It was a cool Saturday morning as employees from
the Western Electric Company began boarding the SS Eastland, anchored in the Chicago River, for a company outing.
The day’s itinerary included a trip up the river for a refreshing escape to Michigan
City, Indiana and a company picnic in Washington Park. Instead, the day is
remembered as the worst nautical disaster to occur on any of the Great Lakes. The
date was July 24, 1915.
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| SS Eastland |
The Eastland first
set sail as a passenger ship in May of 1903, but appears to have been burdened
with troubles from the beginning. During a public reception that spring, the
ship began to list uncontrollably from side to side. The reason? Too many
people had congregated on the upper decks. The steam ship was divested of
passengers and the problem corrected, but many felt that the Eastland had a dangerous design flaw,
and that things would only get worse.
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| Eastland Ready To Board |
One year later, with 3,000 people on board, the ship
again began to tilt port to starboard. Passengers panicked, but the crew
regained control of the Eastland with
no harm done. The listing problem resurfaced again in 1906 with 2,500 people on
board, and again in 1912 with 2,400 passengers aboard.
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| Court Proceedings |
In March 1915, the federal Seaman’s Act was
enacted in order to increase the safety and security of US seamen; it included
the caveat that a ship must carry enough lifeboats to hold all passengers and
crew. The law came about because of the RSS
Titanic disaster, which had occurred three years before.
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| Listing Ship |
The Eastland complied with the ruling, but the
added weight of the additional lifeboats made the passenger ship even more top
heavy. Many feared that because of this additional weight ships would
become ungainly and there would be more problems.
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| Boarding |
Excitement was in the air that July morning as
over 5,000 men, women and children, many Polish and Czech immigrants, boarded
five boats that had been chartered for their daylong adventure. Among the ships
ready to sail was the “Speed Queen of the Great Lakes:” the Eastland.
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| On Her Side |
Reports indicated that the ship, still tied to the
dock, began easing away about 7:10 a.m. with 2,572 passengers on board. It slowly
slipped about 40 feet out into the river, listing slightly. Then, at 7:28 it
lurched to port (left) and capsized, rolling on it's side and coming to rest in
20 feet of water at 7:30 a.m.
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| Survivors |
Mayhem ensued as passengers above deck were thrown into
the river. Those below were struck by heavy, careening furniture - a
piano, bookcases and tables, which slammed into passengers, crushing them amid the rushing
waters. Others suffocated when people were thrown on top of one another and they could
not regain their footing. (Those desperately fought for life vests and boats
were of no use here - there had not been enough warning for passengers and crew
to use them.)
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| A Victim |
The river was teaming with people trying to escape.
Eyewitnesses said that the screams were what they remembered the most vividly. A
total of 844 passengers died, including 22 families
that were wiped out; four crew members were also killed in the disaster.
Many died from their injuries; many more because they couldn’t swim.
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| The Morgue |
The bodies were taken to several temporary morgues
set up around the river. Hundreds of bodies were laid out in the Second
Regiment Armory where families lined up to identify their loved ones. Some bodies
were never identified; officials said that these may have been more families
that all died together with no one was left to claim their remains.
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| New Memorial |
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| Bohemian National Cemetery |
The largest number of the dead; 134 were buried in
Bohemian National Cemetery, on Chicago’s northwest side. The stones can be
identified by the date: July 24, 1915 and/or the words “obet Eastland” or “Victim of
the Eastland.” A granite memorial dedicated to the victims was unveiled
here two weeks ago and can be found in section 16. Details concerning the disaster,
and information about the gravesites are included on a plaque located next to
the memorial
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| Grand Jury |
A grand jury ruled the cause of the disaster to be
“conditions of instability” due to “an overloading of passengers, mishandling
of water ballasts or construction of the ship.” The ship’s captain and engineer
were charged with criminal carelessness, and the ship’s company president and
three officers were indicted for manslaughter. The presiding judge then changed
the charges to “conspiracy to operate an unsafe ship.”
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| USS Wilmette |
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| In Memory |
The ship was raised later that year. It was recommissioned in 1918 and named the USS Wilmette; it served in both world wars. In 1945, the Wilmette was decommissioned, and scrapped out in 1947. The ship's largest loss of life: July 24, 1915 when 844 people lost their lives in the Chicago River ...
~ Joy
