East River Fire

 

 

     Excitement filled the air.  Over 1300 passengers, mostly women and children, moved forward on a Manhattan pier jutting into the East River as they boarded the excursion steamship General Slocum bound for Long Island. It was June 15, 1904.
     The passengers were members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church. They were German-Americans who lived in the Little Germany neighborhood of Manhattan. The trip to Eaton's Neck, Long Island, was an annual group picnic event.
     Whistles and bells announced the ship's departure at 9:30 A.M. As the ship steamed past East 90th Street on the East River, a fire started in the forward Lamp Room. Captain William Van Schaick was notified at 10:10 A.M. The ship's crew was ordered to put out the fire, but most of the fire hoses were in a state of disrepair. Some were so rotten that they fell apart. Meanwhile, passengers found life preservers that were rotten with age, and as useless as the fire hoses. Some life preservers that could be used were soon waterlogged and too heavy. Many children and women who wore them sank in the river and drowned.
     The crew of 30 had never practiced a fire drill. Lifeboats were secured with wire and even painted in place and impossible to lower. Passengers were jumping over the side with or without life jackets. Most of the women and children did not know how to swim. Some passengers were caught in the ship's side-paddles as they went over the side to escape the fire. Others died when the fire-ravaged wood decks collapsed.
     Captain Van Schaick turned the ship into the wind, which fueled the fire. In addition, paint in forward lockers caught fire. Soon the triple-decked, side-wheel steamship was ablaze, fire out of control. The ship was taking on water and listing. The captain made one final effort to save the ship by grounding it on North Brother Island off the Bronx shore.
     It was estimated that 1,021 passengers and 2 crew members had burned to death or drowned. There were 321 survivors. It was the worst disaster in New York City's history before the tragic loss of life on September 11, 2001.
     A Federal grand jury indicted eight people after the maritime disaster: Captain Van Schiack, two inspectors, the Knickerbocker Steamship Company president, secretary, treasurer and commodore.
     Captain Van Schiack was convicted of criminal negligence and sentenced to ten years in prison. The other defendants were found not guilty.

 

(left click on photos to enlarge)

References:
1) New York Times, June 16, 1904.
2) Wikipedia, General Slocum
3) North Brother Island
4) Cortland Standard

    

Triangle and Capitol Fires, Four Days Apart

 

     The Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire occurred on March 25, 1911 in New York City. One hundred forty six garment workers died. Twenty victims fell to their death when an exterior fire escape twisted from the heat and broke apart. More than sixty leaped to their death from windows to escape the flames.
     The factory was located on the eight, ninth and tenth floors of the Asch Building at 23-29 Washington Place. (It is now known as the Brown Building and it is designated a National Historic Landmark.) There were ten stories in the building. The fire started about 4:40 P.M. on the eight floor under one of the cutter's tables. It soon spread to the higher floors.
     About five hundred workers were in the factory when the fire started. There were two stairways and two freight elevators. A door leading to the Washington Place stairway was locked. The Green Street stairway provided an escape route for three minutes before it was engulfed in flames and smoke. Workers escaped by freight elevator until electric power failed. Others climbed a stairway to the roof. Some of the workers decided to leap from windows.
     An eyewitness, Lewis Waldman, described the event: "...looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as a mangled, bloody pulp... Occasionally a girl who hesitated too long was licked by the pursuing flames and, screaming with clothing and hair ablaze, plunged like a living torch to the street. Life nets held by the firemen were torn by the impact of the falling bodies."
     The fire was extinguished in half an hour. Most of the one hundred forty six workers who died were young women. The Fire Marshall concluded that a match or cigarette butt started the fire under a cutter's table.
     One hundred thousand people attended a public funeral march a few days later. Victims of the fire were buried in more than a dozen cemeteries.
     The New York City District Attorney indicted the two owners of the factory on manslaughter charges. Evidence was introduced to show that it was common practice to lock the doors of the factory to prevent theft and unauthorized worker's breaks. The owners were acquitted when a jury determined that the owners did not know a door was locked.
     "The monstrous conclusion of the law is that the slaughter was no one's fault," New York's Literary Digest opined. "There are no guilty. There are only the dead."
     Reform was demanded by the people of New York State. Al Smith, Speaker of the Assembly, and Robert F. Wagner, Majority Leader of the Senate, led a Factory Investigation Committee. Committee members toured factories and mills all over the state. Working conditions were examined and documented. The commission drafted bills governing fire protection and work safety. Special restrictions were written into law for women and child labor. Between 1911-16, the state legislature passed sixty work safety bills.
     Four days after the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York City, a fire roared through the State Assembly chamber in Albany, New York. On March 29, 1911, the State Library was gutted by the fire, a night watchman was killed, and several offices were damaged. The cause of the fire was never determined.
     Approximately 450,000 books and 270,000 manuscripts, including some historical records of early Dutch and colonial history, were destroyed. Archivist A.J.F.Van Laer claimed: "The loss in this room means that the very basis of the early history of the state has been wiped out."
     As a result of this fire, a bill was pushed through the state legislature to place the historian's office under the Education Department.

