I do have to note that the Bremen pictured in the episode wasn't the Bremen involved in the fire but a later ship (from 1928) with the same name also by Nord Deutcher Lloyd line.
Plenty of awful details here, but the one that I can't get away from is the poor bastard taking shelter in the coal bunker only for the heat to BAKE HIM BLIND 😨😨😨
The man was left blind and all those people died for the same old reason ---> Capitalists value financial profit over human life. By 1900, there were already MANY steel frame skyscrapers in NYC. But the Capitalist A-Holes decided save a dollar and waited until 100's died before they built steel docks in Hoboken.NJ.
poor safety protocols. not much else to say there. Cargo started burning, lit the dock on fire, then the buildings, then the ships moored there. Inadequate safety all around.
@@marhawkman303 Knowing why they spread so fast doesn't make it any less scary. And fires this fast or worse still occur even today with modern safety standards.
@@classicmicroscopy9398 Oh, did I somehow imply it was less scary? No. Not my intent at all. Merely that it has methods that are understandable, and possibly reducible.
The speed at which ANY fire can spread, and the efficacy by which it gains intensity, is honestly as terrifying as anything. Cover a fire in a relative "container" with sufficient material, and so long as it's level and sealed, the fire "eats up" the oxygen and goes out... Tilt it even slightly, and you've created a "thermo-induction hot-spot" that exponentially raises the temperature, and quickly surpasses the material resistance to heat or fire. Then even a slight loss of seal allows a thermal updraft to FEED fresh oxygen to an already superheated space, and EVERYTHING just bursts into flames... In seconds a textile fire, ordinarily burning between 500 and 1000 F shoots well past 2000 F (melting zones for glass and steel), and with the added forces of airflow (wind) that can reach sonic speeds, the flash-over can be issued outward in any and every direction. It's both fascinating and horrific just how fast things go (generally) from bad to worse, and how much worse they can get "left to themselves". ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 oh yeah, heard some WILD stories about house fire where someone was leaving and opening a door or breaking a window triggered a room to essentially explode.
One of the amazing things about this, was not only were the 3 ships that were gutted by fire rebuilt and placed back into service, but ALL 3 survived WW1 and subsequently sailed until they were broken up (Scrapped) in the mid to late 20's.
For anyone who doesn't know how to swim: if you find yourself in the water, move your body as you would when trying to climb up a ladder.. you'll basically be "dog paddling", but it'll work. Also, if you take in a deep breath and then remain still, your head will stay out of the water.. once stable you can breathe pretty much normally, just try to keep a good amount of air in your lungs and don't go to sleep
Excellent video of a horrible subject. To have been trapped inside one of those ships, unable to fit through a porthole... *shudder*. In grammar school in Brooklyn when I was a kid, one of our teachers' grandfather had died during this catastrophe, so she REALLY taught it well. She even had a metal ring the size of one of the portholes to show us how even most of us kids couldn't have made it through. Thank you for covering this important, sadly mostly forgotton, tragedy. Every time we go to a Guardians game, we pass the site of the Collinwood (Ohio) School Fire of 1908, keep hoping to see you cover that someday. Kudos again!
I've lived in New Jersey my whole life. My great-grandfather who was a year or two short of finishing high school witnessed this tragedy from a safe distance, but apparently enough to see the carnage in detail. My maternal grandmother told me that her father rarely spoke about it and never in detail, and reacted angrily at any inquiries to discuss it.
@@deboracopeland4795 The smell of death from what I could intimate from my grandmother and some other accounts from a few others was horrible too as it lingered, but you are absolutely correct.
My great-great grandfather, John Smith of Jersey City, was the captain of one of those tugboats mentioned in the video. Which liner he and his crew helped to pull from the pier is not certain, however, his 1941 obituary mentions that he worked at the pier fire and received a commendation for moving a ship from the burning waterfront. Would love to know.
The replacement piers in Hoboken would be the site of the filming of the 1950's movie 'On the Waterfront'. All off the piers in Hoboken but for some passenger ferries are long gone, mainly by the late 1960's as containerized shipping, the use of much larger ships, the end of passenger liners meant they were not needed and shifted to small parts of Jersey City, Bayonne but especially Port Newark and Port Elizabeth. Some of the pier buildings were converted into high end housing. Hoboken is also known for its large number of bars and mainly a high income community today.
I graduated from Stevens just around the time gentrification was getting under way, and I barely recognize Washington St. these days. But yes, it was reputed at the time to have the highest number of bars per capita of any city in the state. If it was true then, and I have no idea whether it was, it's probably still true now.
I have real bad ADHD and I was never able to sit and listen in History lessons (or any lessons tbf), but I can genuinely sit and binge watch all of your videos from start to finish and never leave my seat, completely absorbed and actually learn something too. It is incredible how things we take as day-to-day safety came from something so tragic. Thank you for helping keep these memories alive and the lessons learnt!
I hear you! So glad for people using UA-cam for more things than being stupid. Esp since the History channel, etc has gotten stupid! I miss being able to play interesting things in the background while cooking/cleaning. If you do that now, it's yelling people being dramatic (you know, if you aren't streaming old stuff). If you haven't, check out The History Guy. Who I found out is also a podcast👍
ADD (they took out the 'H' years ago), is a problem for students with the disorder. Being in regular classrooms is indeed difficult when they have to digest a boatload of information for a long period. Many ADD students are allowed to record their classes in addition to taking notes. Were you not given that opportunity? I love these videos as well, because they are short and focus on the main idea from start to finish - plus, I never heard of so many of these tragic occurrences. I haven't been a student for decades (yeah, I'm old), never had ADD but I definitly get your point, even tho' some commenters don't unless they suffer with ADD or have kin that does.
I enjoyed this video three blocks away from where the events unfolded in Hoboken, NJ. You wouldn't even know there was a bustling series of piers here these days.
