On June 15, 1904, the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church chartered the General Slocum to carry church members to an annual outing on Long Island. Shortly after setting sail, a fire broke out below deck. Crew members found the ship's fire hose rotten, lifeboats chained to the deck, and life vests that reportedly fell apart in the hands of panicked passengers. The boat breached on North Brother Island before drifting to Hunts Point where it sank. An estimated 1,021 people were killed, mostly women and children.
Scenes from the disaster are included in the Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, including this one showing the General Slocum partially submerged and smoking. See additional images here.
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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