Reference:
1) Wikipedia, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
2) New York Under Fire by Bruce W. Dearstyne, former program director at the New York State Archives.

Debate




www.TaxNightmare.org


Cartoon credit: G.S.
 

TREAT!

cartoon credit: G.S.

DEWLINE Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

     In 1958 the U. S. Department of Defence, under President Dwight Eisenhower, started to build the DEWLINE, or Distant Early Warning Line, 3,000 miles across the North American Arctic region. It was a series of radar and communications stations strung from Alaska to Greenland. A 28 minute video at the National Archives details the construction and operation of the project.
     The DEWLINE project was conceived when the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in a "cold war." Both nations were armed with atomic and hydrogen bombs, which were deliverable to distant targets by airplane. The shortest routes for delivery were across the North Pole.
     In the United States, paranoia on the subject of communism and the Soviet Union developed in Congress, state legislatures, churches and industry. Atomic bomb shelters were built in backyards and in basements of houses throughout the USA. Short-range missiles were deployed near potential target areas across the United States, such as the power facilities at Niagara Falls.
     The DEWLINE project was conceived about the same time as the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Bell Telephone and its subsidiary Western Electric were lead contractors for the DEWLINE project.
     Click on this National Archives website and then click on the video to see and hear the incredible details of building the DEWLINE. Alternately, click on Wikipedia history of the DEWLINE.

The Year Without Summer

1816 - The Year Without Summer

By: Lee Foster, Meteorologist

As we all know living in New England means enduring long winters and savoring the short summers. However, in 1816, the summer season was shorter than normal and is commonly referred to as “The Year Without Summer”. I first heard about this infamous summer from my grandfather who lived his entire life in Northern New Hampshire. He was not alive in 1816 but stories of that summer were passed down from generation to generation. His stories about that summer peaked my interest in the actual conditions in 1816 and after some research I discovered that indeed the summer of 1816 was not your typical summer.

The indications of a possible cool summer were evident during the spring time. The middle of May brought unseasonably cool temperatures to the region with light snow reported in Quebec Province with frost as far south as Virginia. Mild and sunny conditions returned to the Northeast by the last week of May before a strong cold front crossed New England on the 28^th with light snow again reported in Quebec and frost as far south as Pennsylvania. Reports of fruit trees being set back and acres of corn killed in Maine were common.

After a warm start to June, the month quickly turned stormy. A strong Nor’easter developed along the east coast on the 6th with rain mixed with snow in Quebec City and light snow observed over the highlands of New York and most of Northern New England. As this winter type storm moved into the Canadian Maritimes on the 7^th, the storm dumped 6 to 12 inches of snow over most of Northern New England with reports of 2 foot drifts in Quebec City. Strong high pressure followed the storm from the 8^th through the 10^th with frost every morning and reports of trees blackened or scorched across most of New England. By the end of the month the weather became more typical of June with even a heat wave from the 22nd through the 24^th.

If June was bad enough, July started out no better. A strong Canadian cold front crossed New England killing corn, beans, cucumbers and squash and the first talk of famine started. However, by the middle of the month, thoughts of a famine were almost forgotten as the hardy grains such as wheat and rye along with potatoes were doing quite well.

The fine weather continued into the middle of August when another frost occurred over interior New York and all of New England damaging many crops. Then on the 20^th a strong cold front crossed the Northeast with violent thunderstorms. Reports of temperatures falling 30 degrees after frontal passage were not uncommon. Frost was reported the next day as far south as Massachusetts with snow reported on Mt Moosilouke in New Hampshire. Corn was destroyed from Albany to Boston. If that cold spell wasn’t enough, it all came to an end on the 28^th when another strong cold front crossed the Northeast with severe frost that ended the growing season in most of Northern New England.

The consequences of this season were harsh. Only a third to a fourth of the hay was cut with only 10 percent of the crop harvested in some areas. Orchard yields ranged from barren to moderate but enough grains, wheat, and potatoes were harvested to prevent a famine but hardships did occur. There were reports of people eating raccoons, pigeons, and mackerel. Corn prices rose from $1.00 a bushel to nearly $3.00 a bushel. With crop failure and the shortage of hay, farmers turned to selling their cows and pigs which drove the price of meat down. With so much meat on the market beef prices dropped from $15.50 to $7.50 a barrel with pork falling from $16 to $4 a barrel.

