The day trip that devastated New York's Little Germany [View all]
20 June 2014
The day trip that devastated New York's Little Germany
By Stephen Evans
BBC News
On a fine summer's day 110 years ago, more than 1,000 people died in a disaster in New York. It was a massive blow to the city's German community, which never fully recovered...
...More than 1,000 members of the German community in what was then called Kleindeutschland (Little Germany) died when a pleasure trip turned to tragedy.
For its 17th annual picnic, St Mark's Lutheran Church on the Lower East Side had chartered a paddle ship, the General Slocum, to cruise up the East River to Long Island where the trippers would relax and have fun.
But as the three-decked wooden vessel sailed past 81st Street, a fire started below deck in a lamp room full of oily rags....
MORE at http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27930055
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