The only way to learn is to make a mistake. If you make no mistakes then you know everything on the subject. "The hard way" is literally the _only_ way to learn.
My great grandfather often spoke of this tragedy with a heavy heart. They lived less than a mile from the docks.He and many of his neighbors worked on the docks.He lost some co workers but he escaped unscathed.Thank you for bringing this dark history moment to us.
Thank goodness for DNA. I'm not certain if there's been an effort for this particular incident, but many "mass graves for the nameless" are being unearthed and the dead are finally being given proper identification.
@@Lucinda_Jackson It's neither. On a practical level, it helps verify the accuracy of the methods and technology used in the fields of DNA forensics, archaeological digs, etc. It also helps train scientists (both new recruits and seasoned veterans) with field work. Instead of tragically waiting for someone to die, they can gain experience in identification using these freely available bodies in these mass graves. On a secondary level, it brings closure to descendants of the dead and helps historians gain a more accurate understanding of the event. Lastly, and most important of all, you're a shortsighted scumbag and ought to be ashamed of your callousness and lack of imagination.
@@dr-amethyst-77 😄 Okay. There are no surviving relatives who are even aware of these peoples' existences unless there's a member of the Methuselah family there, so there's nobody to give closure to. This is NOT how DNA technology is advanced. As for "practice" for scientists? Nope.
Really enjoyed learning about this. Reminds me of the Great Baltimore Fire of February 1904. Destroyed over 31 city blocks, destroyed or damaged over 2500 buildings, took almost 1300 fireman to combat, and the mayor at the time refused all outside aid to rebuild. Such a wild story.
Or like the infamous Great Chicago Fire: The source of ignition for the first fire reported could not be determined, and it spread quickly thanks to high winds and buildings made mostly of wood. Heck, lots of major cities in the U.S. that exisited during the 1800's suffered at least one catstrophic fire within their city limits at one point or another before modern fire codes were adopted.
I'm from Belgium and I learned about this tragedy from a Native American who worked at the Bowling Green National Museum Of The American Indian while I was in NYC in 2007 and who had done research and made a documentary about the inheritance and history of settlements on both of the banks of the Hudson. Despite official explanations saying otherwise, this guy told me that the village of Hoboken (which is also a village Next to Antwerp in Belgium) was indeed started by Belgians. He also told me about lots of other stuff includung the 1900 disaster fire.
I can't decide if this means he was pronouncing it wrong. 😂 I grew up near Philly, and always heard it pronounced with the first syllable being stressed. But then, this fits into one of those "You know you grew up in [place] when" memes. For me, it's "Lancaster" and "Lebanon," PA. Outsiders always pronounce them wrong. :P (For anyone wondering, they both have emphasis on the first syllable as well. LANcaster--although the a is almost long--and LEBanin)
Very interesting! Decades ago I was helping a friend organize a party and we went to Hoboken to buy the liquor and brews at a wholesale warehouse directly on the Hudson. Somewhere in the vicinity I remember reading a modest commemorative placard in homage to the 1900 fire. It was numbered but no names of the victims who perished. Incidentally, the house where Frank Sinatra was born was nearby too.
There was indeed much (well-deserved) criticism of tugboat companies after this fire. Even that long ago the official line regarding the order of proceedings was: The preservation of human life, the preservation of animal life (tho mainly due to its monetary value and the fact it was difficult to insure rather than humane reasons) and, lastly, the preservation of infrastructure. This was the first time that this was largely ignored directly in front of witnesses and reporters resulting in an almost universal condemnation of the companies for their placing the value of material objects over that of human life (the loss of animals being restricted to a few pets on the liners). A lot changed after this fire and all of it for the better.
Ditto! I'd no idea how close the KWdG came to disaster as a result of this incident. That said, did you notice the error in the video? The image of the Bremen is not the 1896 vessel that was gutted in the fire (and later rebuilt, surviving WW1 to be awarded to P&O as a war prize) but the much larger 1928 ship of the same name.
You’re so good at what you do brother - would love to see more uploads of less well known tragedies. Recommend the story and history of the Port Arthur massacre - Australia’s last mass shooting
@@screaming_cat2007 this channel is more about engineering disasters. Def read up on what happened in ‘96 in Port Arthur (sorry, don’t know any channels/vids to recommend to ya for that event)
Ozymandius 1) You spake "such a shooting could not happen again." I'll buy that it's less likely, but do you really think it's impossible? There are various illegal means that a person could use to obtain a gun, and people who intend to commit mass murder aren't going to respect gun bans. 2) As I understand it, the murder rate in Australia was going down already. It then increased somewhat before continuing the downward trend. In other words, any decrease was probably going to happen anyway, and there were probably more murders instead of fewer acter the gun ban. This is explainable by the fact that criminals like to target defenseless people, and there were more of them after the gun ban. Gun owners can prevent themselves (and their families) from being victimized, sometimes without even injuring the perpetrator. 3) I'm a resident of a rural area in Canada. Every home here has guns. This not only prevents crime (as any potential home invader would know that they would be at high risk of being shot), but we find guns to be necessary tools to deal with dangerous animals. As Australia is famous for having many different kinds of dangerous animals, I can't help but wonder how they are dealing with a gun ban in rural areas. My best guess is they suffer because of it, but city people neither know nor care, as that seems to be the way of city people. 4) I don't consided myself mighty, but I look on your words and do feel some despair.
I've been waiting for a long time for you to do this one. I'm most pleased that you have done so. I do recall reading an account of this disaster, in which they spoke of "people trapped inside the ships, pleading for help, waving to catch the attention of would-be Rescuers, and then being roasted alive inside the hull of the ship which glowed red-hot from the conflagration..."
