the 24th of July 1915 the Chicago River Chicago Illinois an Excursion boat of rather peculiar construction sits at her moing loading 2,500 passengers for a trip to Michigan City Indiana but this ship the SS Eastland wouldn't even cast off alliv her moing lines before tipping over into the river and claiming the lives of 844 people but what causes the worst tragedy in Chicago History surely there was a reason for This Disaster some culprit to shine a light upon the truth behind the accident is more complicated and Elusive than one would first believe our tale begins in Lake Michigan in the early 1900s the Great Lakes Community especially around the Chicago area was thriving in 1890 the population of Chicago was already a million people by the turn of of the century it would reach 1.6 million and by 1910 that figure would almost double Chicago was already a center of industry and commerce and through that massive population other neighboring areas would thrive on the west side of Michigan coastal cities were the host of numerous Resort and Retreat towns cities like St Joseph and Benton Harbor hosted large hotels and resorts while Farmers from Central and Southern Michigan would bring in produce to be sold in town or transported via freighter to Chicago to be sold one such company existed in the city of South Haven the dunkley Williams Company the company operated four Steamers already the city of kalamazo the HW Williams The Glenn and the patki but these vessels were smaller Wood Construction Great Lake Steamers they were used for smaller Cross Lake trips Dunley Williams envisioned a larger steamer of Steel construction used to take Chicagoans from their street cars in Chicago across the lake Lake to the resort towns then bring produce back to Chicago for sale making two Cross Lake trips in one day little did Dunley Williams know that simultaneously a company was forming in South Haven as well looking to capitalize on that very same Market esteemed Great Lakes Captain Captain John C perau teamed up with a handful of investors Chief among them being Lumber Mogul Robert R blacker together they formed the Michigan steamship company in 1902 they teamed up to raise money for their own steam ship operating out of South Haven and traveling to and from Chicago to drum up supporters and backers they announced they'd Nam the ship the city of South Haven they put in an order for the ship on the 7th of October of 1902 with the Jinx ship building company of Port Huron Michigan Jinx was a reputable ship Builder having built several large Great Lakes Raiders before but this would be their first forr into Excursion to steamers fortunately it would also be their last Jinx built only one ship after this one before closing shop but all the same the Michigan steamship company ordered a vessel of Steel construction similar in size and dimensions to many oceangoing steamers of the time but particular emphasis in the contract was on her speed and her draft The Vessel was to be over 200 ft or 60 M but many of the ports on Lake Michigan were particularly shallow namely South Haven itself the depth sometimes being as shallow as 12 ft or 3.6 M The Vessel needed to be able to make it into these shallow Harbors simultaneously the Michigan steamship company made this an incentivized contract they requested a vessel that could make 20 mph or 17 knots the Great Lakes historically use miles hour as opposed to knots the company stating they pay $250,000 for the ship but after the ship ship was delivered they would have a panel of judges on board for Speed trials for every quar of a mile hour over 20 they pay jensx an additional $2,500 but for every quarter of a mile hour under 20 they take $2,500 off the price tag if the ship failed to break 19 mph they could outright refuse to pay for the ship and return it to jinx completely Jinx would additionally be allowed to make repairs or refits to the ship to ensure she reached her Target speed at the expense of jinx of course and so construction of the city of South Haven began in Port here on Michigan but soon the owners of the Michigan steamship company would learn that a week later the Dunley Williams Company would start the construction of their own steamer in Toledo Ohio the proposed name of this vessel the city of South Haven thus a race soon began two companies two Steamers one name Winner Takes the name but while Jinx was was respectable and wellestablished ship building company the Craig ship building company in Toledo Ohio was simply better suited they had on-site woodworking shops a forge Joiner shops Etc the Toledo ship Builder could put together and launch a 500t freighter in the span of four or 5 months Jinx was a smaller almost family-owned affair they were suited for ship building but a bit outclass by Craig ship building so as the competition steamed on into the winter months it quickly became became apparent to the Michigan steamship company that they would not be winning their competition the name city of South Haven would be going to the Dunley Williams company and they would have to come up with a new one so a competition was started to give the steamer a new name so on January 20th 1903 the competition was announced a name of more than eight letters Indian names or names that invoke the idea of speed comfort and Beauty were preferred winner would receive $10 and a season pass on the steamer quickly many names were submitted 565 in total 10 submissions suggested Michigan 22 suggested hawaa eight were for Pokagon and 13 for Majestic these were all rejected having been duplicates of existing ship names they also rejected any submissions that were names of people finally in April as the ship neared completion the name Eastland was picked it was suggested by a miss David Reed of South Haven the Dunley will ship city of South Haven launched in March of 1903 a solid 2 months after the SS Eastland would be side launched into the Black River in Port Huron at 2:30 p.m. on May 6th 1903 the ship would be christened by Captain perau wife Francis Elizabeth stufflebeam the event was festive The Company Men and families attending local school children were given a partial day off the Jinx doc workers attending to celebrate their expansion into two passenger Steamers the Eastland would slide down into the river heal over 45° then ride herself as one Observer said just as nice and steady as a church by July the SS Eastland was fully fitted out with her boilers and engines installed on Monday July 13th she was shown to her owners and next day shown to the public The Vessel was rather large for a lake passenger steamer especially being of Steel construction she was 265 ft or 81 m in length the 38 ft 2 in or 11.63 M at the beam and she boasted a 19t 6 in or 5.94 M draft she also had three decks While most Channel Steamers only had two the top deck was called the hurricane deck this tended to house the ship's lifeboats and life rafts and was above the Pilot House beneath this was the promonade deck and smoking room curiously and subsequently one of the things the Eastland became known for the smoking room housed a steam calop or kopy depending on who you ask a sort of steam powered piano organ It produced a loud shrill call that could be heard from great distances a kopy player would often play pulling in and out of port also other passengers that knew how were invited to play if they wished but it was so loud and distracting that companies in Chicago discovered they were actually losing money from workers getting distracted by the instrument as the Eastland pulled in and out of Chicago they approached the police and city government about it and the Eastland was banned from playing it as they came in and out of Chicago up to three nautical miles out of port beneath this was the cabin deck which