Unfasten Your Seatbelts

   Have you ever checked for the life preserver that's supposedly under your airplane seat? Don't worry, the plane's crew will have checked for them that morning before the first flight. Good thing too, because passengers sometimes take them for souvenirs.

   The fact that we have top quality life preservers on board is thanks in part to the sinking of the ferryboat General Slocum in New York Harbor in June, 1904. The General Slocum seemed to be a doomed ship from the time of her launching in 1891. Just four months after her launch she ran aground.  That wasn’t so bad. Tugs pulled her free and no one was hurt.

   In 1894 she ran aground twice and ran into a tug once, damaging her steering gear. Again, no one was hurt. In 1898, the General Slocum ran into another ship off the tip of Manhattan. No one was hurt. In August, 1901, some of the 900 intoxicated anarchists from New Jersey on board started a riot and tried to take over the vessel. The crew fought back and the captain was able to dock at the police pier where the ringleaders were arrested. In 1902 there was another grounding. The 400 passengers had to sleep on the deck till help arrived next morning.

   The horrible event that led to improved safety regulations occurred on June 15, 1904. On board that day were 1,328 parishioners from St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manhattan on their way to their annual picnic on Long Island. About a half hour into the trip, a fire broke out in the lamp room where the crew stored grease, oil and other flammables. 

   The curse of the Slocum came into full force as the crew attempted to fight the fire. First off, a 12 year old boy tried to tell the captain about the fire, but was not believed. The hose used to fight the fire was made of cheap material and burst in several places. A good hose was found but the connector of the bad hose could not be removed from the hydrant.

   The crew gave up fighting the fire and thought of using the life boats, but the cables holding the lifeboats in place had been painted over several times and could not be removed. The captain passed up several landing places and kept steaming into the wind which fanned the flames. Eventually he grounded the vessel on a small island off the Bronx.

   Soon after the grounding, the entire lower deck was aflame. The passengers retreated to an upper deck and began jumping into the water. Everyone wore heavy woolen clothing in those days and almost no one knew how to swim; a bad combination. There were life jackets available, cork filled life jackets. Lots of people put them on themselves and their children. To cut costs, the maker of the life jackets had used ground up rather than solid cork in the life jackets. Ground cork weighs less than solid cork so the manufacturer had added metal weights to pass inspection. You were better off without the life jackets.

   Only the passengers at the bow of the vessel were able to lower themselves into shallow water. Eventually, the vessel drifted free of the island and back out into the river. Two tugs came alongside and rescued a couple of hundred passengers. Of the 1,328 passengers, 1,019 died from drowning or from the fire. Of the 30 man crew, 28 survived including the captain. 

   A grand jury indicted eight people after the disaster, the captain, two inspectors, and five members of the steamboat company board. Only the captain was convicted of criminal negligence. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. President Taft pardoned him on this day in 1912 after he had served three and a half years at Sing-Sing prison. He lost sight in one eye as a result of the fire. 

   Federal and state governments passed new regulations to improve safety equipment on passenger ships and later on planes, which is a good thing mostly. As for the General Slocum, she was salvaged and converted to a barge. She sank in a storm off the southeast coast of New Jersey in 1911. The crew of four survived.

The General Slocum in happier days