Once again you have done a masterful job of bringing a disaster to life. Your research and your respectful delivery are the best. Thank you for bringing this to light. Cheers Pat in NewJersey
Woke up by chance at 2:40 a.m., checked my phone to see when the snow will start falling, saw a message that a friend of mine had died, and came to youtube for virtual escape from my own thoughts. This story is harrowing, imagining all those people having to jump into the water when they knew they weren't able to swim. And it's easy to imagine the horror of watching from safety, desperately wanting to help but hindered by flames, water, and circumstances. [I am only slightly abashed that I saw the title and thought of Bugs Bunny saying, "Hoboken! Ooo, I'm dyyyyin'!"]
@@bradsanders407 Sorry, I misquoted the rabbit. What he actually said was, "Hoboken!? Ooo, I'm dyyyin' again!" In the cartoon "8 Ball Bunny," Bugs promises to take a lost penguin home --- cartoon antics ensue (including humorous cameos by Humphry Bogart). And don' forget, "Pen-gu-ins is practically chickens..."
YES! That was very horrific. Aka second narrows bridge. The loss of life was iirc steep ~50(??) Lives. Very little known event even in Vancouver.😢 No documentaries on it!
This is one channel that I drop anything I happen to be doing to watch! I love the theme song too! I used to hate history class, but thanks to You, Iron Maiden and the like, I am totally involved in wanting to learn! Thank you!
This disaster happened less than three months before the great Galveston hurricane of 1900 and less than three years before the fire on the better known in New York of the General Slocum so it has become almost forgotten by time and everyone.
History has NEVER been so well explained. Horrible Histories is boring after watching ....Fascinating Horror As long as humans be human, you will never run out of content.
i live in north bergen which is a stones throw from hoboken...my grandparents immigrated to hoboken from italy but not until the late 1910's i always knew of the docks but never knew of this tragedy..rip to all those helpless people..what a tradegy..
Your stories are very well told. The pictures shown send more than a few chills down my spine. Never heard of this one, but I find all these fascinating. Currently going through your maritime playlist. Thank you for educating us.
It is well known in commerce that cotton bales are spontaneously combustible, especially (and ironically) when wet. Mold and bacteria will grow, which generates enough heat to ignite the bale. Hay will also do this.
Great video. Very interesting and informative. My grandfather worked on the docks in the 1930. I never heard about this fire. Thanks for doing the video on the place where I was born. Love your videos ❤😊
Little correction: The picture at 3:57 shows the SS Bremen launched in 1928 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Bremen_(1928)). The actual ship damaged was this one: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_(Schiff,_1897)
What part of the Jersey shore did you visit? I suspect most shore towns south of Seaside Heights would have (m)any connections to the docks in North Jersey.
This was ive years atr Butte, MT was nearly wiped out by an explosion or two, which is just as fascinating, if not weird. The late 1800s/early 1900s seemed a hotbed for fires and explosions really
Stunning. I was raised in Hudson County, my family members were teamsters, worked on the docks in Weehawken, North Bergen & I don't think anyone even heard of this horror (which is creepily reminiscent of 9/11). PS With the NYC accent it's pronounced HOboken, just fyi.
Happened on the Morrow Castle in the Thirties too. Lots of bodies were found stuck halfway through ooen portholes where they'd tried escaping the flames in their cabins. Nightmarish stuff.
Your channel is so awesome. I am always stoked when a new video comes out. I have never heard of Hoboken fire. It's nice to see new content I have never heard of before. One I haven't seen ANYONE do is the 1895 explosions of Butte, Montana. I would love to hear your take on that one
For future (and viewer) reference, both Hoboken and Weehawken are pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable. Always happens when people make videos about the Matawan shark attacks too 😅
@@SallyJaySparrow Thanks, for me as a non-american but who travels extensively in the US it's kind of tricky with some names, especially ones of native american origin. For example in Pittsburgh where the Ohio begins at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. And don't even mention a place like Schenectady. I love those names although for a long time I didn't know how to pronounce them. But there are also some others of European origin. Like it took a while before I found out how to correctly pronounce the numerous towns named Decatur.
@@mateuszmattias For sure! Most people will know what you mean so long as you're close enough, but some of them really don't sound how they look. And some take their names from European places but pronounce it completely different. Versailles, Kentucky is "ver-sails"
little issue, the "Bremen" used here is the 1929 one, (first what I consider "TRUE" superliner of the 1920s-30s "arms race") otherwise great and harrowing tale as per ususal!
It’s crazy how quickly the fire spread, but it certainly proves how flammable the most innocent seeming material can be. Even sugar can be highly combustible.
Still sadly true. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are populated with communities that largely have not had the opportunity for swimming experience or leasons to this day.
@@CJ-Giddyup209 I never knew that. I'm from south Asia and I'm a very good swimmer and majority of the people I know can swim. Tbh my country is an Island and has soooo many rivers and waterways, it's no wonder. I guess the countries you mean are mostly inland lands and have a few waterways or its costly to take swimming lessons
I lived in Hoboken for three years and never knew about this. I still live in the area and know of no memorial on the site. I shall have to check out that memorial at the cemetery, however.
Thanks for uploading the videos a bit earlier, it means I don't need to remain up as late just to see the latest one. From New Zealand by the way, so the videos come up late evening. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your April Fools one next year.
Some of my great-grandparents immigrated to the United States on the Main, a few years after this disaster so after it was rebuilt, and others on Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Incredible history here.
Wrong Bremen at 3:56. This is the Weimar Republic era ocean liner, which was, ironically enough destroyed by a fire in 1943. The Bremen in question survived and was seized by the british after WW1 and scrapped in 1929. It is a two funnel liner as well but with well under a quarter of the tonnage and a 1900s straight bow
I wonder how heavy the individual cotton bales on the pier were on that fateful day? Can't help but wonder if it would have been possible to simply push the smoldering bale off into the harbor before the fire had time to spread. Even a heavy 500lb bale could have theoretically been moved by a few strong men. RIP to everyone who lost their lives.
