On the 24th of July, 1915, the SS Eastland - a passenger steamer - capsized in the
Chicago River. Conditions at the time were perfectly calm, the water placid.
There was no fire, no impact from another ship, no explosion. There was barely even any wind.
In fact, the ship was still tied up at the dock. Help was on hand almost instantly,
the water was relatively shallow, and the boat didn't even completely sink... and yet despite
all this the Eastland Disaster would turn into one of the deadliest in Chicago's history.
The Eastland was constructed in Michigan in 1902, and started sailing in 1903, hauling passengers
and cargo across the Great Lakes. Over the next few years she changed hands several times, and
had a few minor modifications made to her design to improve her speed and make conditions on board
more comfortable for passengers. Over the course of the first decade of the 1900s the SS Eastland
carried out thousands of trips that, for the most part, were smooth and enjoyable.
There were, however, a few notable incidents. In July 1904, during a routine voyage, the ship
listed heavily and almost capsized, causing much alarm amongst the 3,000 passengers on board.
Similar incidents also took place in 1906 and 1912. Both times the ship listed alarmingly
to one side or the other, making passengers fearful that it was about to capsize altogether.
Following each incident of excessive listing changes were made to the design of the ship.
Cabins were removed to adjust the weight distribution,
and the smoke stacks were shortened to reduce her height and make her more stable. Additionally,
her capacity was reduced several times, going from a maximum of 3,000 passengers down to just 2,570.
These changes were all intended to make the ship more stable... but as she changed
hands again and again, some owners also made changes that reduced her stability.
For example in 1914 a heavy concrete floor was added high up in the ship. A little later on,
following changes in legislation in the wake of the sinking of the Titanic, more lifeboats rafts
and life jackets were also added - again, all of them stored in the upper parts of the ship.
The end result was a vessel that was quite simply top heavy. By 1915 the Eastland was in the
hands of the Saint Joseph and Chicago Steamship Company, and was mostly running pleasure cruises.
On the 24th of July, 1915, it was booked out for the exclusive use of the Western Electric Company,
along with several other similar ships. Together they would transport workers from Chicago
to a park in Michigan City for the company's annual picnic. Coming at a time when workers
had far fewer opportunities to take vacations or go on trips of any kind, this was a much
bigger deal than it might be today. Workers and their families attended in droves.
At around 6:30am passengers began boarding the Eastland ,and within half an hour it was at full
capacity. Many of those on board went below decks to escape a light drizzle that had begun falling,
but others remained on deck to enjoy the view. It was at this point that the ship took on a
very slight list to one side - something which was quickly noticed by the crew.
They attempted to remedy the list by pumping water into ballast tanks, but this was not successful.
At 7:28am, with no further warning, the Eastland listed sharply to port and,
after a heart-stopping moment, toppled into the water on its port side. The part of the
river where it was moored was relatively shallow - little more than six meters (or 20 feet) deep,
in fact, and so the capsized vessel didn't sink, but instead came to rest on its side
only partially submerged. Passengers on deck were thrown into the water of the Chicago River.
Hundreds of thrashing bodies churned the muddy river into a foam.
Few of the people thrown from the deck knew how to swim, and many were weighed down by clothes or
had children to try and look out for. Being on the surface of the river, however, they did at
least have a chance of escaping with their lives. Those below deck, on the other hand, faced an
entirely different fate. As the ship turned over on its side they slid in a mass against the walls
where they were crushed by heavy furniture and the bodies of their fellow passengers.
As water rushed in they were forced to fight for a way out. Some escaped through portholes,
while others clambered towards exit doors only to find themselves pinned in a crush of bodies.
Within just minutes, many hundreds of people had been drowned. Above the water the scene became a
hive of activity: boats of all kinds converged on the stricken ship and began plucking people
from the water as fast as they could. People on the shore flung life preservers and empty wooden
crates into the water for survivors to cling to while they awaited rescue, and those who were
dragged up onto dry land were sent to hospital in private cars or given shelter by local businesses.
Later on, once all those who had survived had been pulled from the water, amateur and professional
divers would use their expertise to retrieve the many hundreds of bodies that were trapped below
the water line inside the hull of the ship. In total 848 people were killed in the disaster,
844 passengers and four members of the ship's crew. Witnesses reported that, quite unusually,
there were very few seriously injured. The vast majority either made it out
of the water in the first few minutes of the disaster, or simply did not survive.
This number of dead was quite unprecedented in Chicago history. For days afterwards funerals were
arranged back to back, with morticians working around the clock to prepare the bodies.
There was a shortage of hearses within the city, and church bells tolled for the dead throughout
the day and night for several days running. In the aftermath of the disaster not just one but
seven separate inquiries were launched. The legal proceedings which followed were intensely complex
and dragged on for many years - so long, in fact, that one of the main suspects (Chief Engineer
Joseph Erickson) passed away from natural causes. Once he was no longer alive to defend himself
blame was pinned squarely on him, allegedly for mismanaging the ballast tanks on board the vessel.
In this manner, the owners and other operators of the Eastland managed to avoid any legal
consequences. For the disaster, looking back now of course we can see that no one person was solely
to blame for what happened - although many had been negligent or careless. The tragedy took place
for a range of reasons, but mainly because the ship was rendered unstable by changes in use and
changes in design. One of these changes was the addition of extra lifeboats and lifejackets, which
were added in 1914 in response to the sinking of the Titanic. Intended to save lives, the extra
weight of this equipment had instead unbalanced the ship and ended up causing a fatal disaster.
Passengers who were affected by the sinking received little by way of compensation.
Western Electric did set aside some funds for compensation, but given the sheer number of dead
this money didn't stretch very far. Many of the bereaved were left with nothing.
The Eastland, however, was raised and sold to the US Navy, who renamed her the Wilmette and
converted her to a gunboat. She was put to use in a range of settings: everything from transporting
trainee naval reservists across the Great Lakes to taking President Franklin D Roosevelt on a cruise.
Despite being involved in one of the worst passenger disasters ever to take place,
the ship kept on working and wasn't scrapped until 1947, 32 years after the disaster.
Today the Eastland disaster has its place as part of Chicago history.
More passenger lives were lost in this tragedy than in the sinking of the Titanic,
but the incident (which mostly affected ordinary and working-class people) has never achieved
the same status in history, and is much less well-remembered. A few small monuments to the dead
remain in place on the banks of the Chicago River, and many residents of chicago are
aware of the disaster for its impact on their ancestors. In many ways, though, the disaster
which struck the SS Eastland, terrible as it was, has been almost forgotten in the years since.