The General Slocum was a steamship launched in 1891. She caught fire and burned to the water line in New York's East River on June 15, 1904. More than 1,000 people died in the accident, making it New York City's worst loss-of-life disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The ship was built by Divine Burtis, Jr., a Brooklyn boatbuilder. Her keel was 235 feet long and the hull was 37.5 feet wide. The ship was built mostly of white oak and yellow pine.
She displaced about 1,200 tons. She had three engines, built by W. & A. Fletcher Company of Hoboken, New Jersey. She was a sidewheel boat. Each wheel had 26 paddles and was 31 feet in diameter. Her maximum speed was about 16 knots. The ship had three decks. She usually had a crew of 22, including Captain William H. Van Schaick and two pilots.
The General Slocum worked as a passenger ship, taking people on excursions around New York City. On June 15, 1904, the ship had been chartered for $350 by the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church in the German district Little Germany, Manhattan. This was an annual rite for the group, which had made the trip for 17 consecutive years. Over 1,300 passengers, mostly women and children, boarded the General Slocum. She was to sail up the East River and then eastward across Long Island Sound to Locust Grove, a picnic site in Eatons Neck, Long Island.
The ship got underway at 9:30am. As she was passing East 90th Street, a fire started in a storage compartment in the forward section, possibly caused by a discarded cigarette or match. The first notice of a fire was at 10am - eyewitnesses locate the initial blaze at several locations, including a paint locker filled with flammable liquids or a cabin filled with gasoline. Captain Van Schiack was only notified ten minutes after the fire was discovered - a twelve year old boy had tried to warn him earlier, but was not believed.