How was the life preserver manufacturer QuarkWorks not held responsible for literally making steel bar filled sink jackets? Insane.

If only that boy had been believed. Even an extra 10 minutes could have made a huge difference.

The individual captain got punished (justly) and yet the corporations got away with it. Times haven't changed that much, have they?

The Slocum's impact on the german population was so great that its widely accepted that the Lower East Side basically stopped being a German community after that one singular event. That so many people either perished or moved away it totally changed the demographic for the neighborhood

"....900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey." As a NJ native, I laughed out loud. Absolutely fantastic.

The vision of seeing your child descending into the deep due to faulty life preservers is heart rending

The early 1900s was really a wild time for infrastructure because you just casually have disasters like these where a 75% fatality percentage of 1000+ people is common. Even the Titanic, which had a higher death count, didn't even have that high of a fatality percentage.

I think my favorite part of these videos is learning what obscure title each disaster holds. Like narrator could legit say “the second deadliest accident involving a piece of cake in Norway for the next 50 years” and I’d just be like… “Yes. That is quite interesting. Proceed.”

My great great grandmother and her sister were on board and survived. I remember my dad telling me about this event, thank you for shedding more light on it.

It's bad enough the life vests were decaying and useless, but to hear that some of them were filled with IRON instead of cork to save money sent a chill through me. jfc. That is terrifying.

The reason that this shipwreck and many others were overshadowed by the loss of the Titanic is relatively simple. Robert Ballard put it best: we remember the Titanic more than other seriously deadly shipwrecks because of the human drama that played out on her decks. She took a long time to sink, and so there was lots of time for people to make decisions and act, and it is those decisions that fascinate us. We imagine how we would have acted if we were in their position. It’s not the rich people, since Lusitania also had very rich people (the Vanderbilts instead of the Astors) and isn’t as well remembered. And it isn’t the death toll, since there have been many shipwrecks with higher death tolls, such as the Sultana, the Doña Paz, and Wilhelm Gustloff.

“She was subject to a mutiny when she transported 900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey”… People in Hoboken call the days that that happens “Tuesday”.

As a side note, the KleineDeutchland (apologies for my spelling) neighborhood effectively disappeared after the disaster. Given how many families had experienced losses, many of them chose to move away and try to put their lives back together somewhere that didn't have as many painful memories. The families that stayed were not enough to maintain the neighborhood as "Little Germany." So the neighborhood changed, as neighborhoods inevitably do. But this time, though, it was for a very sudden, tragic reason.

My grandmother was supposed to go on this picnic but, that morning her father decided that she should work instead. That little change, probably saved her life. She was still haunted by the loss of many friends 60+ years later.

An incredible tragic event that cost so many lives and the life of a beautiful ship, all within sight of one of the world's great cities. Nowhere near enough heads rolled over this, as usual.

I really really appreciate how these videos always have captions. Most creators don't bother giving their videos captions unless a video goes viral, and these always have captions from the moment they're uploaded. Thank you for that.

As always, a great video. My great-grandparents were supposed to be passengers on the General Slocum. It was five months after my great-aunt was born and a few years before my grandmother was born. The family arrived late to the dock, and missed the boat, luckily. When I was a child, my parents were insistent that I take swimming lessons. I remember one of my aunts telling me that a fire on a boat can be just as dangerous as a sinking boat.

Believe it or not, this disaster was overshadowed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Even though this disaster kills nearly nine times, as many people.

This is a disaster that deserves to be far better known than it actually is. I first learned about it from a KZfaq video years ago, which led to me reading Edward O’Donnell’s book Ship Ablaze.

900 Drunk Anarchists sounds like a solid name for a band

Please never change the format of these videos! The info, the music, photos, and the narration are one of my favorite videos to watch!!

Despite the seriousness of this story, "900 drunken anarchists from New Jersey" was a hilarious line

Just thinking about watching your child sink and drown, when you think they're going to flot is horrible. I have the shivers when he sayed that.

I read about this in my younger years. The German American community in that region was dramatically affected by this. So many factors went into play to make this an absolute nightmare. Can't imagine what the survivors endured with PTSD.

I grew up in Middle Village queens. My backyard butted up against st john cemetery where they have a memorial/ tomb stone for the Slocum. It is barely known about when mentioned to people. always fascinated me

A fun fact about the Slocum's wreck: it wasn't scrapped, but was instead salvaged and turned into a towed barge that was used up and down Long Island sound. It foundered during bad weather in 1911 and was found by Clive Cussler, the author of the Dirk Pitt and NUMA series, decades later.

