Customer Reviews

Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum

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Edward T. O'Donnell's "Ship Ablaze" is head-and-shoulders above the glut of historical disaster books lining the shelves these days. O'Donnell's well written narrative history has all of the elements that make a book like this compelling: it details a tragic and nearly forgotten event, it paints the event on the proper historical backdrop and also tells the stories of the victims in a sympathetic and unsensationalistic way.

Though it is not well remembered, the fire and sinking of the steamboat General Slocum near New York City was the city's deadliest disaster prior to September 11, 2001. Over 1000 people, mostly women and children, perished in a few horrifying minutes. What is more disturbing about the story is that the disaster was completely preventable. Had the General Slocum's fire safety equipment been properly inspected and maintained and had the crew been trainbed in fire safety, it is unlikely that there would have been any loss of life.

All of this O'Donnell describes in vivid detail. He also describes life in turn-of-the-century New York, particularly the so-called Little Germany section where the victims were from. The latter part of the book is dedicated to the legal battles that resulted in the imprisonment of the General Slocum's captain, but not the federal inspectors or boat owners who were equally responsible for the tragedy.

Overall, an outstanding work of narrative history that will appeal to history buffs as well as general readers.

Too many "disaster" books leave you with little or no feeling for the actual victims, survivors, and relatives. That is certainly not the case with "Ship Ablaze." The book is, at times, almost unbearable in its unrelenting intensity. Mr. O'Donnell sets the scene well: a church group, in a tight-knit Lower East Side German community, preparing for and embarking upon a weekday steamboat excursion/picnic. We get to know the pastor, and we get to know some of the families. As the ship leaves the dock, we know what's going to happen...but that doesn't matter. We are horrified as the fire starts and spreads, and over 1,000 people (mostly women and children, with more than one member from many families) die from burning or drowning. We are outraged by the negligence of the shipowner (too cheap to buy new lifejackets and fire hoses, to replace the old equipment which was, literally, disintegrating), and the captain (too "proud" to instruct his crew in fire prevention or to hold fire drills), and the safety inspectors (who "passed" equipment they knew to be not in proper working order- and who most likely pocketed some payoffs). Mr. O'Donnell leaves no area unexplored, although you might sometimes wish he had: he goes into detail concerning the different ways a person can drown- either by "inhaling" water or by lack of oxygen; he talks about people drowning in 5 feet of water, because they were so frightened they didn't realize they could just stand up; he talks of black hearses being used for adults and white ones being used for children; he talks of "survivor guilt" and suicides and undertakers taking advantage of bereaved people by engaging in high-pressure sales tactics and by charging double the normal price for burials. But he also talks about brave people risking their lives to save others, and of people who donated generously to relief funds. The entire spectrum of human behavior is on display. On a lighter note, Mr. O'Donnell's curiosity seems to know no bounds: he informs us that people flocked to Coney Island to see disaster spectacles such as "The Fall of Pompeii" and "The Fire and Flames Show." (He also explains that prior to being "cleaned up" and made into an amusement area, Coney Island was known for prostitution and gambling.); we also learn that the "General Slocum" tragedy was mentioned in James Joyce's "Ulysses" and that the tragedy was also used as the basis of a 1934 movie called "Manhattan Melodrama," starring William Powell and Clark Gable. It was also the movie John Dillinger saw on the day he emerged from a movie theater and was gunned down by FBI agents. But for every funny or interesting fact, there is something like this: there was a 7 year old girl named Margaret Heins, who had been on the steamboat but whose body had not been recovered. The day after the tragedy, her body was found floating in the East River- one block from her family's home. She had drifted 8 miles from where the "General Slocum" had run aground. Even though I'm a New York City native, I'd never heard of the "Slocum" tragedy. Now, because of Mr. O'Donnell, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to forget it.

The story itself is well-researched and well-told, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I do have a few qualms with it. The first of these is the absence of an index, which in my opinion should be absolutely mandatory for any non-fiction book. How is one to find specific references without reading or re-reading an entire chapter or the entire tome? I don't know if this is the fault of the author, publisher, or someone else, but there seems to be a veritable "index-omission" epidemic raging in publishing circles these days, and this seriously limits a book's value for research purposes. Another qualm/question is: why wasn't a complete, name-by-name list of the +/-1,300 dead, missing, and surviors included? Or a spec sheet on the Slocum itself? Such data must be in the author's possession, and it's a shame it wasn't included. It would have really rounded out the book and taken it to the next level. In the final analysis however, although the book isn't perfect, I do recommend it highly at every opportunity as it tells a fascinating and tragic tale.

