Brooklyn Daily Eagle
26 June 1904

Official Police List Gives 1,031 Slocum Dead
Of These 81 Were From Brooklyn, According to Inspector Schmittberger's Report.
93 Persons Still Missing.
80 Unidentified Bodies Buried by the City ­ 179 Persons Are Reported as Injured.


The report of Inspector Max F. SCHMITTBERGER on the Slocum disaster was
submitted to Police Commissioner MC ADOO yesterday.  This report, which
contains the latest revisions and which is the official police record of the
catastrophe, increases the list of dead to a total of 1,031 persons.  In
that number are included those missing ones who are known to have been upon
the steamer General Slocum.  Of those 1,031 persons, 81 Brooklynites.  The
list of people from this borough who were killed and which was printed in
the Eagle on Thursday fixed the number at 78.  The revisions which were made
in that list came from sources which, in many cases, were conflicting and
the Eagle's report was but three short of the official record.  Eight new
names were added to the Brooklyn list and 5 were stricken off as not being
residents on this side of the river.  The added names were:
BOCK, May, 7 years, of 69 Marcy avenue
DARENHEIM, Minnie, 26 years, of 1065 Jackson avenue
KIRCHER, Karl, 3 years, of 185 Russell avenue
KLEIN, Manoi, 13 years, of 313 Miller avenue
ROBERTS, Blanche, 13 years, of 198 Guernsey street
REICHENBACH, Herman, 2 years, of 241 Stockholm street
SIBELSKY, Kate, 8 years, of Freeman street
TETAMORE, Sophie, 26 years, of 1471 Bushwick avenue

Inspector SCHMITTBERGER's report, which comprises seventy-seven typewritten
pages, says:
"The accompanying list of persons classified as "Dead," "Missing," "Injured"
or "Uninjured," may be considered as absolutely correct and reliable, so far
as information contained therein could be obtained and verified up to this
date."
One hundred patrolmen, who were able to speak the German language reported
at the Fifteenth precinct station house for that duty, and the work was
conducted without intermission.  Ninety-three persons who are positively
known to have been on board the steamer General Slocum at the time of the
disaster have not returned to their homes and can be considered as having
perished.
Total number of persons dead, 938
Total number of persons missing, 93
Total number of persons injured, 179
Total number of persons uninjured, 236
Total number of children made orphans, 15
Total number of unidentified bodies buried by the city, 80
The patrolmen were instructed to make inquiries of the survivors as to the
knowledge in their possession which would aid the District Attorney in the
prosecution of persons responsible for the disaster.  As a result, many
statements have been forwarded to the District Attorney.
Inspector SCHMITTBERGER's report continues:
"The inquiries also extended to the ascertaining of how many children have
been made orphans by the loss of their parents by the disaster, all cases of
persons in distress, in need of aid and assistance to enable them to bury
the dead and to assist them in their immediate wants.  The photographs of
unidentified bodies have been placed on exhibition at the Fifteenth Precinct
station house, and already seven identifications have been made from the
photographs."
Append to the report were a number of brief statements from survivors of the
disaster.  One of them, that of August J. LUTJENS, Jr., of 101  Clymer
street, Brooklyn, contains many new features of the disaster.  He says:
"I saw smoke coming from the hold of the boat and took down six or seven
life preservers from the rack.  Some of them broke, the cork came out of the
canvas of others and the straps broke.  I jumped from the boat at 10:20 A.M.
about 200 yards from North Brother Island.  Two unknown men in a rowboat
demanded $2 from me and from others they demanded all they had."
Jacob H. SCHIFF, treasurer of the General Slocum Relief Fund, announced last
night that the subscriptions for the benefit of the families of the dead had
reached a total of $106,064.04.
Coroners BERRY and O'GORMAN and Inspector ALBERTSON made a thorough
inspection yesterday afternoon of the hull of the wrecked Slocum.  They
found in the forward locker, where the fire had its origin, seven barrels,
three of which had contained kerosene and four had contained lubricating
oil.  There were also several barrels of crockery packed in straw.
Inspector ALBERTSON said later that it seemed to him that the locker had
been made a general dumping ground for all kinds of wornout articles on the
ship, many of which would burn easily.

Transcriber: Mimi Stevens
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