The general slocum tragedy

            This fire disaster occurred on the 15^th of June 1904 and it damaged the big pleasure trip of the steamer in general slocum. It was damaged by fire up to the water’s border up until the captain succeeded to beach her on the island on the North Brother. The ship had carried approximately 1358 passengers plus some f the ship crews. Most of these passengers were from the German American society from the lower East side who were so happy and anticipated on having a ride with this ship that was contracted by the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (Wingfield 2011). They all were looking forward to having an enjoyable day that is filled of fun outside the city and into the shoreline visit. He fire caused the death of thousands of people, others were injured and others went missing. Most of the passengers who were affected were children and women. The occurrence of this fire was horrific and it caused panic among most of these passengers as some died due to drowning while others were burned as they were alive and this attributed to their death (Pressman 2010).

            Varying causes of the fire has been given on how the fire started but the truth is that fire spread out so quickly and steadily within half an hour after the ship had left the dock. However it is supposed that the cause of the fire was due to the stove explosion which was cooking chowder and was in the gallery of the lower part of the dock (New York Times 2010). The firemen were f no great help in accordance to the report given by some of the survivors and some of the firemen also attested to this. As they endeavored to rescue some of these children who were in siege in the water they became too heavy to be carried by these firemen and hence only a few were rescued (Pressman 2010).

            The reasons as to why the captain of the slocum decided not to make a hallway at the New York dock since the ship was just a few 100 kilometers from this side. However, at the North Brother Island, the ship did not last for more than ten minutes and it all burned down leaving no survivor in the ship (Wingfield 2011). Every hospital in the city assisted with disaster help after they heard the news as some of the nurses remained in the hospital to receive the patients while other nurses remained at the dock so as to attend to the survivors on the ambulances once they were brought on the dock before being taken to hospitals. The life preservers of the ship were believed to be rotten as some survivors’ states that they had attempted on a number of these preserver equipments but to no avail as they were useless due to the fact that they were rotten. The police officers also came in aid so as to control the crowd that had now surrounded this area as they came to witness this disaster (New York Times 2010).

            This scene was terrifying and as painful as many of the relatives lost their entire family and most of the women who were rescued had golden rings on their hands indicating that they were wives and mothers to some families. It is a great loss and a saddening one to all those who were affected.

References

New York Times. (2010).1,000 Lives May Be Lost in Burning of the Excursion Boat Gen. Slocum. Retrieved from:

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0615.html