I live near Hoboken and indeed, reading about this disaster is wild. Hell, its like the train explosion incident in Liberty State Park in Jersey City back during the time of WWI
They can predict what you will think of before you do some how. Just creepy weird, like Facebook showing you ads of stuff you were thinking about but hadn't even spoken a word out loud, so unless they're able to read your mind then it's more like talking about certain things to lead you to think about a certain thing they want you to think about.
Another great piece. Thank you. I'd like to have been in the room when someone asked how they could retrieve the bodies from the river bed and someone suggested dynamite. It seems at the turn of the 19th / 20th century, if something was difficult, just try dynamite. Not that it ever worked.
That was something that was done frequently in that era - not necessarily dynamite, but things like cannons. It was apparently a belief that it'd help raise a submerged body by affecting it in some way and making it float. In 1900, it was probably still believed to do something, so they used dynamite instead of outdated cannons.
I live in the area, and I’d never heard of this event. I’ll have to look for the plaque next time I’m in Hoboken. A common thread in many of these videos is humans’ lack of foresight and imagination. Looking back, we see conditions that add up to a disaster waiting to happen-failure to segregate highly flammable materials, locked exit doors, lack of fire safety training, and so on. Yet people ignored such factors, or decided that reducing risks wasn’t worth the cost. I wonder what disasters will occur in the future because we don’t recognize and manage potential dangers.
Another great video! I really think you should look into doing a video on the Wellington train disaster in Washington State - it's right up your alley! The deadliest avalanche in US history.
I do have to note that the Bremen pictured in the episode wasn't the Bremen involved in the fire but a later ship (from 1928) with the same name also by Nord Deutcher Lloyd line.
Yes I knew that as soon as I saw the funnel
Damn someone's letting their nautical nerd flag fly
Unfortunately that is the fact- interesting fact: the Bremen shown in the picture was destroyed in an alleged act act arson in 1941.
@@sonkejager3305 It turned out to be by a 15 y.o. crew member with a grudge against an officer. Similar to the burning of the Moro Castle.
Came here to say just that. The 1896 ship was the one caught in the disaster.
Plenty of awful details here, but the one that I can't get away from is the poor bastard taking shelter in the coal bunker only for the heat to BAKE HIM BLIND 😨😨😨
Really fits the "fascinating horror" bill, doesn't it?
At least he had his life, but still... what terrible trauma.
Try being the poor souls reaching out of the portholes with no way out.
The man was left blind and all those people died for the same old reason --->
Capitalists value financial profit over human life.
By 1900, there were already MANY steel frame skyscrapers in NYC.
But the Capitalist A-Holes decided save a dollar and waited until 100's died before they built steel docks in Hoboken.NJ.
I wonder if it was the heat or the smoke. I feel like the smoke would hurt less
The speed at which fires this intense spread is honestly terrifying. As is the sheer destruction they cause.
poor safety protocols. not much else to say there.
Cargo started burning, lit the dock on fire, then the buildings, then the ships moored there. Inadequate safety all around.
@@marhawkman303 Knowing why they spread so fast doesn't make it any less scary. And fires this fast or worse still occur even today with modern safety standards.
@@classicmicroscopy9398 Oh, did I somehow imply it was less scary? No. Not my intent at all. Merely that it has methods that are understandable, and possibly reducible.
The speed at which ANY fire can spread, and the efficacy by which it gains intensity, is honestly as terrifying as anything. Cover a fire in a relative "container" with sufficient material, and so long as it's level and sealed, the fire "eats up" the oxygen and goes out... Tilt it even slightly, and you've created a "thermo-induction hot-spot" that exponentially raises the temperature, and quickly surpasses the material resistance to heat or fire.
Then even a slight loss of seal allows a thermal updraft to FEED fresh oxygen to an already superheated space, and EVERYTHING just bursts into flames... In seconds a textile fire, ordinarily burning between 500 and 1000 F shoots well past 2000 F (melting zones for glass and steel), and with the added forces of airflow (wind) that can reach sonic speeds, the flash-over can be issued outward in any and every direction.
It's both fascinating and horrific just how fast things go (generally) from bad to worse, and how much worse they can get "left to themselves". ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 oh yeah, heard some WILD stories about house fire where someone was leaving and opening a door or breaking a window triggered a room to essentially explode.
One of the amazing things about this, was not only were the 3 ships that were gutted by fire rebuilt and placed back into service, but ALL 3 survived WW1 and subsequently sailed until they were broken up (Scrapped) in the mid to late 20's.
For anyone who doesn't know how to swim: if you find yourself in the water, move your body as you would when trying to climb up a ladder.. you'll basically be "dog paddling", but it'll work.
Also, if you take in a deep breath and then remain still, your head will stay out of the water.. once stable you can breathe pretty much normally, just try to keep a good amount of air in your lungs and don't go to sleep
Excellent video of a horrible subject. To have been trapped inside one of those ships, unable to fit through a porthole... *shudder*. In grammar school in Brooklyn when I was a kid, one of our teachers' grandfather had died during this catastrophe, so she REALLY taught it well. She even had a metal ring the size of one of the portholes to show us how even most of us kids couldn't have made it through. Thank you for covering this important, sadly mostly forgotton, tragedy. Every time we go to a Guardians game, we pass the site of the Collinwood (Ohio) School Fire of 1908, keep hoping to see you cover that someday. Kudos again!
The Collinwood school fire was absolutely horrific. So many children lost.
I'm from Long Island and I'd never heard of this until this video
I've lived in New Jersey my whole life. My great-grandfather who was a year or two short of finishing high school witnessed this tragedy from a safe distance, but apparently enough to see the carnage in detail. My maternal grandmother told me that her father rarely spoke about it and never in detail, and reacted angrily at any inquiries to discuss it.
