St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-06-22
Narrowing Scenes in the
East River
Graphically Described by Sergeant on the New
York Police Force.-The Bravery of the Res
cuers and the Indescrbab1e Horror of
it A11.-Fixing the Blame

Readers of the CALIFORNIAN are especial
ly fortunate in having presented to them
the story of the Gen. Slocum disaster by
an eye witness, a brave officer who went
from Waterford to the metropolis and
who is well remembered by many in this
section. The Gen. Slocum had about
14OO excursionists on board that day,
mostly women and children, the occasion
being the annual excursion of the ST..
Marks German Lutheran church. When
above 125th street flames were discover
ed, having ignited from some hay thrown
carelessly into the waste room just be-
fore the boat started. The captain
drove the vessel three miles before beach
ing her and in the meantime hundreds
were drowned or burned to death by the
flames. Mr.. Mason's letter describes the
narrowing scenes after the vessel was
Decentralization.
To THE EDITOR:
DEAR SIR:-At II a. M, June Is,
hurry call came to my station house for
reserves to report to Port Morris forth
with" Fire on an excursion boat" In
less time than it takes to write, 20
patrolmen and myself were in patrol
wagon galloping to the scene of disaster.
When we reached Port Morris there was
the steamer General Slocum ablaze with
fire, and sinking, quarter of a mile
from shore. We boarded a tug boat
with several ambulance surgeons apd
10 o1o of
her with about 10 other crafts.
The water was strewn with living and
dead bodies. The burning ship, the
shrieks of the women, and the p1teous
cries of the children and babies was a
painful spectacle. But work had to be
done and quickly. too, so we loaded up
by catching bodies with boat-hooks and
pulling them aboard. Several of the
young patrolmen did heroic work, as
well as a number of deck hands and
boatmen on the various crafts.
They dove into the water many times.
Each time body came up near our tug,
if out of reach of a boat-hook, someone
would dive in after it, so as to save them
if alive. The same was done on the
other rescuipg crafts.
bicycle patrolman from the 36th
precinct Jumped in four times and caught
a body each time, but unfortunately the
surgeons could not revive them when
pulled on board. The same officer was
anxious to jump in again, but he was
exhausted and 1 forbade him.
With J;S+opca IF E0 feet from Mort
Brother Island it was easier to wade out
from the island and tow the bodies
ashore with the aid of row boats than to
pull them on tugs and take them to
mainland. We steamed for Port Morris
with Is dead bodies, one we thought
was dead was revived by surgeon and
we had a number rescued alive. The
bodies were removed with others and
brought to mainland to the 35th pre-
cnct station house, about 40 all told
All the other dead bodies, after that
were towed on to North Brother Island
and later removed to the morgue.
Many boats were arriving on the
scene. The police boat, "The Steamer
PATROL and all her auxiliaries, and tn,
fire boat, "Zophar Mills" came 10 miles
distance and hundred other crafts, al
sizes, from a row boat up, from othe
city departments and elsewhere, all anx
ious to lend a helping hand. Five hund
red patrolmen, 800 doctors and surgeon
on duty on land and water and 200 lad
nurses, 100 hremen, and on the mainlan
40 ambulances, 35 patrol wagons an,
several express wagons loaded with bar
dages, gauze, etc, from hospitals. w
again filled our tugboat, which wa
scorched from the FIRE, with nurses, su:
geons and policemen, and landed al til
pier of North Brother Island and hurrie
to the grass on the northern extremity
There were at least 100 dead bodies O
the grass and fully so persons, men an
women, wading in the water, rescuin
people and searching for the dead Or
nurse, daring swimmer, swan GU
way over her head and saved three lit
children. Two patrolmen on board tt
fated steamer saved 25 women and chi
dren by pulling them into the island.
At 1890 the burning ship sank cles
down. There was nothing abo,
the water but her srnokestacks and sma
masts.
Many bodies were burned and di
figured beyond recognition. Sever
bodies were recovered of mothers WI
had clutched their babies tight in the
arms. Many bodies were found in tt
paddle-wheel, and one little girl found
the port hole.
All the afternoon policemen and othe