One hears about some very familiar disasters, but I was not familiar with the General Slocum steam boat disaster. Over 1,000 people (mainly women and children) died in this disaster on the East River. O'Donnell does a superb job of detailing New York at the turn of the century and the dangers associated with steamship travel. Then he goes into great detail about the disaster and the aftermath of the sinking of the General Slocum.
I believe O'Donnell does a fair job of detailing who failed in this disaster. The owner, USSIS, and the Captain all were to blame for this dangerous situation. The result was the decimation of a large German immigrant church community.
O'Donnell's short chapters, and his coverage from all angles gives the reader a clear picture of the disaster. One can understand the nature of this tragedy and the effect on New York City.

Before this year I had never heard of the General Slocum disaster and I was horrified that something of this magnitude had not been included in history textbooks. Eager to learn more, I purchased this book.
It is a moving tribute to those unfortunate souls that lost their lives in 1904 and I had to keep setting it down because I was reduced to tears throughout.
I plan to recommend this book to everyone I know (including my students) so that this tragedy will not continue to go unnoticed.

For the thousands of descendants of the General Slocum fire victims, overdue tribute has come. Edward O'Donnell's SHIP ABLAZE serves as a stinging reminder of not only a catastrophe of enormous proportions but of a deliberate and unjust society determined to forget it. While the tragic event of June 15, 1904, in which over 1,000 mostly German-Americans perished, is the star of the book, Mr. O'Donnell's outrage at the people responsible for it and the court system that allowed all but one of the culpable to go free is palpable.
There is no point in my retelling the sad story; anyway, I couldn't begin to approach Mr. O'Donnell's engaging and gripping style. But the compelling questions that emerge from the pages deserve consideration. How could human beings who are responsible for the lives and safety of other human beings behave so indifferently to their jobs? A more pressing question: are things any better today?

At the root of this book, however, is the inevitable question: Why don't more people--especially New Yorkers--know about this cataclysmic event that happened in the East River? Mr. O'Donnell offers a few convincing reasons:
1) the pervading sexism and xenophobia of the times had only so much sympathy for the over 1,000 deaths of mostly female foreigners;
2) unlike the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, there was no overtly political or socio-economic connection to the disaster;
3) the First World War wiped out any sympathy for anything German; and
4) unlike the glamour, wealth, and fame surrounding the victims of the Titanic, the Slocum victims were poor working class hacks (I believe it is also for this reason that the deaths of almost 100 commuters in the Malbone Street subway wreck of 1918 is all but forgotten too).

All things considered, SHIP ABLAZE is a sad book, but not morbid. The accounts of the several ways the victims died (burns, smoke inhalation, trampling, suffocation, crushing, drowning, etc.) in that harrowing hour or so is offset by the many accounts of heroism and selflessness. And now, with the release of this brilliant book, plus several upcoming memorials to mark the 100th anniversary of this calamity, the world will now be reminded of a day that never should have been forgotten.

Rocco Dormarunno,
author of The Five Points

This book was very good. As a desendent of German immigrants that were involved in this disaster, I grew up hearing stories handed down in bits and pieces. Many of the threads of the stories were lost to the years. There was very little available in the way of research and people whose families had lived in NY for generations had never heard of this sinking or even guessed how many lives it took and families it destroyed. As family members read this book, many questions were answered that never made sense in the bits of information handed down through the years. As the 100th anniversary of the event approaches (6/15/04)our family will remember my great grandmother who gave birth to my grandmother on the day the sinking. My grandmother has been dead 24 years but her birth on that day saved 1 immigrant family who cancelled their boat trip to help my great grandmother give birth. For many years the head of the family saved, brought my grandmother a special present on her birthday. Some of these presents were handed down along with bits and pieces of information. This book answers all and will now be handed down in our family along with gifts.

