Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-06-21


to Death in the whirlpooIs.
Nearly 900 persons persisted in
the burning of the crowded excur-
sion steamer, General Slocum, in the
East River at New York Wednesday
morning. The disaster is the most
terrible since the Iroquois Theater fire
horror in Chicago Like the Iroquois
fire, it was a slaughter of the limo
cents, as more than half those on
board the Inflated boat were children.
The steamer, carrying the Sunday
school excursion of st. Marks German
Lutheran Church, caught fire in the
East River, off He'll Gate, and vas
burned to the waters edge
The excursionists were members Of
an Evangelical Lutheran Church. The
great triple-decked excursion steamer
which for years has piled between
New York and Rockaway Beach was
crowded with the gay crowd when it
left its pier. Children, women and
scattering of men thronged the upper
decks. The hurricane deck was
thronged, the middle deck packed and
the lower deck filled.
The fire broke out just as the excur-
sionists aboard, tho Slocum had finally
settled down to enjoy their ride
through the picturesque He'll Gate and
up the Sound to their picnicking
grounds. A brass band was clashing
out one of the latest popular airs and
the children were singing and dane
ing. Flags were flying from every
staff of the great boat. More than
one tugbOat or steamboat pilot turned
around in his wheelhouse as he swept
by the General SIocum to watch the
gay and joyous crowd.
AS many of the women and children
as possible were crowded together in
thick, huddled masses on the hurricane
deck when the flames broke out The
first sweep Of the flames not only cut
off escape from this hurricane deck of
the big boat, but also burned away the
light wooden work on which it was
erected Many of these people who
had been sitting on the hurricane deck
must have been burned to death in
the blazing furnace which roared I'M
derneath.
Within a few seconds after the first
of Hn mo and SuOOiro tho nanny
crowds of people were turned into
mad, fighting mob. Mothers tried to
save their children and We're torn from
them by other mothers in search of
their children. Men fought together
and everything was in wild tumult.
The excursion boat, wrapped in
flames and smoke and with the people
on board fighting and screaming in
panic and distress. was finally ground
ed on the northwest spit of North
Brothers Island. There some of the
passengers managed to make their es-
cape
When the boat was beached it was
ablaze from stem to stern and prac-
tically Quilted out. What could be seen
of the rails and guards on the decks
of the boat showed that they had been
splintered and torn as the crowds on
board fought in their mad panic. They
showed also that numbers of people
jumped or were pushed from the decks
to death as the boat went up the
river
Thousands See the Disaster.
The disaster waS witnessed by thou
sands Of people from both shores of
the river, ana rs rapidly as possible
hundreds of small boats and launches
set OF to render assistance. With the
boat burning under his feet the cap
tain stuck TO his post in the pilot
house and the engineer remained at
mis- post below deck until the boat was
beached at the lower end of North
Brother Island of Port Norris.
Even then the pass -ngers were not
in safe position. for they were some
distance from shore and the boat waa
a furnace. Hundreds of small boats
were scattered about and picked up
those who jumped overheard as rapid
ly as possible.
An eyewitness said that the great
est loss of life was due TO the collaps-
ing of the heavy upper deck. 1t fell
with a crash soon after the fire start
ed. crushing hundreds of persons who
had gathered on the lower deck. 1t
was then that the greatest panic en-
sued amid the living stream of per-
sons going over the rail into the water.
AS far as eye-witne Sses can deter
mine, the flames originated on the
forward part of the boat. Persons
who saw the accident from the shore
say that almost instantly persons who
occupied places on the forward deck
began to jump overheard
All the boats ut North Brother ISL
and were sent TO the assistance of the
people in the water and as fast as
they were brought ashore they were
cared for in the pavilions there. The
patients in the hospitals on the island
became almost insane from frisiIt.
\ large part of the crowd on the
doomed steamer were children. and
there was little hope for them after
they had gone overheard. The cur
rent in the East River at this point
is very strong and scores of little ones
were sucked in by the whirlpools at
He'll Gate One man who went out
In rowboat said that he saw at least
fifty children perish in these whlrl-
p0ols before he could reach them. Ii
was estimated that the steamer ear
RED more than 1900 persons. She was
the largest excursion steal-er in these
waters aud could carry $500