I have taken for granted knowing how to swim. I often wonder at how a boat can capsize so close to land and ppl still die. Then i remember what it was like when i was thrown from my uncle's speedboat... i was shocked and terrified when i hit the water and flailed for help until my father walked up to me and said, "its shallow, stand up!" 😅 i felt so silly but it was really scary and i can see how ppl drown in shallow water now And like the video said... back then ppl didnt know how to swim. Add to that sinking life jackets and its just tragic!

I have always disliked the fact that some disasters gets all the glory and attention, and some are almost forgotten, often because they “only” involve average people from the lower rung of society. There is three disasters I always think about when someone mentions Titanic - Sultana, General Slocum, and Eastland, so many people died in these disasters, one of them was filled with soldiers finally going home, the two other with women and children going out for a rare occasion of relaxation and fun, but those souls haven’t got any movie, no widely popular songs are written in their honour, and no KZfaqr had to this day covered them all (not that I’m aware of, anyway) Thank you a million times for honouring all of these people, and indeed many more who perished in all sorts of disasters, many brought on by greed and lack of respect for safety. You are one of a kind good sir. every single video you post to this platform is a template for how to cover such difficult topics with care and respect, and also making them interesting and captivating at the same time.

Thank you for providing context to one of my favorite recently-discovered songs ‘Downed and Drowned’ by The Longest Johns. “General Slocum’s wheels of wood Caught ablaze like they never should Floats of cork filled with weights instead Sent families off to the riverbed.” This one interested me but I never looked it up, this filled in a lot of info for me. Thank you!

That ending made me feel so sad, they’re not wrong though. It’s crazy how the company only got small fine and the equipment were not at fault. Those families deserved to be compensated for their trauma and losses. RIP to all the families 🕊️

My great grandmother, Louise Gailing, was babysitting for a family on the General Slocum. Some of the kids she was babysitting died, but she was able to jump off the ship and swim a baby to shore. She was given an "Act of Heroism" award from the city of Nutley, New Jersey.

I first heard about this many years ago. There was a body of a child that was towed to shore along with many other bodies. When she got to the morgue she sat up and said that she wasn't dead. Please do a video on the Kingsland Disaster. It took place September 21, 1910 near Kingsland, Indiana where two interurbans (or trolleys , NOT streetcars) collided head on on a blind curve killing 41. The line was the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company. It was the worst crash of the interurban era.

I love that the General Slocum was named after someone who was a byword for "reliability and dignity" and immediately runs aground.

What a horrible disaster! I have a book of NYC stories straight from the newspapers of the day (mostly tabloids) and this was the first time i had heard of this disaster. Its been largely forgotten today.

You should cover the MS Estonia sinking. It happened in the 90s and was absolutely tragic. I know someone who's family member died there and I feel like it's rarely covered.

absolutely insane that they did not properly maintain safety equipment given their long track record of getting into accidents

Another fantastic video. In terms of New York disasters which go overshadowed, this is certainly one. Another which comes to mind is the crash of American Airlines flight 587 which took place in Queens only months after 9/11.

I read an excellent book about this disaster entitled Ship Ablaze.

This is one of the saddest stories I've heard - unimaginable. If I watched my three children drown or burn up, I'd have to jump in and drown, too. I couldn't live after that.

“General Slocum’s wheels of wood, caught ablaze like they never should, floats of cork filled with weights instead sent families off to the riverbed.” Those lyrics are making a lot more horrifying sense now. Over 900 people, that’s is… beyond tragic.

The more of these I watch the more I am convinced no normal person gets justice while companies and the rich get away with a slap on the wrist. It's disgusting.

I've been so intrigued by ship sinkings recently, ever since the titan implosion it resparked my interest in the titanic. Since then I've been researching other ship sinkings and such. I already am a huge fan of this channel so I was excited to see you cover this topic! I'm going a cruise this October, hoping nothing happens to me out at sea 🙌

I've been watching this channel for a while and rarely do I hear information that absolutely shocks me. The idea that there were iron bars in the life preservers to save money on cork was mind-boggling! What a *literally* horrifying piece of history.

It's ships like the General Slocum that make me wonder whether or not curses are real.

Oiley rags can produce heat while drying...it was investigated as a cause of the fire at my neighbour's fire. Hay or straw also produce heat while drying and have been proven to spontaneously combust in barns when stored with too much moisture. Seems like the lamp-room may have ignited itself.

One story I have been patiently waiting for on FH. A huge disaster with a big sense of impending doom from the outset. The words "If only" kept going over and over in my head at the end. And the haunting words of the survivor at the end summed it up so well as to why this disaster is largely forgotten

A video on the Drunk Anarchist Riot onboard would be cool as well.

Yeah it was the largest loss of life in a disaster in New York City until 9/11.

