Refdesk
Do any of you folks use refdesk? Its a pretty neat site. I use it at work to check addresses for packages I am shipping via UPS and DHL. You can find it here. There are interesting bits of news every day if you care for that sort of thing. Today you can find the story about President Taft pardoning the captain of The General Slocum, a passenger ship in New York City. Captain Van Schiack was charged with negligence in a fire that caused the death of over 1,000 people as the ship was traveling up the East River. This is a quite fantastic story. You should read the entire article, but I will post a couple paragraphs just to peak your interest:
On board the Slocum, where the Captain has ultimate safety authority, he did not demand that hoses and faulty lifejackets be replaced. The fire hoses fell apart when the crew attempted to put out the fire. Also, the crew had never had a fire drill. Although the ship had lifeboats and life preservers, they were useless. Survivors reported that the life preservers were rotten and fell apart in their hands. The lifeboats were tied up and inaccessible. Desperate mothers placed life jackets on their children and tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sank instead of floated, due to the condition of the jackets. Also, the population of the boat consisted mainly of women and children, most of whom could not swim. It has been suggested that the manager of the life preserver manufacturer actually placed iron bars inside the Cork preservers to meet minimum weight requirements at the time. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted, but not convicted. Many of the life preservers had been filled with cheap and less effective granulated cork and brought up to proper weight by the inclusion of the iron weights. Canvas covers, rotten with age, split and scattered the powdered cork.
On board the Slocum, where the Captain has ultimate safety authority, he did not demand that hoses and faulty lifejackets be replaced. The fire hoses fell apart when the crew attempted to put out the fire. Also, the crew had never had a fire drill. Although the ship had lifeboats and life preservers, they were useless. Survivors reported that the life preservers were rotten and fell apart in their hands. The lifeboats were tied up and inaccessible. Desperate mothers placed life jackets on their children and tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sank instead of floated, due to the condition of the jackets. Also, the population of the boat consisted mainly of women and children, most of whom could not swim. It has been suggested that the manager of the life preserver manufacturer actually placed iron bars inside the Cork preservers to meet minimum weight requirements at the time. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted, but not convicted. Many of the life preservers had been filled with cheap and less effective granulated cork and brought up to proper weight by the inclusion of the iron weights. Canvas covers, rotten with age, split and scattered the powdered cork.
Labels: Mayday
posted by 007 at 12/19/2007 08:15:00 AM
2 Comments:
I read a chapter in a book about that once; horrible descriptions of how the passengers perished.
I know the captain was charged, convicted and sentenced, but what about that manager of the life preserver co. who put lead bars in the cork to add weight to meet the minimum weight requirements? That really blows my mind.
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