On this very day 107 years ago, the General Slocum sank in the East River—at that time, it was the greatest tragedy in New York history (did you forget?). The steamship's demise was revisited a couple of years ago by Inside the Apple, who noted it had been hired by St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church to take its parishioners—all from the surrounding Tompkins Square Park area—on their annual Sunday School picnic.
The boat left from the pier at East Third Street around 9:30 in the morning and trouble developed almost immediately. A spark, probably from a stove, set the stern on fire; as the ship steamed up the East River, observers on either bank could see smoke and flames billowing from the vessel. Captain William Van Shaick could have headed for Manhattan, the Bronx, or Queens. Instead, he decided to make for North Brother Island. Captain Van Schaick, who survived the tragedy, later said that he’d hoped in doing this to keep the fire from spreading, but in fact he was piloting into a steady wind and the blaze quickly got out of control, enveloping the ship’s three decks, which then collapsed. Van Schaick may have also picked North Brother Island because of the hospital there (where Typhoid Mary would later spend the last two decades of her life). However, by the time the ship ran aground, the hospital staff could do little to help: most of the passengers had already drowned or burned to death.
The ship allegedly didn't have any safety standards, with shoddy life preservers and little else to deal with an accident. All in all, 1,021 died from the accident, though some believe the number is even higher. A small monument stands in Tompkins Square Park to commemorate the lives lost, as well as a plaque in Astoria. More photos from the time (warning: including some of the bodies laid out on the shore) can be found here.
