The Penn's Grove record., 1904-06-17
EXCURSION STEAMER
BURNED, CAUSING
AWFUL Loss OF LIFE
The General Slocum Destroyed
by Fire in the East River,
Off New York City.

Flames, Some Drown and
Others Crushed in the En-
suing Panic.
New York City.-With awful loss of
life the big excursion steamboat Gen
eral Slocum was destroyed by fire at
the entrance to Long Island Sound.
She had on board a big Sunday-school
excursion from st. Marks Church in
East Sixth street. There were more
than 1000 children on the boat. Be
sides there were probably 500 adults,
mostly women.
The boat caught fire in He'll Gate and
the flames had complete control before
any move could be made to check
them. Frightful scenes of panic and
death followed.
1t was impossible to run the boat
ashore there and the captain kept her
headed toward North Brother Island.
Nothing could be done in the way of
launching boats, and as the flames ad-
vanced the passengers began to jump
overheard. They went into the river
by the hundred.
In a few minutes the boat was a
moving craft of fire. The smoke from
from the blaze and from her stacks
spread Ove Harlem and drew thou
sands to the shore. With Mortified
eyes these people saw men, women and
children leaping overheard. In the
wake of the burning steamboat were
black spots on the surface of the water,
each spot representing a person dying.
With the boat burning under his feet
the captain stuck to his post in the pi-
dollhouse and. with flames roaring over
head, the engineer remained at his post
below until the boat was beached at
the lower end of North Brother Island,
off Port Morris.
Even there the passengers were not
in a safe position, for they were far
from shore and the boat was a furnace.
Every tug and launch and other craft
in the vicinity crowded after the burn
ing steamboat, but had there been hun
dreds of tugs the task of picking up
those in the water would have been
too much. After the boat was beached
it is estimated that 500 persons leaped
into the water.
From the offices Of the Delevan Man.
%ufacturing Company, at One Hundred
and Thirty-eighth street and Port
Morris, which is right on the river
front, the entire tragedy was seen by
scores of people. The secretary of the
company said:
1.-THE greatest loss of life is due to
the collapsing of the heavy upper deck.
1t fell with a crash soon after the fire
started, coming down on the heads Of
the hundreds who were gathered in
little frightened groups on the lower
deck.
1.-The scene that followed was awful.
Dozens of women and children were
crowded overheard, and we could see
them struggling in the water. The
river was soon crowded with floating
bodies. Boats were sent out from here
to the rescue, but they only picked up
dead bodies.
when we first saw the steamer she
was only ablaze in front, and there
was still some merry-making in the
rear, where the people didn't seem to
know anything of their danger. They
soon found out about it, though, for
the flames spread with great rapidity.
Some jumped off as SoOn as the fire
started, but most of those, it seemed to
us, who were thrown in the water,
were forced from the lower deck by
the collapse of the upper deck"
The fire started at about 10 o'clock
and by IL o'clock almost 200 bodies
had been stretched out on the plaza
on North Brother Island. There were
then from twenty-five to thirty row.
boats and launches in the river picking
up bodies and rescuing such as were
still alive. The police then put the
loss of life at 500, at least.
After the General Slocum was dis
covered to be on fire she thumped her
way heavily up stream for a half mile,
collapsed and went ashore ON North
Brother Island in less than fifteen min
utes.
There was a church excursion on
board of from 1000 to $500 persons.
There were very few men among
them. Children were in the great ma
jority. The excursion was conducted
by the st. Marks Lutheran Church,
Of 1923 Sixth street. 1t started from
the foot of Third street at 8 o'clock a.
m. The steamboat, which was a triple
decker, seemed to have all the passen-
gers it could accommodate.
AS soon as the news Of the great
disaster spread through the Lower
East Side, st. Marks Church, in Sixth
street, was besieged with an anxious
and grief stricken throng that wanted
to know the details. Nearly all in the
crowd had relatives ON board the Gen.
eral Slocum.
AS the first stories of the fire came
in, the emotions of the crowd were in
tensified until nearly all were weeping
and wringing their hands. The full
extent of the horror became known
when a report came i'll from Police
Headquarters that there were at least