The History Hare - 7/28/2011

“Disaster Fills The Cemetery”

Often in our research, we encounter cemeteries that were created or filled with the victims of a disaster. Such is the story of the cemetery of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, New York. The Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, was filled with victims of a horrific disaster, the worst disaster in New York history until 9/11. Sadly the victims of the disaster were all parishioners of St. Mark's Church.

On June 15, 1904, a sunny Wednesday morning, 1,358 passengers, mostly women and children, boarded the General Slocumn steamboat for the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church 17th annual Sunday school picnic at the Locust Grove Picnic Ground at Eaton's Neck on Long Island. The members of St. Mark's congregation were from the heavily German Lower East Side of New York. The church had spent $350 to charter the 264-foot-long excursion steamboat from the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company. Spirits were high.

Passengers Boarding The
General Slocum

As the boat left the East River pier at Third Street at 9:40 a.m., a church band on board played, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." On the decks could be seen women dressed in their best outfits chatting with Pastor Haas and his wife, as little children ran around them.

At 10:00 a.m., as the General Slocum was passing East 90th Street, cries of fire were heard. Smoke and fire were billowing from the front of the boat on one of the lower decks. It was never determined how or where the fire started, but it was quick and the boat soon became a floating bonfire. In a matter of minutes the boat was consumed by panic and fire.

Instead of putting in to one of the piers along the wharf, Captain Van Schaick decided to make a run for Brother's Island one mile down the East River. The trip prolonged the amount of time the passengers were imprisoned on the boat and by going into headwinds the flight fanned the fire. The crew had taken part in no disaster drills. Lifesaving equipment was in disrepair.

Most of the passengers were unable to swim. Some claimed the life boats were painted to the decks. Old and rotted life jackets crumbled in the hands of those who could find one. Hysterical mothers placed their children in those life jackets and threw them overboard only to see them disappear under the water.

Many of the passengers attempted to jump into the river, but the women's clothing of the day made swimming almost impossible. The heavy wool clothing weighed them down in the water.

1904 Delineator
Woman's Fashion Plate

They were hanging there like clothes on a Monday wash,
below the lower deck line of the steamer.

Most of the 1,021 who perished died within the first thirty minutes. The upper decks collapsed into the lower taking those who refused to drown in the water into the depths of death by burning.

Many of the accounts by survivors exist today. Here is one:

"Saw Her Daughter Drown.

Mrs. Louisa BOCK Made Heroic Efforts to Save Child, but All In Vain.

Mrs. Louisa BOCK, who with her husband, Charles, lives at 69 Marcy avenue, is still suffering from the shock of the loss of her two pretty children, May Louise, 6 1/2 years old, and Grace Edna, 4 1/2 years old. Mrs. BOCK had the heart-rendering experience of witnessing the death of her daughter, May Louise by drowning before her eyes without being able to render the slightest aid. The grief of the woman is pathetic, when the fact is recalled to her.

During one of her calm periods this morning, Mrs. BOCK told a graphic story of her experience with the child who was drowned. She said she had been an attendant at St. Mark's Sunday School, and was married in the church. She was in the habit of going, annually, on the outing, and was in company with Mrs. Anna BURKHARDT, a former playmate, who lived at 141 East Third street, Manhattan. The latter lost her life in the catastrophe.

In the company with the dead woman, Mrs. BOCK says, she had secured a seat on the upper deck, while her two children played nearby. When the alarm came, followed by the panic, she seized her daughter, May, while Mrs. BURKHARDT volunteered to take charge of Grace. In the rush of the maddened people, the two women were swept apart, and when Mrs. BOCK looked for Mrs. BURKHARDT and her little daughter, they were not to be seen.

As the wall of flame advanced toward her, Mrs. BOCK says, she hesitated, at first, but determined to face it, and unmindful of the scorching heat which seared the flesh on her face and hands, made her way to the side of the boat. Her quick glance caught site of one of the long fenders suspended by a rope and hanging in the water. She managed to slide down this pole, with her child in her arm, until she reached the water.

She managed to clutch something to sustain herself, and evidently remained until exhausted, and must have released her hold upon her daughter, as she remembers nothing until she opened her eyes while being hauled from the water, and found herself being drawn aboard a steam launch. As she opened her eyes, her glance fell upon the face of her little daughter, a few feet
away. The child had her arms extended murmuring the word "mother," when she slowly sank beneath the surface of the water.

The men in the launch tried to reach the child as she was sinking, and Mrs. BOCK remembers nothing more until she came to a the Lincoln Hospital. Beside suffering from her submersion, Mrs. BOCK was also severely burned. She was able to reach her home yesterday morning. As no trace of the child Grace, has been found, it is presumed that she was also drowned with Mrs.
BURKHARDT." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 12, 1904.

Entire families were wiped out. Pastor Hass lost his wife. Prior to the Slocum disaster, the German-American community was a vibrant and active neighborhood of the working-class and highly educated. The shock of losing so many loved ones devastated families. Suicides and depression resulted from such a loss and many residents moved away. The German community never recovered. The Knickerbocker Steamboat Company received a fine. On January 27, 1906, Captain Van Schaick was sentenced to 10 years at hard labor. President Taft pardoned him in 1911.

The lone bright spots of that horrible day were the stories of rescuers and ordinary people who jumped into the water or did what they could from the shore to save some of the victims. There are incredible stories of heroism.

The remains of the Slocum were converted to a barge. In 1911, the ill-fated ship sank near Atlantic City.

"From the earliest days in 1852 and continuing until the present day, the administrators of the Lutheran Cemetery have kept detailed handwritten records of the interments. The log book of 1904 begins recording the General Slocum victims on June 17 and no less than 20 double-sided pages, with very few unrelated deaths interspersed, are devoted to the burials of the Slocum's lost.

Each entry had an interment number, and the following information was recorded: name of the dead, age including years, months and days, lot number and location in the plot, place of birth, place of death, cause of death, undertaker and the cost of the burial."

Every year, on the Saturday before June 15, the General Slocum Memorial Association holds an ecumenical memorial service at Trinity Luthern Church in Middle Village, Queens and a wreath laying ceremony at the Slocum monument in nearby All Faiths Cemetery where most of the Slocum victims are buried.

General Slocum Memorial

Memorial Inset Of Ship

Sources:

Brothers: NYC's worst maritime tragedy – Photos of the islands in 2004 and images of the General Slocum from Forgotten New York.
General Slocum. The National Archives of New York City. Accessed June 2011.
The General Slocum Disaster of June 15, 1904. New York Public Library. Accessed June 2011.
General Slocum Disaster. Brooklyn Eagle Transcription. Accessed June 2011.
PS General Slocum. Wikipedia. Accessed June 2011.
O'Donnell, Edward T. Ship Ablaze : The Tragedy of The Steamboat General Slocum. New York : Broadway Books, 2003