upon its launching boasted two parlor rooms and 86 cabins later on these cabins would be removed and the deck would be renamed the tween deck there was also a large dining room on this deck beneath this was the main deck which hosted a cargo area for fruits a baggage area a crew galley and a bar as a bit of a novelty the bar housed a large refrigerator for keeping beers cold a newer invention it was quite large but was very popular among patrons this was also where the five gangways for loading and unloading were located only a few feet above the waterline benath this was the boiler room and engine rooms the ship was powered by four coal-fired Scotch firet tube marine boilers she had two triple expansion steam engines that ran two shafts in its original configuration it was 1,7 50 horsepower and could achieve just 19 mph beneath the engine room boiler was a double bottomed hole in five ballast tanks subdivided along the Keel to roughly make 10 ballast tanks I only bring this up due to their importance in the ship's life the port of South Haven often had a large Sandbar just outside its mouth this Sandbar necessitated a very shallow draft to hop the bar this meant the very large Eastland had to empty her ballast tanks prior to to loading then fill them up as they went out onto the lake in doing so she could go from a shallow draft of just 10' 6 in or 3.2 M to her normal draft of about 14 ft or 4.2 M these balance tanks varied in size the largest tanks were the number three tanks located roughly Aid ships it was around 64 ft or 19 M long and 19 ft or 5.7 M wide and held around 82.5 5 tons of water each next largest was the number two tanks just forward of it holding 53 tons each next was the number four tanks just under the engine room at 40 tons capacity each the number one and five were located at the bow and Stern respectively they held 80 tons between them and throughout the usage of the Eastland they were reportedly always full the chief Engineers never touched them in total the system could hold 647 tons of water water was brought into the system through a gravity fed pipe on the port side of the ship the pipe being around 16 in in diameter which could be used to fill any of the tanks desired by the engineers the engineers controlled the Flow by valves located on top of the tanks cross valves could control the flow between tanks meaning if the engineer wanted to fill up only the starboard or port side of a tank he could do so by isolating it the main valve manifold in the ship could be used to fill or empty the tanks but never both there was an overboard discharge located on the starboard side of the ship the tanks had a central watertight girder in them and each tank was an additional side girder that was not watertight meaning the water in each tank could flow freely through the tank this became very important later the Eastland Departed the Black River in Port hon at 2:30 a.m. on July 16th The prominent members of the Michigan steamship company and Jinx were aboard additionally anyone who could afford to make their way from South Haven to Port Huron were given a free trip aboard the ship as she steamed for the first time to her New Port around 250 people were aboard she made her way from Port hon to MAA Island then from maau Island to Manesty and from Manesty to South Haven each stop she would allow onlookers aboard to inspect her first impressions were good she was a sharp looking ship her hole was a dark forest green as was customary for ships from J her super structure was white her main public rooms were finished with Rich mahogany and cream colored paint and her dining room was quarter saww Oak and blue paint the blue paint was adorned with ornamental clusters of fruit she looked theart but her performance was noticeably lacking right off the bat she couldn't achieve that projected 20 mph only a barely passing 19 mph the Michigan steamship company's dream of two round trips across Lake Michigan a day plus two overnight trips a week looked Out Of Reach they had to reduce their schedule to one round trip a day there was an additional issue that the ball system wasn't as potent as they had once hoped quite often The Vessel bumped bottom on the bar outside South Haven over its first season the Eastland snapped off 22 of the propeller blades on its three bladed twin screws one time it picked up a steel cable laying on the bottom of the river and wrapped it around the ship's starboard screw fouling it but she seemed seemed stable enough the only reported issue was her noticeably low gangways in her first season the ship was loaded leaving Harbor she had a minor port list of about 10° but this was enough for water to start coming into her gang wise a surfman on duty at a life saving station noted this and got underway to notify the captain the list was corrected with little issue and nothing further was reported or done about it but the inaugural season was fraught with issues one notably being the captain and Company founder being Captain perau the man wasn't used to being at the helm of a twin screw vessel and struggled notably on the morning of July 23rd 1903 the ship was moving about in the Chicago River near the well Street Bridge the stern of the Eastland struck the tug George W Garder which was mored at the Dunham Towing and Wrecking Company the tug rolled over and foundered thankfully no one was on board in August the ship was returning from Chicago to South Haven when she puttered to a stop there was no steam when perau investigated he found six of the ship's firemen on the bow refusing to stoke the Flames their complaint was poor food quality this was a mutiny perau left returning a few minutes later with a pistol ordering the men back to work or they'd be arrested they persisted so the men were arrested as the Eastland returned to port with just two firemen stoking the fires the six men were taken under arrest by the police when the Eastland made poured it was later reported that the men refused to work because they demanded mashed potatoes instead of boiled the mashed potato Mutiny as it was soon called helped the company save face by making the firemen's complaints seem ridiculous but blacker the now company president had had enough perau was replaced by Frank a DH a sound Choice DH was experien with Great Lakes train car fairies large twin screwed ships on the Lakes the Eastland ended the season underperforming in many ways but jenss still heavily invested in the vessel agreed to make alterations to the ship Michigan steam ship was owed $10,000 for the vessel only being able to achieve 19 mph they put forth this 10K for the alterations to which Jinx put forth an additional 25,000 speeding up the ship would be done by installing an Ellis and EES induced draft system this system would utilize fans on on the exhaust system for the boilers what these fans did was create negative pressure inside the furnace this increased the system's heat transfer rate by doing this they had to add additional weight to the heat exchanger at top the boilers as well as add one possibly two fans to the main deck to allow heat to be expelled through the stacks while they were doing this they also added a McCreery system air conditioner this system essentially cooled a stream of air by forcing it through cascading water it kept a constant water stream by a stream of buckets scooping water from a feed tank and carrying it up to a track of diagonally inclined planes it isn't clear how heavy the system was but it is known that it fed air through a system of ducks that were installed in the overheads and the system was put on the hurricane deck additionally jenx made an effort to move around machinery and attempt to alleviate the issue of the ship hitting the bar outside South Haven the nature of this movement wasn't