The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-06-29
HELD FOR
1881 DEATHS
SlOcum Directors Response
bic for Disaster.
CORONER'SJURY VERDICT
Warrants Issued for the Arrest of
Company Officials and Boat
Officers.

NEW YORK, June 29.-Aftcr full
investigation the coroner's jury last
night found verdict holding every
person directly concerned in the Gen.
eral SlOcum horror criminally responsi.
bic for the loss of the lives of the ex.
cursionists who perlshed in the disas.
ter
Those directly blamed by the jury
were; Frank A. Barnaby, president Of
the Knick Steamboat compa.
ny; j. X. Atkinson, secretary of the
company; all Of the directors, Captain
William II. Van Schaick, Mate Edward
Flanagan and Henry LundbeFg, as
sistant United States steamboat in
spectOr who approved the fire fighting
apparatus Of the boat before she was
placed in commission in May.
Flanagan was denounced for cow
ardice and for failure to perform his
duty. Lundberg was held TO have been
incompetent, careless and Indifferent.
The jury found that the existing sys-
TEN of steamboat inspection is very in
sufficient and recommended a radical
change by the department Of commerce
and labor.
Mr. Barnaby and Mr. Atkinson were
not on hand when the verdict against
them was read, so were not arrested,
but those who had remained in court
were placed under arrest upon the pre-
lmingrv pharUa pf roopalo ~ sshtar rTI,ax,
Were Flanagan and Lundberg
Captain Van Schaick, who is still in
a hospital suffering from severe
wounds, remained a prisoner in his
cot, but his status was changed from
that of detained witness TO that of a
person charged with crime, but still
under the same police surveillance.
w. II. Van Schaick, captain of the
General Slocum when it burned at the
entrance of the sound, with the loss of
more than a thousand lives, has testi-
fed at the inquest held by Coroner
Berry at New York. He was wheeled
into court in an invalid's chair and
his examination had to be interrupted
to allow him to recuperate. Other wit
nesses testified in the interval, one of
whom, the Slocum's candy counter
clerk, contradicted the captain to the
extent of saying that he had never
seen or taken part in fire drills on the
Slocum. The captain said that he had
held three on the boat this year, but
when asked TO say in what they con-
sisted replied that he could not tell ex-
actly.
Once under way Van Schaick an
swered most questions, sometimes aft
er temporizing, but generally as the
prosecutor wanted. He said that only
250 new life preseryers had been put
on board the Slocum since 1891, and
all that he recalled by way of repairs
to them was that new straps were put
on 300 last year. He told a whole lot
Of things that Federal Inspector Lund-
berg of the steamboat bureau did not
do. He said Lundberg, who refused
last week to testify at the inquest on
the ground that to do so might tend to
incriminate him, boarded the Slocum
this spring and examined maybe ten,
maybe hundred" Of the Slocum's life
belts. He did not inspect the hose,
Van Schsick said. nor test the life
boats and life RATS
When Van Schaick was told that the
district attorney had asked all the
questions he wanted to, the captain
turned to the jury and said:
II want you gentlemen to under
stand that 1 did all in my power that
could be done under the circumstances
at the time of the accident l could
not turn the boat and beach her any
sooner than did. l remained stand
ing in front of the pilot house until we
struck. Then l started to go down
stairs.
"a volcano of fire had broken out |
along the decks and was sweeping up
the stairways. l could not get down |
the stairs. Some one yelled, Jump for |
your life, captainP and then l jumped |
overheard. 1 struck in shallow water |
on the rocks and broke my knee. My |
clothes had been on fire. / was stun
ned.