Angels in the Gate: New York City and the General Slocum Disaster - Paperbackby Karen T. Lamberton (Author) On June 15, 1904, a disastrous fire aboard the steamboat, General Slocum, devastated the largest German ethnic population in the United States in a matter of two hours. Close to two thousand people, mostly women and children, were on board the General Slocum, bound for a picnic on Long Island Sound. A carelessly tossed cigarette butt turned this pleasant excursion into a raging inferno that claimed over a thousand lives.