well document mented but it was noted that the ship seemed to generally to squat more or sink lower down along the Keel into the water these were two large and relatively heavy systems added to the ship in very high areas this went to noticeably change the ship center of gravity this would ultimately begin a change in the ship that would eventually spiral out of control and cause her ultimate downfall these two systems were just the foundation that started the ship down the path of her ultimate demise before we continue it's important that we understand some basics of stability if you know about stability or don't care to learn a bit of technical science you may want to skip ahead a bit but I assure you all of this becomes very important later for the basics we need to understand Archimedes principle Archimedes principle states that a floating object is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced meaning of course that if the object hasn't displaced its own weight by the the time it sinks up to the top it's going under so now we have to know buoyancy labeled B in this figure buoyancy is the upwards vertical Force supplied by the water displaced by a floating object I.E our ship the Eastland and the force pushing it back against buoyancy is gravity labeled G we all should know what gravity is from fifth grade science if you don't believe in gravity or are a flat earther you should probably flip off this video now the center of GRA gra it however is not a constant and often shifts towards increases of Mass on a ship ideally your center of gravity should be in line with the Keel of your ship along the center out line of the vessel but as cargo is brought on board or ballasting is performed the center of gravity will move towards that added Mass placing cargo higher on the ship will raise the center of gravity while ballasting tanks will lower the center of gravity if one were to add cargo outboard of the center line of the ship the center of gravity will shift to that side creating a list adding cargo to the other side or balting tanks on the opposite side can help to bring that center of gravity towards the center line of the ship labeled here as figure a the center of buoyancy is typically the geometric center of the submerged portion of the floating object while the center of gravity is defined as the point on the body around which its weight is evenly distributed and through which the force of gravity acts on a stable vessel the center of gravity and the center of buoyancy should be in line and above one another acting equally against one another to maintain stability and keep the vessel afloat external forces May temporarily misalign these two centers things like wave action or wind might cause the ship to heal over to one side or the other pushing over the center of gravity or Sinking the center of buoyancy doing this creates an unequal pressure as more water is displaced thus creating a greater force of buoyancy this pushes the submerged portion of the hole back up out of the water and back into stability this Sway and return is called a writing moment as long as the vessel can self-right before the sway leads to the center of gravity being below the center of buoyancy The Vessel stability will be maintained the center of buoyancy moves as the vessel moves the counter forces of buoyancy acting against the lowest part of the hole and counteracting Against Gravity as buoyancy moves it creates an ark likee motion with a direct line straight upwards from it labeled B Dash as buoyancy moves out from beneath Gravity the intersection from which it moves is a stationary point on the hole called The Meta Center labeled M it's supposed to be along the center line and is often calculated and provided to the ship's Captain the height at which the metacenter is over the center of gravity is known as the ship's metacentric height or MH the MH isn't a constant it varies as the center of gravity is raised or lowered by adding objects to the ship or changing the weight of the ship calculating the ship's metacentric height can help show the overall stability of the ship as well often times ships are designed with very large metacentric Heights ships like Lake freighter that must onload large amounts of weight need very high metacentric heights the issue being that the MH must remain positive or the metacenter must remain above the center of gravity if the MH ever becomes negative or The Meta Center Falls below the center of gravity by too much topside weight the ship will capsize back in the early 1900s there existed a test to determine a ship's metacentric height called an inclining experiment it was performed by adding weights to different parts of the ship to map the ship's metacentric height this was common practice but was not required an inclining experiment was never performed on the Eastland until after the accident when the ship was being repurposed for usage in the US Navy the Chicago Tribune stated in 1904 that that the Eastland had a metacentric height of only 4 in this is extremely low in comparison to the Eastlands direct competition the city of South Haven had a metacentric height of 4' 10 in which was fairly standard how the Tribune determined this is unknown so the accuracy of it is in question but the ship seemed to most certainly react in such a fashion she had a very long and smooth roll period which made for a smooth ride but was a definite sign of a very small small MH while operating out on the lakes in rough weather and with small amounts of passengers it would indeed be a very comfortable ride when the ship was taken back from Port Huron on May 9th of 1904 the chief engineer stated he used no ballasts while she was pounded by Heavy Seas he said she was as steady as could be but with the change in metacentric height came a vital need for ballasting when loading passengers this unfortunately led to a very dangerous practice amongst the ship's Chief engineers the common practice was to arrive into and depart port with empty or only partially full ballasts the ship needed as shallow a draft as possible upon entering or leaving Port then they would balast down once out on Open Water often times Engineers would balance down only the tanks outboard of the pier to tilt the gangways upwards for passengers to load on board easier ballast tanks can function in three states when completely empty the ship sits higher out of the water the center of gravity is higher and closer to the metacenter but is relatively stable in its natural state if unloaded once loaded the center of gravity becomes even higher and more dangerous when full the ballast tanks add weight lower in the hole reducing the center of gravity and creating a larger metacentric height even with loads on board with a full balance tank the ship is more stable but sits lower in the water the third state is a half full ballast tank which actually raises the ship's metacentric height a ship with half full balance is extremely unstable and has a higher center of gravity and shorter metacentric height than with empty ballasts the reason being that the weight in a half full ballast tank acts more like a fluid than a full or empty ballast water in a ballast tank flows freely from side to side called the free surface effect as a ship heals or tips it pushes outwardly against the tank bulkheads and causes an uneven distribution of weight with two tanks like on the Eastland the issue is doubled where in the tank on the outboard side still pushes towards the incline side of the ship this will cause extremely long and slow roll periods as the tank fills it raises the center of gravity until it reaches a point of being about 90% full then it lowers again the most dangerous time for the eastl is when it is fully loaded and its ballast tanks are