I have been skipping pictures of the SS Eastland because I wanted to avoid discussing the accident it was involved in. But I have been passing up interesting information because I did not have an Eastland post to update. So I'm going to write a posting.
The SS Eastland was known as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes." It was one of five ships Western Electric had hired to take its Hawthorn Works employees to a company picnic in Michigan City on Saturday, July 24, 1915. It was docked on the south side of the Chicago River between LaSalle and Clark Streets to load its 2,500 passengers and crew. (EDHS, Tribune)
The SS Eastland was known as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes." It was one of five ships Western Electric had hired to take its Hawthorn Works employees to a company picnic in Michigan City on Saturday, July 24, 1915. It was docked on the south side of the Chicago River between LaSalle and Clark Streets to load its 2,500 passengers and crew. (EDHS, Tribune)
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| John B Copleston posted [In 1915, the bridge was still a Scherzer Rolling Bridge.] |
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| John B Copleston posted SS Eastland at Michigan City Docks Capt H Pederson |
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| Robert Bultman posted Tara Ross posted On this day in 1915, the excursion boat SS Eastland capsizes in the Chicago River. More than 800 were killed. It was the worst maritime disaster on the Great Lakes—and one of America’s worst such incidents during peacetime. Twenty-two whole families were lost. Nearly 200 women, including three pregnant women, were widowed. In the end, more passengers died aboard Eastland than aboard RMS Titanic. In a sad twist, the Eastland disaster might not have happened but for Titanic. In the wake of that tragedy, new federal legislation had been enacted mandating more lifeboats. The Act wasn’t in effect yet, but Eastland had been making changes in anticipation of the new law. Unfortunately, extra lifeboats also made Eastland more top heavy, worsening pre-existing problems that it already had. The day had started off on a festive note: Five excursion vessels were hired to carry thousands of Western Electric employees and their families across Lake Michigan. Once on the other side, they would enjoy a fun-packed day, including a picnic and an amusement park. Attendees were excited! Many had woken up early and were already boarding Eastland by 6:30 a.m. The first signs of trouble were soon spotted: Eastland began listing first to starboard, then to port. The ship was briefly righted, but began rocking again as the passenger count climbed higher and higher. By 7:20 a.m., the ship was at full capacity with about 2,500 people aboard. Then disaster struck. The ship had tilted sharply. A piano slid down the promenade deck. A refrigerator fell over. Dishes began falling off shelves. Water began pouring into portholes. People panicked, and some on the starboard side (next to the wharf) began jumping off. Unfortunately, their actions worsened Eastland’s list toward port. The ship had taken as much abuse as it could: It quietly rolled over into the Chicago River just before 7:30 a.m., coming to rest on its side in 20 feet of water. Some passengers were trapped inside. Others scrambled onto the side of the ship. Hundreds fell into the water. “When the boat toppled on its side,” one Chicago Herald reporter wrote, “those on the upper deck were hurled off like so many ants being brushed from a table. In an instant, the surface of the river was black with struggling, crying, frightened, drowning humanity. Wee infants floated about like corks.” Horrified bystanders began to throw flotation devices into the river. Some onlookers jumped in, hoping to help. At least reportedly, one man had been standing near the river’s edge, contemplating suicide. Instead, he jumped in and began saving people. One Western Electric nurse was nearby and raced to the wharf. “A few [survivors] were swimming,” she would recall, “the rest were floundering about, some clinging to a life raft that had floated free, others clutching at anything they could reach—at bits of wood, at each other, grabbing each other, pulling each other down, and screaming! The screaming was the most horrible of all.” She began caring for the wounded, but she also decided that those with minor injuries were adding to the confusion. She sent them home. “I would simply go out into the street,” she later described, “stop the first automobile that came along, load it up with people, and tell the owner or driver where to take them. And not one driver said ‘no’ or seemed anything but anxious to help out.” Americans helping Americans, as we have done so often in our history. Recovery efforts lasted for hours and some were saved. For others, it was too late. Titanic had lost 829 passengers in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, but now Eastland would lose 844 just feet away from a wharf. --------------------------- If you enjoy these history posts, please see my note below.  Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright © 2013-2021 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the shar e feature instead of cutting/pasting. Tara Ross Hi, everyone -- Some of you have asked me to get on other social media platforms..... And some of you have asked me to explain how those other platforms work. MeWe and Gab are the most like Facebook in how they function. Telegram is a direct messaging service. Kind of like a text message that delivers directly to your app if you sign up. You simply choose which channels you'd like to follow, then you can read anything that shows up there. Some channels allow comments/discussions and some don't. I've set mine up to allow comments, but in a way that won't create tons of notifications that make you crazy. My favorite thing about Telegram is you can choose who to follow and you are guaranteed to see anything in that channel as long as you open the app every day. Anyway, I hope that helps. My other pages are here:Website: https://www.taraross.com/blog Telegram: https://t.me/tararossdailyhistory I am sorry for the hassle, everyone. Thanks for loving history with me. Tara Ross To clarify for anyone who is wondering, the 829 number for Titanic is for passengers only. 694 crew were also lost on Titanic, but the 829 number is sometimes cited to show how huge the Eastland loss of life was compared to other tragedies. Why didn't the 844 people on Eastland get more attention? Ted Wachholz, president of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society, was quoted by the Smithsonian for his theory: "There wasn't anyone rich or famous onboard. It was all hardworking, salt-of-the-earth immigrant families." Matthew Lann Little known side note: the Chicago Bears almost didn't exist because of the Eastland disaster. The team's founder, George Halas, was supposed to be aboard the ship that morning, but couldn't make it. https://www.chicagotribune.com/.../ct-bears-george-halas... Remembering The Eastland Disaster of July 24, 1915.. |
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| Tribune |
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| Tribune |
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| Richard Pitchford posted
Passengers on deck of the SS Eastland, Chicago, 1915. Photograph by Jun Fujita.