I don't blame him - I'm sure it was traumatizing, especially for someone who was only about 16 at the time. :(
Trauma does that to people. Must've been awful for him to see: too fascinating to look away, but afterwards, you wish you'd never seen it.
Must have been so traumatic to see all those people burn and drown.
@@deboracopeland4795 And not be able to do a damn thing to help…
@@deboracopeland4795 The smell of death from what I could intimate from my grandmother and some other accounts from a few others was horrible too as it lingered, but you are absolutely correct.
My great-great grandfather, John Smith of Jersey City, was the captain of one of those tugboats mentioned in the video. Which liner he and his crew helped to pull from the pier is not certain, however, his 1941 obituary mentions that he worked at the pier fire and received a commendation for moving a ship from the burning waterfront. Would love to know.
Thank goodness for him, and everyone from JC, Weehawken, NYC, and even Bayonne who helped.
The replacement piers in Hoboken would be the site of the filming of the 1950's movie 'On the Waterfront'. All off the piers in Hoboken but for some passenger ferries are long gone, mainly by the late 1960's as containerized shipping, the use of much larger ships, the end of passenger liners meant they were not needed and shifted to small parts of Jersey City, Bayonne but especially Port Newark and Port Elizabeth. Some of the pier buildings were converted into high end housing. Hoboken is also known for its large number of bars and mainly a high income community today.
There isn't a town in America that isn't known for its large number of bars.
@@bradsanders407 Salt Lake City?
At least the Lackawanna station is still in use. I was there about 30 years ago, its a neat old building.
So you're saying Hoboken coulda been a contender?
I graduated from Stevens just around the time gentrification was getting under way, and I barely recognize Washington St. these days. But yes, it was reputed at the time to have the highest number of bars per capita of any city in the state. If it was true then, and I have no idea whether it was, it's probably still true now.
I have real bad ADHD and I was never able to sit and listen in History lessons (or any lessons tbf), but I can genuinely sit and binge watch all of your videos from start to finish and never leave my seat, completely absorbed and actually learn something too. It is incredible how things we take as day-to-day safety came from something so tragic. Thank you for helping keep these memories alive and the lessons learnt!
History class is about 50 minutes, 5 days a week in high school today....
Not a 9 minute YT video.
I hear you! So glad for people using UA-cam for more things than being stupid. Esp since the History channel, etc has gotten stupid! I miss being able to play interesting things in the background while cooking/cleaning. If you do that now, it's yelling people being dramatic (you know, if you aren't streaming old stuff). If you haven't, check out The History Guy. Who I found out is also a podcast👍
Wtf. How old are you? 15?
ADD (they took out the 'H' years ago), is a problem for students with the disorder. Being in regular classrooms is indeed difficult when they have to digest a boatload of information for a long period. Many ADD students are allowed to record their classes in addition to taking notes. Were you not given that opportunity? I love these videos as well, because they are short and focus on the main idea from start to finish - plus, I never heard of so many of these tragic occurrences. I haven't been a student for decades (yeah, I'm old), never had ADD but I definitly get your point, even tho' some commenters don't unless they suffer with ADD or have kin that does.
@hey it's pete ik theyre all so cringe and have "pick me" energy
I enjoyed this video three blocks away from where the events unfolded in Hoboken, NJ. You wouldn't even know there was a bustling series of piers here these days.
It’s terrifying when you’re sitting on a bench watching YT before a bar crawl and realize, “shit, that was right here”.
We humans only seem to learn the hard way, don't we? Another fantastic video.
considering the lost experimental sub trying to explore the titanic, yes. even then we fail to learn the lesson.
The only way to learn is to make a mistake. If you make no mistakes then you know everything on the subject. "The hard way" is literally the _only_ way to learn.
@@pigpukesure. And the best way is to learn by watching OTHER people learn the hard way 😂
@@marcomoreno6748 I don't disagree with that. "A smart man learns from his mistakes, a genius learns from _another_ man's mistakes." - Unknown
My great grandfather often spoke of this tragedy with a heavy heart. They lived less than a mile from the docks.He and many of his neighbors worked on the docks.He lost some co workers but he escaped unscathed.Thank you for bringing this dark history moment to us.
How terrible! Must have been awful for families of the missing, never knowing if they were in the mass grave or lost in the sea 😢
Thank goodness for DNA. I'm not certain if there's been an effort for this particular incident, but many "mass graves for the nameless" are being unearthed and the dead are finally being given proper identification.
@@Unownshipper
Such a waste of time and resources. I can't imagine how it could possibly matter at this late date.
@@Lucinda_Jackson It's neither. On a practical level, it helps verify the accuracy of the methods and technology used in the fields of DNA forensics, archaeological digs, etc. It also helps train scientists (both new recruits and seasoned veterans) with field work. Instead of tragically waiting for someone to die, they can gain experience in identification using these freely available bodies in these mass graves.
On a secondary level, it brings closure to descendants of the dead and helps historians gain a more accurate understanding of the event.
Lastly, and most important of all, you're a shortsighted scumbag and ought to be ashamed of your callousness and lack of imagination.
@@Lucinda_JacksonClosure for surviving family, improvement of DNA technology, practice for the scientists
@@dr-amethyst-77
😄 Okay. There are no surviving relatives who are even aware of these peoples' existences unless there's a member of the Methuselah family there, so there's nobody to give closure to. This is NOT how DNA technology is advanced. As for "practice" for scientists? Nope.
Really enjoyed learning about this. Reminds me of the Great Baltimore Fire of February 1904. Destroyed over 31 city blocks, destroyed or damaged over 2500 buildings, took almost 1300 fireman to combat, and the mayor at the time refused all outside aid to rebuild. Such a wild story.
