I had this post card image for a number of years. In March 2009 Bob Alexander wrote that he had a version of the same postcard. In his version he was able to make out that the paddleboat on the right side was the Gen. Slocum.

Bob's email spurred me on to seek other images of the General Slocum. This view of the New York Harbor shows Ellis Island behind the General Slocum. I have not yet been able to identify the two buildings in the foreground.

The General Slocum

"The stricken General Slocum sinks into the Long Island Sound"

Printed on back;

General Slocum Disaster

1904 Flaming Horror on a Death Ship

June 15, 1904, dawned as one of those rare summer days that make New York City seem full of promise. And the Sunday School children of St. Mark's Lutheran Church were glad, because the Rev. George Haas had planned their annual picnic for that day. The children, their parents and their teachers were to board the steamship General Slocum, which would take them up Long Island Sound to Locust Grove on Huntington Bay. There they would eat lunch, play games, and have a great time.

The General Slocum, a typical excursion steamer of the day, had been built of wood in 1890. There were over 1,300 people aboard her as she pulled away from lower Manhattan at 9:40 A.M. The vessel steamed northward up the East River into the western end of the Long Island Sound. At 10:20, just 40 minutes after the Slocum had left her pier, fire broke out. A northerly breeze swept the flames rapidly toward the ship's stern, where the passengers huddled in terror. Capt. Willam Van Schaick beached the blazing steamer, now an inferno, on North Brother Island*, where her stern lay partly submerged in 30 feet of water. Many men, women and children were drowned as the leaped over the sides into the water; hundreds more died in the burning furnace of the hull when the hurricane deck collapsed. In all, 1021 were lost — making this one of the worst catastrophes in maritime history.

The entire nation was shocked, by the tragedy. President Theodore Roosevelt formed a special commission to investigate the disaster; there was also a New York coroner's inquest and a federal grand jury investigation. In the end it was found that the General Slocum's life preservers and fire-fighting equipment were not only inadequate but old and worn out, though they had recently been approved by government inspection. But it is doubtful than many lives would have been saved even if they had been new, since the fire spread through the old wooden hull so rapidly that few would have had time to outfit themselves before leaping into the water. The investigations did, however, lead to more stringent rules governing the inspection of passenger vessels.

A monument to the unidentified dead from the General Slocum still stands in the Old Lutheran Cemetery in Middle Village, Long Island. Th hulk itself was raised and rebuilt as a coal barge called the Maryland which was lost in a storm off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, on December 3, 1911.

Printed on back:

"On a sunny June morning in 1904, the General Slocum, an excursion boat, sailed from Manhattan's Third Street pier, bound for Long Island. Aboard the steamer was a local church group looking forward to a day of picnicking and fun. But just minutes after the Slocum left its dock, black smoke began pouring from the ship. Hay and cans of oil had somehow ignited in a supply room, and fire roared through the steamer. The burning of the Slocum proved to be one of the worst disasters on water in American history; 1,021 people — mostly women and children — were killed.

One error after another contributed to the day's tragedy. The ship's captain had not trained his crew to handle a fire. Lifeboats, tied to the ship with wire, could not be launched. Aging fire hoses burst when the water was turned on, and rotted life preservers sank like weights. Many people jumped overboard to escape the spreading flames and drowned.

The disaster shocked the nation, and President Theodore Roosevelt, ordered an investigation. As a result, a federal commission recommended that all new ships be built of steel and have fireproof wall.

Map showing the Course of the Burning Steamer

The Fire in Proress — Scene after the Collapse of the Hurricane-deck

The Steamer "General Slocum" Sinking off North Brothers Island after the Fire

A View of the "General Slocum" on fire off North Brother Island.

"As soon as word was received of the disaster, fireboats were at once hurried to the scene, where they attempted to put out the fire aboard the steamer and to rescue those who were imprisoned on her. At the moment the vessel went aground the hurricane-deck gave way, throwing many passengers, women and children, into the flames below, where rescue was impossible."

"View of the River Front, showing Bodies cast up on the Shore"

"Hospital Surgeons and Nurses attending the Injured"

"Another View of the Beach where the Bodies of Victims were Laid Out"

"Some of the Survivors, who were provided with Blankets from the Hospital on the Island"

The General Slocum Disaster Monument, Lutheran Cemetery Queens*

The General Slocum Disaster Monument, Tompkins Square Park, New York City

This fountain in memory of the victims of General Slocum disaster was erected in 1906 on the north end of Tompkin's Square Park.

Transcription of the articles on the Slocum disaster in the Brooklyn Eagle by Mimi Stevens at

BROOKLYN GENEALOGY INFORMATION PAGE

GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER Brooklyn Daily Eagle - June 15, 1904

See STEAMSHIP SEAWANHANKA DISASTER, JUNE 1880

GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER

Join NYC H2O as they sail aboard the historic tugboat Pegasus, retracing and recounting the ill fated last voyage of the Slocum. Michael Miscione, the Manhattan Borough Historian, will be the tour guide.