The SS Eastland was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On July 24, 1915 the ship rolled over while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was to become the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
Following the disaster, the Eastland was salvaged and sold to the United States Navy. After restorations and modifications the Eastland was designated as a gunboat and renamed the USS Wilmette. She was used primarily as a training vessel on the Great Lakes, and was scrapped following World War II.
[I love these old river scene pictures as insight into the industries that used to line the river.] |
If you are a more sensitive reader, you may want to stop reading now.
I worked for Bell Labs, which was part of AT&T just as Western Electric was, so I have heard stories of the ship capsizing before it cleared the dock. The story I heard is that many of the passengers went to the dock side to wave bye-bye to friends or just to watch the ship leave for the excursion. But I have learned it actually rolled away from the dock, not towards it. The animation below is from this timeline, and it indicates the staff had plenty of evidence that something was wrong and that they should have probably aborted the trip. (And people wonder why I have never taken a cruise ship trip.)
EDHS
Court decisions blamed improperly weighted ballast tanks for the disaster. But adding 14-15 tons on top of the boat raised the center of gravity and reduced the effect of ballast tanks. (Tribune) It was a slender steamer built for speed. And some of the wood decks had been replaced with concrete. (WTTW)
As the crowded ship began listing back and forth from port to starboard, many thought it was a joke. But when the boat listed over so far that the people began to slide across the floor, panic began. Not only did most passengers not recognize the impending disaster, the master of the Eastland, Captain Harry Pedersen, failed to evacuate the ship. He sounded the alarm, but only after it was too late.
Passengers on the main deck panicked and rushed to the staircases leading upstairs. Sadly, the staircases proved to be the worst single death trap for those passengers within the interior decks of the ship.
Because the Eastland capsized so suddenly, no life boats or life rafts were launched, nor were any life jackets handed out.
844 people perished that day. Some were killed instantly after suffering a blow to the head. Many drowned, and perhaps just as many were suffocated and crushed to death by the sliding people and falling debris. (EDHS)
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| Richard Pitchford posted Survivors of the Eastland disaster are taken ashore by the tugboat Kenosha, July 24, 1915. [Actually, the captain of the tugboat simply parked it at an angle so that it was effectively a gangplank so that people could walk off the hull. As one of the Googled articles mentioned, that captain was more helpful than Eastland's management.] |
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| John B Copleston posted Gerald Vilenski posted Eastland disaster, Chicago, July 24, 1915. 844 passengers died, more than the Titanic... Doug Hitt Over 1500 people died on titanic. Gerald Vilenski Passengers. Not counting crew... Ryan Chapman Correct. 832 passengers perished on Titanic. Justin Gough So you don't count the crew? Gerald Vilenski Not in this case. I only counted the passengers. 694 crew members died on the Titanic.. Patrick Shannon Reminds us how near to us horror always is. Some families were so entirely wiped out in this event that there was no one left to claim the bodies and bury them. |
Sometimes it pays to pursue a redundant photo because you find some fascinating comments.
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| Wisconsin Maritime Museum posted July marked 105 years since the Eastland Disaster, the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history. Staff member Hannah Patten reflects on the tragedy and shares some images of the steamship from the collection in this Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter article. https://www.htrnews.com/…/wisconsin-maritime-mu…/5554169002/ |
After 8 years since I published, people are still finding new photos of the disaster.
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| Jeff Nichols posted The Eastland submerged, with the south bank of the Chicago River in the background. This comes from a scrapbook of Harry Birch, a Selig Tribune cameraman who filmed the rescue efforts. University of South Carolina. Paul Jevert shared Chicago's Eastland Disaster July 24, 1915 844 perished in the Chicago River that day when the Excursion liner capsized at the dock. |
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| From Daily Mail Photographic memory: Small boats attempt to rescue survivors gathered on the exposed side of the Eastland |
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| Glen Miller posted This building was at the forefront of the Eastland tragedy 100 years ago. The S.S. Eastland capsized in the Chicago River on the opposite shore, directly across from here. Because of its size and close proximity, the basement and first floor were used as a temporary hospital and morgue. The Reid, Murdoch and Co. Building was designed by George C. Nimmons. It held the company offices and was used as a food processing center and a grocery warehouse for many years ..... Reid and Murdoch started out as a provisions company called Monarch Foods that sold flour, bacon, sugar and other food staples to wagon trains heading west during the 1850s gold rush. Monarch survives today as part of US Foods. The building is now owned by Friedman Properties (Preserving the Past. Building the Future) and the firm’s corporate offices are located there. Principal tenants include the Britannica Corporation and the World of Whirlpool, with a 30,000 square foot product experience center. |
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| Richard Pitchford posted The SS Eastland being righted after it capsized in the Chicago River, July 1915. |
The Tribune recently found more pictures in their basement.