I was unfamiliar with this historic tragedy, the fire on board the steamboat General Slocum in 1904 that cost 1,300 people their lives, on a church-sponsored outing on a popular venue that delivered charters to Long Island Sound for one-day excursions. The emotional devastation brought on by this horrendous event changed Germantown forever.

The author puts a human face on the group that participated in the outing, an annual event that offered a welcome respite to daily lives filled with drudgery. Although only a one day event, for the many residents of Germantown, the outing was equal to the two week vacations gaining popularity with working class New Yorkers, certainly as close as these day-trippers would get to any kind of leisure. The outing was carefully planned, tickets sold and whole families dressed up in their Sunday best.

In 1904, fire was a fact of life for New York City, especially along the waterfront. In fact, mandatory inspections were made of such vessels by special governmental oversight agencies; however, in the case of the General Slocum, the inspector failed to note the deterioration of the life preservers or fire hoses that were the original ones installed thirteen years prior. When the fire raged out of control, people were without any means of escape. Even the life boats were wired in place and could not be released.

The fire spread unchecked as passengers realized they were in mortal danger, smoke obscuring their vision. The crew made no effort to fight the flames or assist the desperate passengers, a factor that turned crisis into catastrophe. Most of the passengers couldn't swim and were further weighted by their clothing. Rotten life preservers turned into 20 pounds of dead weight as those who wore them jumped into the water, never to resurface.

When is was all over, 1,300 people had lost their lives, many of them children, too often all the children and mother in a family, most fathers staying home to work. Row upon row of hastily assembled coffins lined a makeshift morgue as relatives searched for loved ones. Public outrage was immediate and an inquest was called to deal with the aftermath of the fire. Someone needed to be accountable, but as so often happens in these things, the real culprits, the owners of the General Slocum and the inspectors, were well insulated by teams of lawyers. As weel, time was on their side, a fact they understood well.

O'Donnell has written a well-documented and moving account of a tragedy that stunned the city of New York on that June day in 1904, when a merry group of church-goers meant to enjoy their annual outing, only to have their vessel burst into flame around them, not far from shore. The decisions made in the moment of crisis only added to the numbers marked for death. The author introduces captain, crew and passengers in the moments before the horror began, then describes the chaos that ensued when the flames raged around the unsuspecting victims.

Above all, the people of New York City, especially the decimated population of Germantown, needed to know that a special commission would prevent another accident like this. But the public memory is short; by the time of the Triangle Shirt Factory fire, people had, indeed, forgotten about the General Slocum. All but the inhabitants of Germantown, who lost loved ones that were never recovered and those who stood over row upon row of tiny coffins, knowing they would never see their children again. These people never forgot the day they lost so many of their community, an event that changed the terrain of their lives forever. Luan Gaines/ 2004.

I just read this book and it was incrediable. I felt like I was on the Slocum because Mr. O'Donnell captured the pain suffering of those people who were aboard. I never heard of this tragedy. I heard of the Triangle and the Titanic but never have I heard of this disaster and I come from New York.

I would advise anyone to buy this book. They won't be able to put it down. I plan on reading it again. It was hard to fathom that greed was as bad back in 1904 as it is today. But please read this book. It will grab your heart and soul and have you praying for these people all over again. I felt the tears in my eyes when it said a little girl drowned with her pet kitten. These people suffered everyday of their lives trying to scratch out a living and when it came time for a little fun which they rarely had this tragedy had to happen. But the sad part is it did not have to. Thank you for letting me share my reading experience. Mr. O'Donnell keep up the good work. You have a new fan.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Geri A. Rath

About a year ago, I read a New York Times obituary of a woman who was thought to be the last living survivor of the General Slocum disaster. The piece described it as the worst disaster in New York City before the events of September 11, 2001. And I knew nothing about it, nor did my family and friends. Having been in New York for the more recent disaster, and feeling that it should never be forgotten, I was comepelled to learn more about the Slocum sinking. I was thrilled to find O'Donnell's book after reading a review in the New York Observer. I was even more delighted as I read it not only to learn everything I wanted to know about this terrible earlier disaster, but to have the pleasure of reading an historical account that read like a compelling novel. Were it not for the reminders of the pain and suffering of the victims, I would describe reading this book as quite enjoyable. For those who wonder how anyone could ever forget September 11, 2001, you must read this book.