The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-17


 You will also make such changes in the rules as are recommended by the committees and you will therefore call q special meeting of the board of supervising inspectors for this pur- pose. You will also lay before the congress a request that the law be changed in the various particulars rec commended by the committed. I wish particular emphasis laid upon the pro- posal of the committee that there be created by law special body thor oughly to investigate the laws which are supposed to provide for the safety of passengers on steamboats, especial- ly on excursion boats. where the prime cause of danger are the overcrowding and the fiimsy and highly infammable character of the structures.
 T am very truly yours.
 Theodore Roosevlt.
 Hon. H. V. Metcalf
 Secretary of Commerce and Labor"
 The reports state that the General Siocum was owned by the Knicker- booker Steamboat Company. a New York corporations; that the Siocum was last inspected by Henry Lundberg and Jno. w. Fleming, May 5, 1904, and that the current certificate of inspection at tho time of the disaster was Issued May 6, by James A. Dumont, Inspector of HuIIs, and Thomas H. Barrett, Inspec- tor of Boilers. the Board of Local In spectors. at tho port of New York. In describing the siocum the report says 1t was constructed entirely Of wood, that the upper works were in highly inflammabie condition and there were no fireproof matches or bulkheads. The committee states that there are many similar vessels doing service in the United States the construction of which is quite as dangerous.
 Regarding the origin of the Ire, the report states that the cabin where the blaze was discovered was filled with ir- fiammable material, including q large amount of oil.
 The condition of this cabin, with the purposes for which 1t was used. the re- port recites, ''constitutes one of the es- sential facts of negligence contributed to the disaster"
 Speaking of the fire fighting appa- ratus the report says:
 "The forward valve and stand pipe were supplied with 100 foot length of cheap, unlined linen hose, costing probably less than 20 cents foot. age unknown, but probably several years oid."
 s.The rest of the fire apparatus on the main deck is said to have consisted
  pipe, two hand fire pumps and some twenty buckets. None of the remain ing apparatus was used and the buck cts were empty"
 It is stated further that the linen fire hose attached to the forward stand pipe burst in two or three places, and was blown off from Its own coupling with the standpipe.
 Tribute Is paid to Assistant Engineer I-R who remained at their posts, Continu- | ing the report says:
 '"The evidence before the committee 1 establishes the fact that the master made no attempt whatsoever to fight 1 the ffre. to examine its seonditiof,s or 70 l control. assure. direct or aid the pas l sengers in any way whatever. It is al- legged that he was unable to reach the place where the passengers were by reason of the fire, but this Is contra l dicted by the evidence of many wilt nesses and Is obviously not true. 'In a less degree, the pilots. in the l same manner. after bleaching the boat and while there was still many passen- l gers on board. failed in their duty to | assist and rescue said passengers"
 The committee expresses the opinion | that men in the pilot house had knowl- edge of the fire in time to have beach, | ed the vessel. either in Little Hell Gate | or to the westward of the Sunken Meadows, or in Bronx Hills to the east ward of the Sunken Meadows, instead, as the committee states, of pursuing a | course which drove the flames aft and delayed bleaching longer than neces- I sary.
 The committee sharply criticizes the | entire fire fighting apparatus, saying:
 There is q strong probability that l the fire would have been controlled had the fire hose been of required statutory stiblgth."
 Many of the life preservers. it is stated, were bad, and further. that only small per cent of the passengers used them.
 'The inefficiency and poor quality of l the deck crew of the vessel, doubtless | typical of the majority of the crews on | excursion steamers" says the report 'it is of the essential facts that caused | so many deaths. While 1t Is true that | 1t Is the business of the Steamboat In- | spection Service to see that proper safe ! ty appliances as required by law are provided. this by no means relieves the owners from a similar legal and moral obligation. nor from the liability for the maintenance of proper crew dIscip- line. The committee is of the opinion that the owners of the General Slocum are censurable in high degree for the inadequate and improper conditions prevailing on board the vessel" Local Inspectors Worthless. The committee made an Investiga- ton of the workings of the steamboat inspection in New York. The commit tee says in connection with the ser vice in New York that the local i'm spectors were interpreting their du- ties in several respects in a manner not justified by the statues. that the requirements as to the testing of fire hose on passenger steamers was dis regarded; that the assistant inspectors made no pressure test of fire hose except such as was incidental In the use of such hose for testing boilers; that they uniformly reported the hose in good condition" that the local in. spectors accepted the reports of their assistants without personal knowledge and the rule which requires that a vessels equipment shall be inspected jointly by the inspectors was not en- forced.
 As a result, the committee states that the life saving apparatus was of: ten in extremely bad condition. The committee recommends thorough re- organization of the force of assistant inspectors with view of eliIninating all who have demonstrated incompes tency and continuing says:
 Tt is undeniable that the local board In this port did not do it's duty, up- on the supervising inspector there fore, must rest a large share of re- anon aihf1ifu for fha avtstaoon of th.