So what caused this unusual weather during the summer of 1816? Some believe it was caused by sinners while some even blamed it on Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod experiments. However, climate data obtained from trees, ice cores, marine sediment and historical documents indicate 1816 was part of a mini ice age that lasted from 1400 to around 1860. During this time lower solar output produced harsh winters, shorter growing seasons and drier climates which were blamed for a host of human suffering and crop failures such as the Irish Potato Famine. Another possible cause was the eruption of the Tambora volcano on the island of Soembawa in Indonesia on April 15th 1815. The eruption lasted one week and rumbled for 3 months. The mountain elevation dropped from 14,000 feet to 9000 feet, killed close to 10,000 people on the island and another 80,000 people would eventually die from starvation and diseases related to the eruption. Tambora was one of the largest recorded eruptions with estimates of 1.7 million tons of dust put into the air equaling 6 million atomic bombs. The theory is that the dust reached the Northern Hemisphere during 1816 reducing solar output.

Whatever the cause, the next year saw the first general migration from the Northeast to the Midwest and 1816 also became know as the Poverty Year. The following poem from Eileen Marguet summed up the year:

It didn't matter whether your farm was large or small.

It didn't matter if you had a farm at all.

Cause everyone was affected when water didn't run.

The snow and frost continued without the warming sun.

One day in June it got real hot and leaves began to show.

But after that it snowed again and wind and cold did blow.

The cows and horses had no grass, no grain to feed the chicks.

No hay to put aside that time, just dry and shriveled sticks.

The sheep were cold and hungry and many starved to death,

Still waiting for the warming sun to save their labored breath.

The kids were disappointed, no swimming, such a shame.

It was in 1816 that summer never came.

Editor's note: This article displayed for education use only, courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration newsletter Maine-ly Weather.
Eighteen Hundred and Starve to Death takes a slightly different view of the weather events of 1816 and can be found at blog Choosing Voluntary Simplicity.

Riddle

     "Today I have a new riddle for you, George."
     "Let's hear it, Sam."
     "Listen carefully: the man who invented it doesn't want it; the man who bought it doesn't need it; the man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?"
     "A coffin."
     "How the hell did you know that?"
     "Sam, you must be losing it. You ask me that same riddle at least once a year."
     "Try another one then. A Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew each owe a dead friend $100. As they stand over the casket in remorse for not having paid the debt while the friend was alive, the Catholic and the Protestant each throw in a $100 bill, saying 'better late than never.' The Jew agrees with the sentiment and tosses in a check for $100. So what's the answer to the riddle?"
     "That's easy. He threw in a check because he knew the dead friend can't cash it."
     "Did I tell you that one before?"
     "No, but any school kid would understand that riddle. Besides, it's more of a joke than a riddle. Give me a real riddle."
     "You want a riddle? Here's a riddle. What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?"
     "Sam, you never asked this one before. But this doesn't seem like a riddle. It's more like a missing person or criminal case."
     "Oh, there's a riddle in this one. James R. Hoffa disappeared in October 1975. He was last seen alive in a restaurant parking lot. They never found his body. The FBI led the investigation and they claimed that Hoffa was rubbed out by mobsters. The FBI didn't have sufficient evidence to prosecute. Hoffa was the former head of the Teamsters Union. Yesterday I was watching TV and I heard a news reporter say that police were looking for his body under a driveway someplace in Michigan."
      "Did they find the body?"
      "No, that was another false alarm. So what happened to Jimmy Hoffa?"
     "Damned if I know. Do I look like a psychic? Your riddle about Hoffa reminds me of the Mad Hatter's riddle in Alice in Wonderland. 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' Alice answers: 'I think you might do something better with the time than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answer.' Sam, no one knows what happened to Jimmy Hoffa."
     "Well, George, there's still a riddle in it and I can show you where it is. As for Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, as I recall, Lewis Carroll gave an explanation for the Mad Hatter's riddle: 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' After the book was published, Carroll wrote: 'because it can produce a few notes tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front.'"  
     "Sam, don't tell me you remember that from grade school?"
     "George, I'm not suggesting that I did. I was watching PBS last week and I heard a woman discussing it. By the way, just so you know, Jimmy Hoffa's full name is James Riddle Hoffa."
     "Is that the truth?"
     "It is."
     A young waitress walks by their table with a pot of hot coffee.
     "Miss--a refill, please--regular coffee. Thanks."
     "Same. Thanks." 

 
Reference: Gangsters, Inc.