filling the first near Miss after east's alterations came on the 17th of July 1904 the Eastland was departing South Haven on a return trip to Chicago The Vessel like many that day was packed folks leaving South Haven after having spent the day or weekend in the Lakeside Retreat heading home to Chicago estimates differ in the exact number on board at the time Captain DH believed it as many as 3,000 but more conservatively Federal Hull inspector Ira Mansfield held it closer to 2,142 while the ship's Purser George hail testified later that he received 2370 tickets all the same it was far less than the ship's maximum capacity of 3,300 people what is known for certain was it was a very hot day the Eastland High siding made it stiflingly warm on the main deck many patrons sought the cooler Lake Breeze up on the hurricane deck and prominade Deck The Vessel had departed South Haven and thanks to the increased power of the force draft system she was now easily capable of reaching 20 mph even hitting a record of 22.25 mph at one point this under the nickname The Speed Queen of the Great Lakes the engineers had put water in the Eastlands number one and number two tanks to raise the stern so she could jump the bar during this time the number three tank the largest was being used to store potable water common practice was to store only the amount it needed partially filling it once getting out onto the lake it typically was only about a third full the last two tanks were empty about 5 minutes out or a mile and a half from Shore the Eastland began to list heavily to Port around 12 to 15° at first the passengers seemed jovial about it not very concerned Captain DH called down to the engine room ordering the number one and number two tanks emptied which was a prudent idea if they were partially full their free surface effect would likely cause the list but soon after he ordered the number four tank filled the tank was filled for 5 minutes causing the vessel to move towards an even Keel only for it to now heal en list over to starbird instead possibly even more as much as 20 to 25° the atmosphere grew more tense and now even panicked DH estimated as many as a thousand people were on the hurricane deck prior to the listing in a panic more surged up from the lower decks to the top decks raising the ship's center of gravity people panicked putting on life jackets and contemplating jumping overboard as the ship listed to starboard dhy took control of the ballast himself as the ship was checked down to half speed crew begged passengers to lay below to reduce the ship's center of gravity there was a rumor that they even threatened passengers with a fire hose but that was denied by the captain later on water was reported to be leaking through the two aft gangways up to 18 in by one of the members of the public in total it took over a half an hour to get the ship back to an even Keel passengers begged the captain to return back to South Haven but once the ship was rided he pressed on bringing the Eastland back to Chicago nearly 40 minutes late this situation was dangerously close to a total disaster and foreshadowed frighteningly what would happen 11 years later in 1915 though the consequence would have been far worse had it happened in 1904 the Eastland had it capsized after its second harsher list would have been around 5 mil from Shore far away from any immediate rescue on top of this instead of resting on her side like she had in 1915 she'd have likely rolled entirely over her meta Center passing under her center of gravity so as to have the Keel upwards being her new position of equilibrium there would have been no time to launch lifeboats those inside the lower decks likely would have become trapped Captain DH avoided a terrifying catastrophe but east's reputation did not come out of this unscathed the Eastland was inside of the pier when all this occurred on top of that a federal Hull inspector was on board at the time several changes came about one was to reduce then altogether ban passengers from the hurricane deck a policy that fell out of use with subsequent owners of the Eastland additionally the chief engineer correctly sumed that the poble water being held in the number three tank was causing the poor stability or at least not aiding it the number three tank would decidedly be left full and additional tanks for poble water were added they would also leave port with one of the forward tanks completely full having to push through about 18 in of sand when passing over the bar one of the AF tanks would be used for ballasting as passengers got aboard after this the ship's maximum capacity would be lowered from 3,300 to 2800 either at the behest of the captain or ordered by the federal government throughout the years her capacity would be changed raised and lowered but never back up to its original capacity this change of adding additional balance seemed to help the stability issue but lowering the center of gravity had additional obvious issues 28 propeller blades were snapped off in 1904 and needed replacing additionally sand would get into the ship's propeller bearings it was costing the company a small fortune so in September she was put into dry dock for modification not running an overnight route it was deemed the cabins were unnecessary so their number was haved a new staircase was added from the main deck to the cabin deck and a few spaces were moved to a lower deck additionally four lifeboats were added and it isn't clear as to why they also repainted the ship to its iconic and well-known white color but the brunt of these modifications did assist in red reducing the weight of the ship enough to help it clear the bar but to the Hefty price tag of $50,000 the already struggling Michigan steamship company couldn't recruit that money and ended up being libeled by the dry do owners losing money and unable to pay the company was reorganized at the end of 1905 the eastl being purchased by Robert blacker the then company president of Michigan steep ship company blacker then reorganized the company into the Michigan Transportation Company but did not operate the east for much of the Season it wasn't until later that he worked with the Dunley Williams Company former rival of the Michigan steamship company to start a cooperation forming the Chicago South Haven line in 1906 an interesting Side Story Sprouts up apparently the former general manager of the Michigan steamship company a captain Leander Leighton was part of the company from the very start even helping the company by purchasing the birth for the Eastland in South Haven in September of 1906 Captain Leighton boarded the city of South Haven the vessel in direct competition with his beloved Eastland he stepped aboard for an overnight Excursion to Chicago heading straight for his room he was spotted Once In the Night by a crew member but once the city of South Haven arrived in Chicago Captain Leighton did not disembark the crew searched for him but found his cabin empty other than his belongings his bed was still made the only trace of him was his hat on the prominade deck he was never seen again the Chicago South Haven line continued to operate the Eastland throughout 1906 with manageable returns briefly in July of 1906 her capacity was increased to 3,000 at the behest of the owners but that changed again after a brief incident on Sunday the 5th of August 1906 the Eastland was returning from South Haven and was in the Chicago River just past the Clark Street bridge near to where she'd eventually roll over in 1915 for unknown at at the time reasons she listed heavily to starboard the exact amount wasn't specified but the incident was quickly reported to the US Bureau of customs of the Treasury Department who subsequently lowered the capacity once more to 2400 Passengers