I can't find it again, but I remember a Facebook comment that indicated 844 deaths is more than the Titanic had.
Update: a link about the disaster that I found on a WE site. Since it happened on July 24, there has been another round of posting on it in Facebook. I tried to filter out the redundant pictures.
Neil Gale shared a link with the comment:
I can't find it again, but I remember a Facebook comment that indicated 844 deaths is more than the Titanic had.
Update: a link about the disaster that I found on a WE site. Since it happened on July 24, there has been another round of posting on it in Facebook. I tried to filter out the redundant pictures.
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| Greg Siewert posted Remembering the Eastland Disaster Memorial Plaque along the Chicago River front at the site where the Eastland capsized - between Clark and LaSalle. |
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| Greg Siewert posted [This is a different view of people using a tug than the one above.] |
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| Chet Lunsford posted Another haunting image taken by Chicago photojournalist, Jun Fujita, at the scene of the SS Eastland disaster. |
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| Greg Siewert posted SS Eastland Disaster July 24, 1915 Diver entering the Chicago River to investigate the capsized Eastland. There was no chance to rescue the passengers trapped inside lower decks. |
The chronological history of the July 24, 1915 "SS Eastland" disaster in Chicago with over 75 photographs.The Eastland was one of five vessels chartered to carry Western Electric workers and their families on a day-long outing from downtown Chicago to a park 38 miles across Lake Michigan. The Eastland was the first boat scheduled to leave, and employees had been encouraged to get there early. By a few minutes after 7AM, men, women and children were boarding at the rate of 50 per minute, with two federal inspectors keeping careful count, per normal practice. The Eastland was licensed to carry 2,500 passengers plus crew but more than 7,000 tickets were sold.CLICK TO READ ─► http://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/…/the-ss-eastland-disaste… in my Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal™"As a steady drizzle began to fall, many of the women, especially those with young children, took refuge below decks....Within two minutes after it listed 45 degrees to port, it rolled over....all the bodies that came up seemed to be women and children." [The above link] The referenced article also pointed out that the Eastland was top heavy when designed and modifications over the years to increase passenger capacity made it worse. The straw on the camel's back was the addition on the upper decks of lifeboats, life rafts, and life preservers for everyone after the Titantic sunk.
"It was said of her that she behaved like a bicycle, being unstable when loading or unloading but stable when under way," wrote transportation historian and economist George W. Hilton, whose 1995 book, Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic, provides a meticulous investigation. Safety inspectors focused only on the Eastland's performance while underway, and the boat routinely was certified as safe. [The above link]
Just 10 weeks earlier, the Lusitania had been torpedoed and sunk, with a death toll of 785 passengers. In 1912, 829 passengers had died aboard the Titanic (plus 694 crew members). Both of those disasters took place on the high seas. After the Eastland rolled, 844 passengers died on a sluggish urban river, 20 feet from the dock. Seventy percent of them were under the age of 25. [The above link]
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| ABC News, has video of a recently discovered documentary film of the disaster. The Eastland ship being righted after the Eastland Disaster on the Chicago River, |
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| SmithsonianMag The Eastland Disaster Killed More Passengers Than the Titanic and the Lusitania. Why Has It Been Forgotten? |
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| Eric Pieper shared pinterest |
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| Eric Pieper shared pinterest Lynden Mcdonald: Listing a bit..I. surprised the tragedy didn't happen sooner. Tanner Lilley: I never knew she had a dark colored hull at any point! (figured it was always all white) Eric shared Mike Manley: Later served as the USS Wilmette, naval training vessel during WW II on the Great Lakes. The Wilmette, the yacht Mispah, and the yacht Anna H, secretly carried President Roosevelt on a fishing expedition in Georgian Bay during WW II. |
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| Paul Erspamer commented on Eric's first share Eastland after the disaster, in her new gig as naval reserve ship USS WILMETTE, at Navy Pier in Chicago. C. Patrick Labadie Collection. |
Another posting about the Eastland Disaster.
And another posting
A new (2019) documentary
VintageTribune photo of it raised to 70-degrees and it still won't right itself
VintageTribune photo of people still standing on it
And another posting
A new (2019) documentary
VintageTribune photo of it raised to 70-degrees and it still won't right itself
VintageTribune photo of people still standing on it
Another plaque referencing the Eastland disaster is on the south side of Cermak Rd. (21st St.) at 47th Ave. (across the road from Scatchell's Beef & Pizza) in Cicero - an approximation of where the Western Electric plant was located.
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