Such a heartbreaking tragedy, especially since so many of the victims were children. I can just imagine the fathers saying goodbye to their kids in the morning before they went off to work, not knowing they would ever see them alive again. And all these kids so excited about a picnic and a fun trip on a boat, which was an especially big deal if you were part of a poor working-class family. And the fact that this tragedy was 100% preventable is positively infuriating. I can't believe that somehow, the owners of this boat managed to pass inspections for 13 years without ever replacing the equipment. I can't imagine the terror people felt on board the burning ship when life preservers fell apart in their hands, hoses leaked and were unable to put out fires, and life jackets tied onto kids who were dropped into the water, eventually killed them instead of saving their lives. And the lifeboats were wired in place because they were considered a nuisance, and the crew probably thought that they wouldn't be needed since they were travelling so close to land, and that people would probably be able to swim to shore. I can imagine all those people struggling in the water, especially the women in their long skirts with many petticoats, long-sleeved shirts, big hats held on with hairpins, and heavy shoes -- many of them probably didn't stand a chance. Boats did come to rescue some of the people, and while some people WERE saved, there were other despicable people who went up to struggling people in the water who thought they were going to be rescued, and these sick people would simply just steal bracelets and watches off the victims' wrists and leave them to drown. On the other hand, on North Brother Island, there were not only doctors and nurses and hospital staff that helped out with the rescue, but even some of the patients helped too! There was an eleven-year-old girl who was rescued that day. She almost didn't get to go on the Slocum at all, because at the store where her mother got the tickets for her and her two younger siblings, the storekeeper only gave out two tickets for the smaller children. The girl was disappointed and started crying, and the shopkeeper was touched by her tears and found an extra ticket for her. The girl survived the disaster, but lost her mother and siblings. However, she lived to be 106 years old! Another family didn't fare quite so well. One couple lost both of their young daughters. One daughter's body was never found, and all that was recovered from her was one of her tiny shoes. It was truly tragic that it took a tragedy of this magnitude, for safety precautions about excursion ships to be taken seriously. Some of these lessons, sadly, didn't sink in even after the loss of the Titanic and many of its passengers. And the owners of the General Slocum seemed to get off with what was basically a slap on the wrist, even after the massive loss of life, and the incompetence and carelessness that eventually led to it. This disaster was eventually overshadowed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire seven years later, the Titanic sinking the following year, and then WW1 two years later. This disaster deserves to be more widely remembered than it has been. RIP to the victims of the General Slocum.

There is a memorial fountain in Tompkins Square Park, not far from the church and departure dock of the ship, with a plaque describing this disaster. It remains well maintained and many New Yorkers are familiar with the story. Thanks for an illuminating episode and the subtle mention of it being the deadliest disaster in New York "for nearly 100 years."

The late author Clive Cussler conducted a search for this ship, as outlined in his book "The Sea Hunters 2". She had undergone extensive modifications after the fire and basically only the hull remained.

In Tompkins Square park, you can find a memorial to the disaster. It was pretty much the end for the Kleindeutschland neighborhood of the time.

I can't even fathom that this event happened, in a time when news could spread around the world in a few days/weeks, and we still ended up with the Titanic. Like why do ship builders and cruise lines hate life boats so much? They're literally called LIFE boats.

If you think you care TOO MUCH about maintaining a vessel, there is no such thing as caring TOO MUCH about maintaining a vessel.

"A mutiny broke out while transporting 900 drunk anarchists from New Jersey" is a phrase I really wish I'd penned.

I am attending trade school right now as preparation to enter the merchant mariner industry, and hearing about disasters on vessels like this always leaves me feeling privileged to be alive and going into the industry after over a century of setting and refining international regulations. So far in class we have studied the Titanic and the sinking of the Costa Concordia from 2012, so I haven't heard about this yet (I am only four weeks into the first of three quarters of school to be fair), thank you for covering it!

We appreciate your insights on this. We will support you and your channel no matter what.

Wildly enough, the wreck was salvaged and converted to a barge, which went on to sink on two further occasions.

Oh, I’ve been waiting for you to cover this! Great stuff!

Congratulations on 1m subscribers mate! You deserve it, your channel is awesome and documents some absolutely fascinating horror! ❤🇬🇧

This disaster happened within the confines of New York City. The Titanic perished in the north Atlantic. So locally, this ranks among one of the all time largest disastrous life losses. The triangle shirtwaist fire and of course September 11th come to mind as obvious rivals.

This disaster is mentioned in James Joyce's novel Ulysses, which is set on the following day.

