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.
