Find me here:
  The Paranormal Guide
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Atlas
  • Glossary

North Brother Island

6/11/2013

Comments

 
Picture
It is not known exactly how many people died on North Brother Island  during its time as an isolation and quarantine hopital, but we do know  more than one thousand people lost their lives when a steamboat sank  just off its shore.

The island and buildings now stand abandoned.

Disaster

PictureThe General Slocum
A young boy runs up to Captain Van Schaik of the passenger steam boat PS General Slocum, to tell him that fire had been spotted in the forward section of the ship. The Captain did not believe him. It would be ten minutes before he was once again informed of the fire but by then it was already too late.

The fire is believed to have started in the lamp room, quickly catching hold as it lit up the straw and lamp oil. A poorly extinguished and discarded cigarette or match being the likely suspect. The fire spread to other rooms aboard the Slocum, including the paint locker and gasoline stores.

The crew quickly scrambled to put out the blaze, but the safety equipment on the General Slocum was not up to scratch. Fire hoses had not been replaced in years, the rotted tubing falling apart in the crews hands. The lifeboats that could have allowed passengers to depart to safety were attached to the hull with wire and had been painted over, making them all inaccessible. Life jackets were old, the canvas filled with holes allowing the cork, the buoyancy, to escape... what's more is that iron bars had been placed in the bottom of the jackets to ensure they kept people floating upright... in this case all it did was cause people to sink faster.

PictureWreck of the Slocum
Captain Van Schaik kept the Slocum running, fearing that allowing it to drift would cause it to run aground on the banks of the East River, New York City, unfortunately this course of action actually fanned the flames making them burn hotter.

In the end, the General Slocum sank in shallow water just off North Brother Island. More than 1000 people drowned or burned alive. The date was June 5th, 1904, and it was the worst disaster in New York City, in terms of loss of life, until September 11, 2001.

Many of the victims washed ashore on the banks of North Brother Island which, at that point in time, was a quarantine hospital for contagious and deadly diseases.

PictureBodies being recovered from the wreck
As a hospital for infectious, deadly diseases, North Brother Island was no stranger to death. Although dozens of bodies washed up on its shore line on that day in 1904, they were all transported from the island on the same ferry that the hospital itself used to remove its dead.

Since 1885 the island had been home to the Riverside Hospital, a smallpox hospital that later treated other quarantinable diseases.

Three years after the General Slocum disaster, the hospital would receive a patient that would cause more media attention to be centred on the island.

Mary Mallon was a career cook, but for many she worked for she would present them with something else asides from food... she would also give them a sickness, one that would prove deadly for some.

Mary

PictureMary Mallon on the left
The problem was that although Mary Mallon was a carrier of the disease she did not present any of the symptoms, and so unbeknownst to her, she was spreading the disease to people through the food she prepared for them.

It is not sure how many people Mallon infected with the disease, but estimates run as high as the hundreds, with possibly as many as fifty deaths. The disease was rampant, and when the media found out about Mary Mallon, how she was a carrier who did not get sick herself, she simply spread the disease wherever she went, they gave her a nickname.

The disease was Typhoid.

She was known as Typhoid Mary.

Mary was quarantined for three years on North Brother Island, but then it was decided that asymptomatic carriers should not be kept in isolation. Mary was released as long as she no longer worked as a cook. She agreed to this but sometime after release she changed her name and went back to work as a cook, further infecting people and causing more fatalities.

Picture'Typhoid Mary' in quarantine (front)
In 1915, Typhoid Mary was placed back into quarantine on North Brother Island where she spent the rest of her life. She died November 11, 1938. Her autopsy revealed live Typhoid Bacteria in her gall bladder.

After Mary's death in 1938, the hospital ran for a few more years before it was closed and the island abandoned. It was later reused as accommodation for college students after World War II, then in the 1950's it was used as a detox and rehabilitation centre for adolescent drug addicts. This centre closed due to staff corruption, and what was considered cruel treatment of addicts.

Abandoned

PictureNature has started taking it all back
North Brother Island has been largely free of human habitation since the early 1960's. The forest that was once cleared to build the Riverside Hospital on the island has taken back the land, growing amongst the old buildings, concealing them. The old structures are off limits as they are starting to come down, though at times permission has been granted for journalists and photographers to go visit and document what is left.

Photos from these visits reveal that the hospital seemed to be abandoned with quite some haste – furniture still adorns the rooms, beds (some still with sheets and blankets) can be found in patients rooms, even some of the sets of keys, used by staff to access the rooms, can be found on shelves and in desks.


PictureThe Morgue
The morgue still stands, tiles starting to peel from the walls, the rusting autopsy table standing alone in the centre.

The paint peels, the ceilings sag and the boilers rust. One can only imagine what the walls whisper.

As far as my searches tell me, there are no reported hauntings on North Brother Island, but then no one has been there long enough to have such experiences.

Ashley Hall 2013
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

    The Paranormal Guide Articles

    Here you will find all of the articles written for The Paranormal Guide on all things paranormal, strange, dark, macabre, weird, strange and bizarre!

    All photos with the blog posts remain the property of their respectful owners. If one of your photos is featured here without attribution please leave a comment on the blog and full credit will be given.

    Categories

    All
    Bizarre Experiments
    Conspiracy
    Cryptozoology
    Cursed And Haunted Objects
    Curses Demons And Exorcisms
    Earth Mysteries
    Fakes Frauds And Hoaxes
    Ghosts And Hauntings
    Ghosts Ghouls And Demons
    Interesting And Inspiring People
    Investigations
    Miracles
    My Paranormal
    Paranormal Photos
    Paranormal Vocabulary
    Phobias And Philias
    Post Mortem Practices
    Psychics Predictions And Seers
    Questions And Discussions
    Reviews
    Spirituality And Miracles
    Spirituality And Miracles
    Strange And Macabre Places
    Strange And Tragic Deaths
    This Week In Dark History
    Tragedy
    True Crime And Punishment
    Ufos And Aliens
    Unsolved Mysteries
    Urban Legend Superstition And Folklore
    Weird Odd And Bizarre


    Ashley Hall -
    The Paranormal Guide

    Ashley Hall explores The Paranormal, True Crime, Strange Deaths, Dark History, The Weird, The Strange and The Bizarre! Fact or Fiction? You decide!

    Picture

    Contributors

    Picture
    Matty Sweeney
    Picture
    Peet Banks
    Picture
    Nic Hume

    Picture
    Check out The Paranormal Guide Podcast and join three paranormal investigators and researchers for honest and raw discussions on all things paranormal, strange, dark and macabre HERE!

    Archives

    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Please note that dates are from when the article was originally made.
    The Paranormal Guide does have posts all the way up to the current date.


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.