The Vessel at the time had something near 2500 passengers on board many congregating on the starboard side the number three ballast tank had been filled to the top but the number four and number five were only partially filled for trimming but other than this incident the 1906 season for the Eastland was largely uneventful at the end of the 1906 season the Eastland was put into a winter layup in Manesty with intentions of running her into 1907 her numbers were nominally better having carried 150,000 passengers in 1906 a marked increase over her previous two years of 105,000 in 1904 and 121,000 in 1905 but early on in 1907 blacker was approached by an investor asking to pay $150,000 to purchase the Eastland blacker agreed paying $20,000 to Dunley Williams Company to end their cooperation so the Eastland moved Lakes over to Lake Erie forming into the Lakeshore navigation company there she would operate taking excursions from Cleveland out to the Cedar Point Amusement Park and then over to Toledo and back but seeing as this seemed impractical the route was shortened to only Cleveland to Cedar Point back the ship would be captained by Captain ah McLaughlin and chief engineer was Grant Donaldson but the change in scenery had done very little to change the Eastland reputation and her performance in Lake Erie only supported this on June 8th 1907 on her inaugural trip into sanduski Bay her Rudder chain broke causing the ship to momentarily swing out of control additionally in June a group of Sherwin Williams employes employees around 1900 in total charted the ship a worker stated the ship listed dangerously to Port whilst loading disaster only being avoided by the employees hastily shuffling to the starboard side the company scrambled to repair East land's reputation giving out thousands of Postcards From the Eastland 500 of which had free tickets on them in the last week of 1908 women could ride free if escorted by a paying man at the beginning of 1909 they released 500 balloons from the roof of a Cleveland building each one containing a free ticket to the Eastland but in 1909 the ship was purchased again and reorganized into the Eastland navigation company her Captain replaced with Captain mwin Thompson after this they removed the remaining cabins the cabin deck here and after referred to as the tween deck briefly in 1908 following an inspection The Vessel capacity was dropped to 1,950 poor quality life preservers cited as is the reason after being rectified the capacity was raised to 2,200 and then 2,400 again though this did little to stop the string of accidents the ship had in September of 1909 she ran around in sand Dusky Bay and in July of 1912 she hit the Breakwater approaching Cleveland at night the horrible listing didn't stop either an outing of the macbes was nearly ruined when the ship shortly after leaving Cleveland allegedly listed nearly 25 degrees to Port before being corrected and listing almost 30 degrees to starboard an incident eerily similar to the one in 1904 so terrible was the reputation of the Eastland that the Eastland navigation company placed a half-page advertisement in the newspaper proposing a bounty of $5,000 this would go to anyone that could provide an experienced Naval architect or ship Builder that could say the ship was in fact dangerous or unstable of course no one came forth to claim the Bounty but it was a sure sign that the public considered the Eastland a risk and the company knew this in 1911 the company would reduce the size of the ship's iconic twin Stacks by one ring or nearly a third of their size the only purpose this could have likely served being to reduce the top heaviness of the ship and lower her center of gravity a clear indicator that they knew the ship to be unstable by 1912 the ship was hardly bringing in enough money and the Eastland navigation company was deeply in debt at the coaxing of their creditors the ship was sold at the end of 1913 in 1914 the St Joseph Chicago steamship company was looking for a steamship to operate Services between Benton Harbor and St Joseph to Chicago they had shopped around for a few ships when the SS Eastland was suggested to them they agreed to pay $150,000 on her assuming she passed her inspections so on June 7th the ship was brought to Benton Harbor to be inspected by Robert Reed Federal H inspector Spector and Charles C ecliff Federal boiler inspector the inspections took 3 days both individuals had dealt with the Eastland previously and were aware of her rather Infamous reputation following the inspection Reed certified her to carry 2,45 passengers akiff inspected her ballasts and found them satisfactory at the time of her arrival in Chicago she carried eight lifeboats 31 life rafts and a workboat the owners testified that they had purchased 20 life rafts for her out fitting Eastland started her new route being based out of the Chicago River and making day trips to Benton Harbor and St Joseph but in 1914 the company got a large contract for Summer with the Western Electric Company the company was massive and only growing bigger in 1905 the company built the Hawthorne Works in Cicero Illinois just west of Chicago this plant was more or less a company town at its peak nearly 45,000 people worked here in 1910 it was around 18,000 an entire neighborhood sprouted up around it simply to house the employees the company would provide loans and sell Building Supplies so it's blue collar employees could build houses the plant had a full Hospital a library a ballpark and a gym it had its own Railway Line running in supplies and running out products the highest produced product at the time being Candlestick phones and miles and miles of telephone wire but as large as it was the Hawthorne works like to boast a family atmosphere organizing dances parades and picnics in 1914 it would organize a steam Excursion a trip for thousands of employees upon Steamers across Lake Michigan to Michigan City Indiana where the employees would flood into the little Lakeside Resort town and enjoy a day of festivities it's unknown how many picnickers attended the 1914 Excursion but the Eastland did transport at least 1,395 passengers along with several other streamers it was so successful that she and the others were ched to do the same thing in 1915 but a big policy change was about to happen one that would drastically changed the industry and catastrophically changed the Eastland on the 15th of April 1912 the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage resulting in the deaths of over 1,500 people the sinking took 2 hours and 40 minutes the reasons for the sinking were varied in multitudinous but one reason for the large death toll was easy to grab on to for the Layman not enough lifeboats the Titanic carried only enough room for 1,178 people but there were 2,224 Souls aboard there was a public outcry how could this be why would there not be enough lifeboats a battlecry of lifeboats for all went up and politicians looking for an easy solution and a quick win led the charge the demand was for ship capacities to be reduced to allow for enough passengers to fit into the lifeboats or more lifeboats to be added to ships now of course the sentiment was not shared by ship Builders or experienced Mariners prudent Mariners knew that the Titanic was a special case ships didn't just take 3 hours to sink often it was a quick and terrifying Affair the RMS Empress of Ireland was rammed and rolled over in the span of just 15 minutes not long after her the Lucitania was torpedoed and sank within 20 minutes all the lifeboats in the world couldn't have saved those passengers in time an experiment was conducted by the military in which they attempted to load an entire ship's company in as fast a manner as possible using trained Soldiers and Sailors with