History of the General Slocum disaster by which nearly 1200 lives were lost by the burning of the steamer General Slocum in Hell gate, New York harbor, June 15,1904 [Illustrated]

The full title is; History of the General Slocum disaster by which nearly 1200 lives were lost by the burning of the steamer General Slocum in Hell gate, New York harbor, June 15,1904 which has been compiled and edited by J. S. Ogilvie. It was published in New York in 1904, right after the disaster. Be forewarned. some of the descriptions are gruesome. A terrible tragedy. This book was written in the typical journalistic way of that time.

The Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text.

The Publisher has also included the original 13 illustrations from the original book, located at the end. These illustrations are also available for viewing and download at www.digitaltextpublishing.com

Preface:

In presenting a brief history of one of the greatest calamities of modern times, by which nearly twelve hundred persons were burned to death and drowned in New York Harbor, we have necessarily had to depend upon different writers and upon many sources of information for the facts contained in this book, but we have taken the greatest possible care that all statements made are as nearly the actual truth as possible, and we give them to the public, believing, as we do, that many persons will be glad to have, as a matter of reference, the facts condensed together in one volume.

Excerpts:

.....Nothing approaching the recent General Slocum disaster has happened in New York waters before. The exact number of the women and children who were burned to death and drowned by the burning of the pleasure steamer General Slocum will not be far from twelve hundred.
.....Nearly all of those who were burned and drowned were women and little children, members of the Sunday School of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, in Sixth street, who were on their annual excursion.
.....Between 1,400 and 1,500 people, so far as can be learned, started out on the Slocum. Nearly a third of them were babies. Try as best they could, the police and hospital authorities and the officers of the church could not find more than 300 or 400 survivors. But everybody believed that, when matters were straightened out, and all the hospitals began to give an accounting of the wounded they had taken in spontaneously, the list of those members of the excursion still living would be most happily lengthened. Many of the excursionists were children not attached to the church.