![]() Van Schaick would serve only part of his sentence at Sing Sing prison. And what happened to the company that owned the ship and the director? The Knickerbocker Steamboat Company and Frank Barnaby escaped justice. Judge Thomas, the presiding judge, sentenced Van Schaick to 10 years at hard labor. He was found guilty of criminal negligence that he had failed to maintain the fire drills required by law. On January 27, 1906, justice was meted out to Captain Van Schaick by a jury of the United States Circuit Court. Barnaby, the President of the company, defended the actions of the captain and the crew. Quickly, Van Schaick and the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company came under the crosshairs of an investigation. Eyewitnesses from the shore could see the boat burning and wondered why the captain did not come to shore. Testimony that would follow in the days ahead established that there were few safeguards life vests were rotten, life boats were in the same state, fire drills were non-existent, and the crew was untrained to handle the panic that followed on board the Slocum. Van Schaick would testify that gas tanks and lumber yards made landing near 130th Street, close to the Bronx, dangerous. Instead, Van Schaick steered the burning ship to North Brother Island. It was widely reported that Captain William Henry Van Schaick would not bring the ship to shore for insurance reasons. ![]() There would be miracle stories of survivors for the lucky few and heartbreak for those who lost loved ones. The next largest death toll in the United States would come decades later with 2,974 dead from 9/11. Only 321 passengers survived from a total of 1,358 passengers. ![]() It was a safe bet that most of the passengers could not swim, and the period clothing of the day worked against them.įor days afterward, bodies would wash ashore. The panic was horrific among the passengers as they faced death by drowning or being burned alive on the ship. There have been varying accounts of how the fire started, but it spread rapidly within a half hour of leaving dock around 9 a.m. As the ship made its way up the East River, good times turned bad very quickly. Most of the passengers were women and children. Excitement and anticipation filled the air - for the passengers, this would be a fun-filled day outside of the city, and as the ship departed, it would be enjoyable to watch the shoreline as the ship made its way out to the North Shore of Long Island. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church for $350.00, the passengers came mostly from the German-American community of the Lower East Side. On June 15, 1904, the ship carried 1,358 passengers, plus crew.Ĭhartered by the St. The PS Slocum, built in 1891, was a paddle boat or sidewheel passenger ship. But the aftermath of the sinking of the PS Slocum radically altered the German-American community of the Lower East Side forever. Perhaps these two shocking events happening within a year focused people's attention elsewhere. This tragedy is much less well known compared to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of March 25, 1911, and the Titanic Disaster of April 15, 1912. The General Slocum Disaster occurred on June 15, 1904.
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