All those women and children excursion beanfeast burned and drowned in New York

182.28/180.1 ALL THOSE WOMEN AND CHILDREN EXCURSION BEANFEAST BURNED AND DROWNED IN NEW YORK This refers to the General Slocum disaster; see entry 239.22.

8.1146-47 (182:28-30). All those women ... in New York. Holocaust – The Freeman's Journal, 16 June 1904, carried the story on page 5: "Appalling American Disaster . . . Five hundred persons, mostly children, perished today by the burning of the steamer General Slocum, near Hell Gate, on the East River. The disaster is the most appalling that has ever occurred in New York Harbour, and the fact that the victims were almost entirely of tender age, or women, renders it absolutely distressing. The annual Sunday School excursion of the St. Mark's German Lutheran Church was proceeding to Locust Grove, a pleasure resort on Long Island Sound. As the steamer made its way up the East River, with bands playing and flags flying, every deck was crowded with merrymakers.

"When she was off Sunken Meadows a fire broke out in the lunch room. The crew endeavoured to extinguish the flames, but they quickly became uncontrollable and made rapid headway. A panic ensued. The Hell Gate rocks hemmed the steamer in, and she was unable to turn. The vessel, consequently, went on at full speed, and was finally beached on North Brothers Island, where the Municipal Charity Hospital's physicians and nurses were immediately available for the injured. No attempt was made to lower the lifeboats." Estimates of the death toll varied between 500 and 1,000 in the course of the day, 16 June, and the final toll was 1,030, mainly women and children—in effect, almost all of the women and children of the German Lutheran community on New York's Lower East Side.

174.12-13 All those women . . . Holocaust: an American steamer, the General Slocum, hired for a Lutheran Sunday School trip, caught fire and burned killing over 1,000 in Long Island Sound, New York; the story was carried in the 16 June Freeman's Journal.