condition of fire hoses, life jackets, and other safety gear on all of the ships in my company's fleet, this one just *hurts* . This is why you inspect and replace your gear *before* you need it.
As somebody in a sort-of-manufaturing job making safety-sensitive parts, hearing that some of the life preservers were sabotaged from the start makes me angry.
@@Halinspark same here. It's one thing to half-ass your job at some white collar desk job or at your minimum wage job at the local movie theater, but making sabotaged life jackets? That's not "I don't give a fuck" that's "I actively want people to die for the bottom line".
First heard about this from The Longest John's in a song "downed and drowned".
It only gets a short few lines, but when there it sounds awful that it happened.
Haven’t finished the video yet, but something tells me if a ship has so many problems within a short time, that your ship is probably cursed
Ofc they had a room that was a fire hazard. Unfortunate that so many died and were injured
Thank you for giving me a few seconds of blank screen at the end of the video to pause it until the next video pops on screen right where someone would tap pause.
I have watched as, over the past fifty years, that an essential US industry, railroads, seems to have forgotten some of the hard lessons learned from tragedies such as this.
And it is for the same reason, that of making increasing corporate shareholder value the primary, and at times the only, reason for a company's existence.
Among the top killers and causes of suffering for humans -greed.
Thanks for the video, there's also another video on UA-cam about the Slocum disaster including an interview with a survivor. This was the greatest loss of life in a single day in the history of NY state until 9/11l.
Could you imagine the feeling of trying to get safety equipment and it just rockts in your hand
Thanks for the captions!
Great channel
Thank you for bringing this story to light. I’d never heard of it. How tragic. Both for the loss of all the lives and how the Titanic took precedence due to $. 😔
@3:00 How was the Evangelical Lutheran Church "using the General Slocum for 17 consecutive years for their annual picnic", when the ship was only in service for 13 years?
This is why it is so important to keep areas clean and tidy
Yeah it was the largest loss of life in a disaster in New York City until 9/11.
The General Slocum disaster is mentioned briefly in James Joyce's novel "Ulysses".
Tuesday night entertainment, cheers!
The Captain being imprisoned and the ship owner and life jacket manufacturer staying free is an injustice in itself!
One rule for me and another for everyone else!!