military discipline they were able to unload a ship at a rate of 1,100 per hour imagine attempting to do so with panicked untrained civilians it was Impractical amendments to the legis legislation wanted to have two able-bodied seamen for each Lifeboat for the Titanic with its 20 lifeboats that would be four able seamen far in excess of what she typically needed for a voyage simply sitting about waiting for the ship to sink to do their job there was a hard push back from many in the maritime Community some pointing out a very real issue adding so many lifeboats to a ship could affect the stability and make them topheavy but they were shouted down the legislation passed slightly modified to exclude the crew requirements but by 1915 every ship needed ample boage to house their full passenger and crew capacity which at this time Eastland would carry 2,183 the owner of the company wanted to be able to carry more so more lifeboats were added to the top deck these lifeboats were made by several companies but an example of one was from the Thomas Drummond Sun company it was 18.2 ft x 5.8 ft by 2.5 5 ft with 146 cubic feet and had a capacity of 14 people additional life rafts were added as well each one weighed around 1,100 lb in total the ship now had 11 lifeboats 37 life rafts and a workboat additionally she had life jackets around 2570 each weighing about 6 lb this was several tons now added to the hurricane deck greatly increasing the center of gravity and reducing the ship's metacentric height also during the 1915 season parts of the wooden tween deck had rotted away from years of spillage from drinks so around 2 in of concrete had been poured to replace the deck the area was around 30 to 40 linear feet spanning the ship it's unknown how much the wood that was replaced weighed but we can estimate the weight of the concrete as being around 14.25 to 19 tons more concrete was also laid down on the main deck but twice as much between 30 and 50 tons it was a deck lower but it was still above the waterline increasing the ship's center of gravity even further were an inclining test performed at this time it would have likely shown that the Eastland metacentric height was perhaps fractions of an inch maybe even nearly negative but of course one wasn't performed an inspection was made by inspector Reed who based upon the amount of lifeboats approved Eastland to carry 2,500 passengers just in time for the Western Elric Hawthorne Works Excursion the Eastland added the boats on July 2nd the Hawthorne Excursion wasn't until the 24th at no point in those few weeks did the Eastland come close to carrying as many passengers the closest being the day before when she transported 1,123 passengers less than half of what she carried on that fateful day 2500 in 194 the St Joseph Chicago steamship company hired a new captain and new chief engineer picked for Captain was 54-year-old Norwegian born Harry Peterson Peterson was born in 1860 and immigrated to the United States in 1885 he received pilotage for his mat's license in 1896 then received his master's license in 1899 by the time he was hired as Master of the Eastland he had over 14 years of experience as Captain on the Great Lakes namely of yachts and freighter Eastland would be his first Excursion boat finally in the early 1915 season a new chief engineer was hired 35-year-old also Norwegian native Joseph Ericson born in Christiania Norway in 1882 he immigrated to the United States in 1902 he had been sailing since 15 and moved to the Great Lakes to work on becoming an engineer through perseverance and keeping his nose clean he gained his American citizenship as well as his assistant engineers's license working his way up slowly to chief engineer aboard dread ships and railroad car fairies funnily enough the man who he had tested under to get his licenses was Chief Inspector Reed the inspector of the Eastland he even went on to marry Reed's daughter this would later become a point of controversy in the trial but Erikson was a competent engineer and agreed to the Eastland job to be closer to home so the stage was set the day before the disaster the 23rd the Eastland transported 1,125 members of a masonic Excursion after moing up in Chicago Pon ordered Ericson to fill her up coal passers would begin loading coal onto the Eastland the max capacity of her bunkers was about 125 tons coal passers claimed to have loaded 104 tons 79 tons on the port side and 25 on the starboard side by 3:00 a.m. the bunkering was complete and the vessel was brought to the Chicago and South Haven Warf by the Clark Street Bridge the ship would sit and wait for the patrons to arrive for the Excursion in the morning this year was was already stacking up to be even more popular than the last in total six Steamers had been chartered by Western Electric to carry picnickers Eastland the Theodor Roosevelt the Rochester the pki the Maywood and the rayene the Eastland was mored starboard side to the Rush Street Warf her stern was moved back to a spot with a lower Pier her gangways were fairly low due to her modifications as well as the water level in the river being a bit lower as it was the Gangplank went down about 18 in from the pier her Stern stuck out over the Lal Street tunnel that ran under the river the way she was mored up was with three lines forward to the pier a breast and a spring line as well as a headline in front of her was the tug kosha with a toe line connected to her bow on the stern was an aft breast line and a Stern line connected to a spile once loaded the Eastland would throw off her Stern lines then move forward using her spring line to move her Stern out into the river the kosha would pull her bow off the pier then assist her through the Clark Street Bridge it was a simple and routine boarding the only thing that wasn't routine was the amount of passengers at 0620 Ericson finishes his breakfast and heads the engine room bumping into Pon heading into the pilot house as is customary the ballast tanks are empty in anticipation of boarding Pon testified that as he passed Erikson he told the chief engineer to keep the ship steady as the passengers boarded at 6:30 a.m. preparations were underway for boarding the Eastland would board to capacity and be underway as the first boat to Michigan City by 7:30 at 6:40 around 5,000 people had already queued up along the WARF in Clark Street to begin boarding psers began allowing people on and started their count the crowd at the time consisted of about 57% Western Electric Company employees and about 56% of those were women this event wasn't just at being advertised as a family gathering for Western Electric families but also an exciting event for young single folk to meet up this was a hot spot to catch a date and large amounts of young folk bought tickets and flocked aboard to spend the day meeting folks their age within minutes the ship began to list toward starboard the reason being that as folks loaded they stayed on the starboard side to watch for friends loading and to talk to those on the pier it was rainy today so not many went to the hurricane deck but still weight was being added to starboard this of course wasn't unexpected the list was estimated at being around 10° noticeable but not severe the first mate noted that the after gang way being about 18 in from the waterline he paused boarding long enough for chief Ericson to begin filling the port ballast tanks there was no way Ericson could have known the metacentric height of the Eastland in fact no one on board did an inclining test was never performed but if Ericson had known that the metacentric height was nearly negative he was a prudent enough Mariner that he likely would not have started ballasting but the moment he began emitting water into the number two and number three port tanks he