Or like the infamous Great Chicago Fire: The source of ignition for the first fire reported could not be determined, and it spread quickly thanks to high winds and buildings made mostly of wood. Heck, lots of major cities in the U.S. that exisited during the 1800's suffered at least one catstrophic fire within their city limits at one point or another before modern fire codes were adopted.
I grew up in Chicago and didn't know Baltimore had burned. I knew about San Francisco.
Thanks for all you do. These people's names would have been lost, had you not kept them alive in your videos, and subsequently, our memories.
Quit lyin
Name 3 off the top of your head.
I'm from Belgium and I learned about this tragedy from a Native American who worked at the Bowling Green National Museum Of The American Indian while I was in NYC in 2007 and who had done research and made a documentary about the inheritance and history of settlements on both of the banks of the Hudson. Despite official explanations saying otherwise, this guy told me that the village of Hoboken (which is also a village Next to Antwerp in Belgium) was indeed started by Belgians. He also told me about lots of other stuff includung the 1900 disaster fire.
As a NYer, I can't tell you how much I love how you say "Hoboken".
I can't decide if this means he was pronouncing it wrong. 😂 I grew up near Philly, and always heard it pronounced with the first syllable being stressed. But then, this fits into one of those "You know you grew up in [place] when" memes. For me, it's "Lancaster" and "Lebanon," PA. Outsiders always pronounce them wrong. :P
(For anyone wondering, they both have emphasis on the first syllable as well. LANcaster--although the a is almost long--and LEBanin)
@@veryberry39 HO-bo-ken is how you usually hear it pronounced.
Very interesting! Decades ago I was helping a friend organize a party and we went to Hoboken to buy the liquor and brews at a wholesale warehouse directly on the Hudson. Somewhere in the vicinity I remember reading a modest commemorative placard in homage to the 1900 fire. It was numbered but no names of the victims who perished.
Incidentally, the house where Frank Sinatra was born was nearby too.
This is rapidly becoming my favorite disaster docu channel
There was indeed much (well-deserved) criticism of tugboat companies after this fire.
Even that long ago the official line regarding the order of proceedings was: The preservation of human life, the preservation of animal life (tho mainly due to its monetary value and the fact it was difficult to insure rather than humane reasons) and, lastly, the preservation of infrastructure.
This was the first time that this was largely ignored directly in front of witnesses and reporters resulting in an almost universal condemnation of the companies for their placing the value of material objects over that of human life (the loss of animals being restricted to a few pets on the liners).
A lot changed after this fire and all of it for the better.
As a native New Jersey resident I never knew this happened. Truly shocking. Thank you for putting together this video.
I’m a fan of ocean liners and I have never heard of this event. Thank you again for the great content!
Ditto! I'd no idea how close the KWdG came to disaster as a result of this incident. That said, did you notice the error in the video? The image of the Bremen is not the 1896 vessel that was gutted in the fire (and later rebuilt, surviving WW1 to be awarded to P&O as a war prize) but the much larger 1928 ship of the same name.
You’re so good at what you do brother - would love to see more uploads of less well known tragedies.
Recommend the story and history of the Port Arthur massacre - Australia’s last mass shooting
Last? Huh color me intrigued, I to now want this to be covered here.
@@screaming_cat2007 this channel is more about engineering disasters. Def read up on what happened in ‘96 in Port Arthur (sorry, don’t know any channels/vids to recommend to ya for that event)
@@shards0fwords reading up on as soon as I can but thank you for the information
@@screaming_cat2007 After it all firearms were banned in Australia. So such a shooting could not happen again.
Ozymandius
1) You spake "such a shooting could not happen again." I'll buy that it's less likely, but do you really think it's impossible? There are various illegal means that a person could use to obtain a gun, and people who intend to commit mass murder aren't going to respect gun bans.
2) As I understand it, the murder rate in Australia was going down already. It then increased somewhat before continuing the downward trend. In other words, any decrease was probably going to happen anyway, and there were probably more murders instead of fewer acter the gun ban. This is explainable by the fact that criminals like to target defenseless people, and there were more of them after the gun ban. Gun owners can prevent themselves (and their families) from being victimized, sometimes without even injuring the perpetrator.
3) I'm a resident of a rural area in Canada. Every home here has guns. This not only prevents crime (as any potential home invader would know that they would be at high risk of being shot), but we find guns to be necessary tools to deal with dangerous animals. As Australia is famous for having many different kinds of dangerous animals, I can't help but wonder how they are dealing with a gun ban in rural areas. My best guess is they suffer because of it, but city people neither know nor care, as that seems to be the way of city people.
4) I don't consided myself mighty, but I look on your words and do feel some despair.
All of FH’s videos about planes and ships especially his narrations need to be archived and displayed in museums!!
I've been waiting for a long time for you to do this one. I'm most pleased that you have done so.
I do recall reading an account of this disaster, in which they spoke of "people trapped inside the ships, pleading for help, waving to catch the attention of would-be Rescuers, and then being roasted alive inside the hull of the ship which glowed red-hot from the conflagration..."
3:54 Wrong Bremen. North German Lloyd owned three ships with this name, the one in the photo is the Bremen built in 1929.
Once again you have done a masterful job of bringing a disaster to life. Your research and your respectful delivery are the best. Thank you for bringing this to light. Cheers Pat in NewJersey
I'm from NJ too (Bergen County) and this is the first time I've heard this story. It's awful!
Woke up by chance at 2:40 a.m., checked my phone to see when the snow will start falling, saw a message that a friend of mine had died, and came to youtube for virtual escape from my own thoughts. This story is harrowing, imagining all those people having to jump into the water when they knew they weren't able to swim. And it's easy to imagine the horror of watching from safety, desperately wanting to help but hindered by flames, water, and circumstances. [I am only slightly abashed that I saw the title and thought of Bugs Bunny saying, "Hoboken! Ooo, I'm dyyyyin'!"]
Jesus christ when did Bugs Bunny say that?
