PS General Slocum / SS Eastland
The\xa0PS\xa0General Slocum\xa0was a passenger\xa0steamboat\xa0built in\xa0Brooklyn,\xa0New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions.
On June 15, 1904, the\xa0General Slocum\xa0caught fire and sank in the\xa0East River\xa0of New York City.[1]\xa0At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of\xa0St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church(German Americans\xa0from\xa0Little Germany, Manhattan) to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died. The\xa0General Slocum\xa0disaster was the New York area's worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the\xa0September 11, 2001 attacks. It is the worst maritime disaster in the city's history, and the second worst maritime disaster on United States waterways.[2]\xa0The events surrounding the\xa0General Slocum\xa0fire were explored in a number of books, plays, and movies.