Growing up in New York I was aware of the General Slocum disaster and would say it was a very well know event in the history of our city. At least as recently as the 1980’s it was a well know event. Perhaps on a national level it was forgotten or overshadowed but locally it was a prominent event covered in school as part of NYC history. I’m glad you brought this tragedy to light for the younger audience that may have never heard of the General Slocum. You may have already covered this story but if you haven’t please consider telling the sad and horrific tale of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire.

I hate that so many tragedies of this era or earlier are forgotten, and I equally hate that the answer to "why was this forgotten" is almost always "the Titantic."

Nobody ever questions the safe and condition of things until there is a problem…then when people die or are injured all these issues come to light. It’s always so tragic because it was preventable. At least to some extent.

Its an absolute tragedy how it has been ignored i never even heard about this until this video

Brilliant ending there. Thanks as always for the respectful and great work.

When that music kicks in at the end of each of your videos and I'm left in the dark with my fascination and horror of what I just learned about... man it really does give me chills all over.

Adding bulky and not floating material to life jackets just so it feels heavy is surely something that all involved should have been reemed to the same degree as murder for. Its one thing to have them rot, its another for them to have been knowingly be made incorrectly to save a dime.

I have watched as, over the past fifty years, that an essential US industry, railroads, seems to have forgotten some of the hard lessons learned from tragedies such as this. And it is for the same reason, that of making increasing corporate shareholder value the primary, and at times the only, reason for a company's existence. Among the top killers and causes of suffering for humans -greed.

Your voice is so relaxing. Thank you for no music... well, just the right amount of music. Your editing is what makes your stories so much better. Thank you!

I love FH's videos - so well made - but I am also constantly impressed by the quality of the comments. Everyone is on topic and polite.

Just In time for bed!!! Love your work man ❤

On KZfaq is an old history channel special (from when they covered history) about this. Ships Ablaze. It has archive interviews with the last two survivors, including the youngest survivor at 6 months old. The book it’s based off of is pretty good too. And it’s likely the death count was off since there was a…liberal…view to accurate passenger counts

It’s that time of the week! Thank you Fascinating Horrors.

I'm from Queens and learned about this disaster when I saw the memorial plaque in Astoria Park. Glad to see you cover it!

As the person responsible for the condition of fire hoses, life jackets, and other safety gear on all of the ships in my company's fleet, this one just *hurts* . This is why you inspect and replace your gear *before* you need it.

Great channel

Thank you, FH, I've been looking forward to this one for a while.

❤❤❤. You do a really good job telling us these interesting events. I really look forward to watching your channel. Thank you!❤❤❤❤

North Brother Island is probably somewhere on the list for an episode all on its own. I didn't know the captain went to jail, but the name Knickerbocker is not exactly a good one for disasters, you had the steamship company that was involved with this one. You had the theater collapse (which I swear FH has done a vid on at some point), and the disaster that occurs when you order the ice cream sundae tooo

Could you imagine the feeling of trying to get safety equipment and it just rockts in your hand

Thank you so much for talking about General Slocum! As a Civil War buff I got very excited when I saw the name and I was hoping you'd mention him.

You just know that a disastrous accident between 1880 and 1910 is going to be a wild story. Absolutely batshit insane what people got away with back then.

Haven’t finished the video yet, but something tells me if a ship has so many problems within a short time, that your ship is probably cursed Ofc they had a room that was a fire hazard. Unfortunate that so many died and were injured

Tuesday night entertainment, cheers!

Starting off another good morning with a video from Fascinating Horror

It is always amazing that simple safety measures were not routinely tested or checked.

imagine putting on a life jacket only to find out its full of iron bars and is actually a drowning jacket

@3:00 How was the Evangelical Lutheran Church "using the General Slocum for 17 consecutive years for their annual picnic", when the ship was only in service for 13 years?

That ending quote sent chills down my spine omg

Thanks for the video, there's also another video on KZfaq about the Slocum disaster including an interview with a survivor. This was the greatest loss of life in a single day in the history of NY state until 9/11l.

This story, and the one on the S.S. Eastland disaster, makes one wonder about the safety of excursion ships while asking "what were they thinking?" Insane that there weren't much stricter safety inspections at the time - why does it take such disasters before the obvious becomes obvious?

'Mrs Slocombe' from Are you being served!

My god, how many things in a row could go wrong? I dont think they could've made a more dangerous situation if they tried. Truly despicable and tragic.

For a compelling, fascinating telling of the General Slocum disaster,I recommend Ship Ablaze, by Edward T. O'Donnell.

Maritime disasters are always the most intriguing to me

If it was the same captain the ship had in the stellar year of 1894, I can't help but wonder if he was a drinking man or just had the worst judgement of maritime history?

Thank you for doing this one. I’ve always found this interesting

First heard about this from The Longest John's in a song "downed and drowned". It only gets a short few lines, but when there it sounds awful that it happened.