@@bradsanders407 Sorry, I misquoted the rabbit. What he actually said was, "Hoboken!? Ooo, I'm dyyyin' again!" In the cartoon "8 Ball Bunny," Bugs promises to take a lost penguin home --- cartoon antics ensue (including humorous cameos by Humphry Bogart). And don' forget, "Pen-gu-ins is practically chickens..."
@@brettwalker2723 Yikes. That is a good (and frightening) point.
@@brettwalker2723 I watched an inordinate amount of cartoons as a child! : D
Great episode as always. Would love to see one on the Iron Worker's Memorial Bridge in BC, Canada.
YES! That was very horrific. Aka second narrows bridge.
The loss of life was iirc steep ~50(??) Lives.
Very little known event even in Vancouver.😢
No documentaries on it!
Yes! I've been asking all my favorite disaster creators to cover this one. I grew up there and know very little about it.
This is one channel that I drop anything I happen to be doing to watch! I love the theme song too! I used to hate history class, but thanks to You, Iron Maiden and the like, I am totally involved in wanting to learn! Thank you!
Wow, another one I had never heard of. Thank you for bringing to remembrance these disasters.
A terrible tragedy, thankyou for informing us in a compassionate and factual manner.
wish these were longer! but that just means i can watch more of your videos and learn some incredibly awful events!!
It is amazing how you bring light to these unknown stories!
This disaster happened less than three months before the great Galveston hurricane of 1900 and less than three years before the fire on the better known in New York of the General Slocum so it has become almost forgotten by time and everyone.
Wow, I grew up and spent my first 26 years in Jersey City, and also went to school in Hoboken. Never heard this story, thank you so much for sharing!
I’m a New Jersey citizen and I’ve never heard of this before! How have I never heard of this before?!
History has NEVER been so well explained.
Horrible Histories is boring after watching ....Fascinating Horror
As long as humans be human, you will never run out of content.
I just looked up Horrible Histories and I don't understand who has the patience to watch that childish garbage.
It's meant for kids
Blowing up the river to "dislodge dead bodies" is one of those candidates for the "most American thing I've ever heard" list.
i live in north bergen which is a stones throw from hoboken...my grandparents immigrated to hoboken from italy but not until the late 1910's i always knew of the docks but never knew of this tragedy..rip to all those helpless people..what a tradegy..
The perks of randomly waking up in the middle of the night!
USA moment
Yep
yup! 😊
Perks of being an Aussie!
Your stories are very well told. The pictures shown send more than a few chills down my spine. Never heard of this one, but I find all these fascinating. Currently going through your maritime playlist. Thank you for educating us.
Never knowing what happened to a loved one and never being able to say goodbye seems especially cruel....💔
I had never heard of this one. Thanks again for all the research and brilliant presentation.
Thank you so much for covering yet another historic disaster. I had never even heard of this one and I live in New York (state).
Another well-produced and educational film. Thanks so much.
It is well known in commerce that cotton bales are spontaneously combustible, especially (and ironically) when wet. Mold and bacteria will grow, which generates enough heat to ignite the bale. Hay will also do this.
Great video. Very interesting and informative. My grandfather worked on the docks in the 1930. I never heard about this fire. Thanks for doing the video on the place where I was born. Love your videos ❤😊
Little correction: The picture at 3:57 shows the SS Bremen launched in 1928 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Bremen_(1928)). The actual ship damaged was this one: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_(Schiff,_1897)
Excellent piece of history! Narrated to perfection! Kudos, RiP all who lost their lives, and there poor loved ones .
So well done, thank you for the work you put into these.
Great content. I grew up near Philadelphia and went to the Jersey shore many times, and you'd never know about the docks.
What part of the Jersey shore did you visit? I suspect most shore towns south of Seaside Heights would have (m)any connections to the docks in North Jersey.
Thank you for the upload!!!!! Always excited to see a new video from you!!!! Best on youtube!!!!!
You should look into the Rhodes Opera House Fire from my hometown of Boyertown PA! Reason for outward opening doors
I'm going to go look that up.
I've never heard of this disaster before and I've been to Hoboken a few times. Thanks!
Always a Favourite. Thanks so much !!
This was ive years atr Butte, MT was nearly wiped out by an explosion or two, which is just as fascinating, if not weird. The late 1800s/early 1900s seemed a hotbed for fires and explosions really
All regulations are written in blood, and a lot of blood was spilled in these disasters from the 1800s and early 1900s.
Stunning. I was raised in Hudson County, my family members were teamsters, worked on the docks in Weehawken, North Bergen & I don't think anyone even heard of this horror (which is creepily reminiscent of 9/11). PS With the NYC accent it's pronounced HOboken, just fyi.
Sorry to say I have never heard of this. That first picture of the blaze is ominously terrifying.
Get paid, keep pumping these out they are gaining major traction / will pay out HUGE in the future
Very interesting. I live nearby here, so I’ll have to go stand by the docks and contemplate this disaster.
Really interesting video! I wonder why the initial response wasn’t just to dump the burning cargo into the water
The tightly compacted bales of cotton can combust and will smolder for days depending on the size.
The porthole thing sounds terrifying.
Happened on the Morrow Castle in the Thirties too. Lots of bodies were found stuck halfway through ooen portholes where they'd tried escaping the flames in their cabins. Nightmarish stuff.
@@rich_edwards79 I watched a video on the Morrow Castle immediately after I read your message.
Thanks for educating us on this tragedy. The only silver lining to this event is safety improvements that benefit later generations.
Your channel is so awesome. I am always stoked when a new video comes out. I have never heard of Hoboken fire. It's nice to see new content I have never heard of before. One I haven't seen ANYONE do is the 1895 explosions of Butte, Montana. I would love to hear your take on that one
It's so sad that many couldn't swim. I can doggie paddle at the least. Such a horrible tragedy started by something as simple as cotton.
