Mark’s German Lutheran Church assembled a group of 1,360 people, mostly children and teachers, for their annual Sunday School picnic.
The riverboat-style steamer General Slocum was built in 1890 and used mostly as a vehicle for taking large groups on day outings.
It is the worst maritime disaster in the city’s history, and the second worst maritime disaster on United States waterways. The General Slocum disaster was the New York area’s worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the Septemattacks. More than 1,000 people taking a pleasure trip on New York City’s East River are drowned or burned to death when a fire sweeps through the boat.