doomed the ship perhaps if at that very moment he had stopped and instructed the crew to not allow any more passengers aboard he would have saved the ship that day but this didn't happen and from that moment the Eastland was going to capsize adding water to the ballast tanks had the opposite effect of lowering the center of gravity as water was emitted it began to SLO back and forth on the tanks raising the center of gravity towards the meta Center this would be like pouring thousands of gallons of water onto the top decks it was stated that he only did so for a few minutes meaning the two in three port tanks the largest tanks were now less than a quarter full this mixed with the fact that most of the coal had been loaded on the port side would likely lead to a very heavy port list afterwards it's highly likely that at this very moment the metacentric height was negative still as the water was added into the tanks the ship was slowly brought towards an even Keel passengers were once more allowed to board and it was calculated that they were being brought on board at a rate of about 50 passengers a minute as expected though the ship soon started to list about 10° to the starboard side at around 0653 quickly Ericson opened the ball system now allowing water into the starboard number two and number three tanks this brought the ship momentarily back to an even Keel but now both the port and starboard number two two and number three tanks were around a quarter full and had twice the amount of water sloshing about causing a huge free surface effect this doubled by the amount of passengers on board meant the ship's metacentric height was thoroughly in the negative the center of gravity so high that the new equilibrium point was the Keel the ship to stabilize would now have to flip completely over by 0700 the tug kosha took its place ahead of the Eastland tying off its bow to the pier and tossing over a toe line to the east land's bow [Applause] by this time the crew loading passengers stated that they had loaded around 1,600 passengers this was the largest number loaded since the additional lifeboats and rafts had been added once more the ship listed to Port Erikson who couldn't see above figured passengers were beginning to spread out and move to the port side in fact even after the tragedy rumors spread that something caused a massive surge of passengers to the port side of the ship this had caused the capsizing stating a passing steamer or even a movie camera on shore caused patrons to swarm to the port side this couldn't have been more incorrect multiple testimonies stating that the starboard side had stayed largely the most populated part of the ship right up to the moment she made her final plunge all the same Erikson pumped out the number three tank but left the number two a quarter of the way full then started the engines to dissipate the builtup condensation in the cylinders in anticipation of of getting underway this was at 0705 25 minutes until the time she was to depart at about 0710 the Harbor Master Adam weckler arrived on the Clark Street bridge and noted about a 7° list to Port about this time passengers were starting to be turned away and directed towards the Theodore Roosevelt at around 710 the gang planks were being pulled in 2,500 passengers had been loaded aboard at about 0713 Captain Peterson departed his cabin and came to the bridge signaling the engine room to place the engines into ready prepping them for engine fans at about 0716 Erikson noticed the worsening list now estimated to be about 15° to Port he ordered the number two and number three Ballas tanks filled opening the valves to admit water but much to his surprise they hadn't started filling in the post accident autopsy of the ship it was noted that the intake was indeed open but the reason for it not f filling Still Remains a mystery to this day whether it was clogged with debris isn't certain the list hadn't grown severe enough to bring the intakes up out of the water but even if Ericson had started filling the tanks it wouldn't have been enough he'd have to fill every single tank to the top at this point that would have been the only way to save the ship now other than completely evacuating her but that process took nearly half an hour as it stood the Eastland would be on her side in about 10 minutes at this time the ship began to write itself the water sloshing from Port to starboard for all the swinging from Port to starboard the passengers didn't seem very concerned some mockingly cheering and jokingly yelling all together now hey as she swung back and forth children even laughing this was the Eastland after all she was well known for being a clumsy and unruly ship But ultimately never tipping over at 0718 the bridge attendant yelled out to peton that the bridge could be opened at any time the kosha started upper engines preparing to move the bow of the Eastland the Eastland had come to an even Keel for a moment set in a temporary equilibrium seemingly teetering over the abyss as her Gangplank was drawn in an ew slide key head of the Western Electric company's printing Department was about to head over to another steamer when his friends called out to him in a daring move he leapt aboard and headed to the prominade deck to join them by this time the ship began to list to Port slad key thought it odd seeing as most of the passengers were on the starboard side with slad key leaping aboard there was now 2573 people aboard Eastland 251 passengers and 72 crew at 0720 the list to Port resumed even worse this time unbeknownst to everyone aboard the Eastland had started her slow final plunge she waved back and forth each sway to Port becoming deeper and deeper the low gang ways on the port side began to dip the main deck below the water Erikson noted water flowing down the engine room through the scuppers at this time peton called down to the engine room and ordered the engines into standby while Erikson ordered an engineer up to the deck to attempt to get passengers to move to the starboard side at the stern of the ship lines were cast off the stern of the Eastland slightly pivoting out into the river the engines at this time were Port clutch ahead and starboard a Stern Pon called out to the bridge operator to open the Clark Street Bridge which he denied he stated the bridge wouldn't be opened until Pon got the ship under control and uneven Keel but at 0725 the ship swung back up toward starboard for One Last Time Pon believed the ship was riding itself and went to the starboard Bridge Wing to supervise the casting off of the lines by this time Ericson was activating the BGE pumps trying to pump out the water that had started to slowly flood the engine room at 0727 the LZ to Port continued again this time coming to 25 or 30° the engineers and stokers started to evacuate the engine room and flee their posts the list in the water flooding down from the main deck making them realize the ship was doomed all of them fleeing except for chief aricon perhaps knowing he couldn't save the ship he started to prevent another greater tragedy he started emitting water into the boilers via the injectors his aim was to cool the boiler shells before the cold water of the river hit them causing a catastrophic boiler explosion he would say at his post up to the very last moment as this last final list occurred the passengers still didn't seem concerned most clung to the rails or their seats unable to dance on the twe decks a band played rag time to soothe the crowd digging in their heels to stay in spot as they played but they suddenly stopped midar as the ship hit a 45 degree angle and started her final descent a loud thud reverberated through the hole followed by by the shattering of plates the massive refrigerator from the bar used to keep beers