As an aficionado of disasters I'm surprised that I've never heard of this. Thanks.
For future (and viewer) reference, both Hoboken and Weehawken are pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable. Always happens when people make videos about the Matawan shark attacks too 😅
Does that apply to Secaucus as well?
@@mateuszmattias Nope! The emphasis in Secaucus is on the second syllable. "seh-KAW-kus"
@@brettwalker2723 Ohhh I imagine that one starts to get annoying
@@SallyJaySparrow Thanks, for me as a non-american but who travels extensively in the US it's kind of tricky with some names, especially ones of native american origin. For example in Pittsburgh where the Ohio begins at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. And don't even mention a place like Schenectady. I love those names although for a long time I didn't know how to pronounce them.
But there are also some others of European origin. Like it took a while before I found out how to correctly pronounce the numerous towns named Decatur.
@@mateuszmattias For sure! Most people will know what you mean so long as you're close enough, but some of them really don't sound how they look. And some take their names from European places but pronounce it completely different. Versailles, Kentucky is "ver-sails"
little issue, the "Bremen" used here is the 1929 one, (first what I consider "TRUE" superliner of the 1920s-30s "arms race")
otherwise great and harrowing tale as per ususal!
I was going to point out this same gaffe.
True, it was also the fastest ocean liner on the trans-atlantic route at the time
I love the music. It has a great beat, but it's also creepy.
I LOVE these videos. Fascinating, indeed! Thank you!
Your channel is one of my very favorites. The stories are always well done, and super interesting. Nice work!
Pictures and drawings of the disaster convey some of the horror, imagine the smell, the heat and noise of everything. It would have been terrible
Great, respectful as always
yu always give great info on these things love yur videos
My grandfather came to States- Hoboken-on the Bremen from Germany, but in the 1920s. Crewed his way here.
Whoop whoop new vid!
It’s crazy how quickly the fire spread, but it certainly proves how flammable the most innocent seeming material can be. Even sugar can be highly combustible.
I thought more people could swim in those days, what a tragic loss of lives
Still sadly true. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are populated with communities that largely have not had the opportunity for swimming experience or leasons to this day.
@@CJ-Giddyup209 I never knew that. I'm from south Asia and I'm a very good swimmer and majority of the people I know can swim. Tbh my country is an Island and has soooo many rivers and waterways, it's no wonder. I guess the countries you mean are mostly inland lands and have a few waterways or its costly to take swimming lessons
I lived in Hoboken for three years and never knew about this. I still live in the area and know of no memorial on the site. I shall have to check out that memorial at the cemetery, however.
Printed almanac books totally overlooked this one. Wow.
An amazing little remembered tragedy. Thanks for keeping alive the memories of those lost.
Thanks for uploading the videos a bit earlier, it means I don't need to remain up as late just to see the latest one. From New Zealand by the way, so the videos come up late evening. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your April Fools one next year.
Some of my great-grandparents immigrated to the United States on the Main, a few years after this disaster so after it was rebuilt, and others on Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Incredible history here.
Wrong Bremen at 3:56. This is the Weimar Republic era ocean liner, which was, ironically enough destroyed by a fire in 1943. The Bremen in question survived and was seized by the british after WW1 and scrapped in 1929. It is a two funnel liner as well but with well under a quarter of the tonnage and a 1900s straight bow
I wonder how heavy the individual cotton bales on the pier were on that fateful day?
Can't help but wonder if it would have been possible to simply push the smoldering bale off into the harbor before the fire had time to spread. Even a heavy 500lb bale could have theoretically been moved by a few strong men.
RIP to everyone who lost their lives.
I look forward to Tuesdays just so I can see your newest video.
Just a heads-up, the Bremen you show in the video is a newer ship of that name (1929).
I live near Hoboken and indeed, reading about this disaster is wild. Hell, its like the train explosion incident in Liberty State Park in Jersey City back during the time of WWI
don't know why these help me sleep, but they do
When a fire starts to burn, there's a lesson you must learn. Something something then you'll see, you'll avoid catastrophe. D'oh.
I remember this, did lots of mud larking to earn a wage and after the fires quite a few valuable items would frequently wash up
They can predict what you will think of before you do some how. Just creepy weird, like Facebook showing you ads of stuff you were thinking about but hadn't even spoken a word out loud, so unless they're able to read your mind then it's more like talking about certain things to lead you to think about a certain thing they want you to think about.
Another great piece. Thank you. I'd like to have been in the room when someone asked how they could retrieve the bodies from the river bed and someone suggested dynamite. It seems at the turn of the 19th / 20th century, if something was difficult, just try dynamite. Not that it ever worked.
That was something that was done frequently in that era - not necessarily dynamite, but things like cannons. It was apparently a belief that it'd help raise a submerged body by affecting it in some way and making it float. In 1900, it was probably still believed to do something, so they used dynamite instead of outdated cannons.
I live in the area, and I’d never heard of this event. I’ll have to look for the plaque next time I’m in Hoboken.
A common thread in many of these videos is humans’ lack of foresight and imagination. Looking back, we see conditions that add up to a disaster waiting to happen-failure to segregate highly flammable materials, locked exit doors, lack of fire safety training, and so on. Yet people ignored such factors, or decided that reducing risks wasn’t worth the cost. I wonder what disasters will occur in the future because we don’t recognize and manage potential dangers.
I hadn't heard of this one.Thank you for another excellent account. 👍
Been awhile since I’ve heard about this event, keep up the great work you do man. Take care!
It’s crazy. I’d like to see a poll for about how many people know how to swim. I think I may know one person who doesn’t know how to swim.
Your pronunciation of Hoboken is adorable and so British.
Another great video! I really think you should look into doing a video on the Wellington train disaster in Washington State - it's right up your alley! The deadliest avalanche in US history.