Chapter 49
June 15, 1905
THE c*****e OF the General Slocum was the deadliest disaster in the history of the United States. One thousand and thirty of the thirteen hundred passengers perished in the blaze, and the remains of sixty-one victims could not be identified. Fault for the tragedy was generally attributed to three parties: inspector Henry Lundberg, who evaluated the fire safety systems as being in working order; Frank Barnaby and the other executives of the Knickerbocker Steamship Company, who failed to invest in proper equipment and sought to cover up this fact; and Captain Van Schaik, who accepted the fraudulent inspections and never tested the gear or ran fire drills. In addition, the captain made the fatal decision to run into the wind toward North Brother Island, which fed th