cool fell over possibly pinning people beneath it the band's piano slipped down the port with a loud clang there was a gasp amongst all aboard as they realized the gravity of the situation muddy Chicago River water flooded in through the port gangways Panic ensued as passengers tried to flee the lower decks attempting to get to the starboard get topside get out of the pile of bodies that were sliding down to the port piles of passengers deck chairs and debris fell to Port pinning each other down in massive crushes as water flooded in to drown them the stairways became a messy tangle of bodies as men women and children rushed to them to escape only to become ens snared as the ship toppled and filled with water ew sladkey being on the prominade deck for less than 10 minutes felt the ship lay over and simply climbed over the rail onto the starboard side of the ship never getting his feet wet in fact many of the survivors of the day would survive by doing exactly this others were on the upper decks and slid down into the water of the Chicago River but this wasn't guaranteed safety many Americans around this time didn't know how to swim on top of this it was a cold day and this was to be a semi- formal Affair many wore heavy wool layers women wore pety coats swimming in this attire was nearly impossible not to mention how tightly packed the river was with B IES men pulled women under in an attempt to stay afloat the water stirred into a froth by thrashing limbs by now the streets have been lined with thousands of observers and passerbys thousands watched as the ship had slowly tipped over into the water she came to rest on her side in about 20 ft of water wholly half of her submerged the bottom of the Chicago River being a small Saving Grace had she been in Open Water she would have come to rest Keel to the sky fully upside down there were few accounts of heroism amongst the passengers and crew Pon stated he had hit his head in the Tipping and was out of sorts Erikson had to climb out of the engine room using the steering cables as a guide he was pulled out through a port hole on the starboard side men pulled women off of floating debris or away from stanions letting them drown but yet there would be plenty of heroism on the shore and in the water the tug kosha immediately maneuvered her Stern right up to the bow of the Eastland acting as a bridge passengers and crew on her side had only to jump onto the kosha and walk to her tied off bow later they would take ashes from her Firebox and throw them onto the side of the Eastland for traction nearby firemen rushed onto the side of the Eastland to begin scooping passengers out of rep Port holes and upper decks a group of nurses were going to be Manning a medical tent to the Western Electric outing upon seeing the ship heal over they rushed aboard with the firefighters to render Aid the Clark Street Warf was lined with produce and poultry sellers workers began to throw wooden crates and Chicken cops into the water to keep survivors afloat ropes were pulled out of warehouses and used to pull passengers to shore in a moving scene of humanity a man had been pacing the bridges downtown contemplating suicide but upon seeing the disaster unfold in front of him he selflessly leapt into the water not to kill himself but So Others May Live helping swim survivors to safety a coast guard boat arrived within 10 minutes as did other Tugs that began scooping people out of the water several doctors arrived and began to triage and treat survivors as they were pulled to safety working either on the pier or on the overturned hole itself they would check for signs of life if they had a pulse or were breathing a doctor would call for a pole motor a relatively new life-saving device that could pump oxygen into a victim's lungs to resuscitate them if they showed no signs the doctor would simply say gone and move on what quickly became abundant L clear was the stark contrast between the amount of injured and the amount of survivors there were barely any injured besides minor bumps and bruises survivors tended to walk away unscathed or not walk away at all those that were outside or on the top deck made it out those inside tended to not make it out at all nurses took the injured or the survivors to the road and simply told passing cars to take them home it's rumor that not a single driver refused but soon a steady stream of recovered bodies made their way from the Eastland right across the way from the accident was the famous Reed Murdoch building who oddly enough were having their own annual company outing on this very same day the building being empty was immediately commandeered as a makeshift morg the victims of the tragedy being funneled inside until they could be identified as rescue efforts mounted other Excursion ships arrived to help pull people from the wall water a Watchman aboard the pataski Peter Bole bravely leapt off the ship to save a drowning woman perishing himself in his efforts he would be the only person not on the Eastland to perish that day several cutting torches arrived to begin cutting into the hole Captain Pon who was being cooperative till this point suddenly spoke up attempting to stop the cutting into the ship seemingly more concerned about the ship than the welfare of the trapped passengers he stated later that he was concerned that they may cut into the coal bunkers and start a fire but he was escorted by police away where the cutting occurred there were no bunkers but dozens of waiting survivors who were promptly rescued not 15 minutes after the disaster intentions were mounting onlookers screamed at Pon One Man even broke through the police escort and punched the captain in the face as the deceased were brought to the basement of the Reed Murdoch building it became clear that more space would be needed due to the sheer amount of dead soon the second regiment Armory on Washington Boulevard would be used as well bodies that weren't brought directly to local morgs were brought there for identification long lines soon formed in both places as desperate families sought to locate deceased loved ones yet still more passerbys arrived simply to gawk and look at the dead efforts were made to stop these morbid viewers but they were ultimately in vain when a body was identified it was tagged and their meager belongings were given to the family the body was sent off to morgs for Preparation local morgs were packed heres were in short supply and the city had to provide trucks to transport the dead they also needed to step in to stop price gouging on coffins which were also becoming very scarce on the ship professional divers were soon brought in to dive down into the Eastland for what had mainly become body recovery Nets were spread across the river to catch any bodies that might float upstream or out to Lake Michigan by the end of the day the death toll was climbing different sources reported different numbers but the final death toll came out to be an astounding 844 the largest disaster in Chicago History the Western Electric event was cancelled in a morbid metaphor of the disaster the queen of the event Luis rol who was to lead the parade when the procession reached Michigan city had drowned in the disaster in total 22 entire families were wiped out in the disaster several others were split apart some losing their children other becoming orphaned in a moment his bodies were identified and the temporary morgs were cleared one small body remained that of a lone little boy the unidentified boy would soon become known as little Feller and became a symbol of the numerous young Chicagoans that lost their lives that day a huge funeral was planned for little Feller attended by hundreds including the mayor of Chicago the boy was soon identified as Willie nney the reason he hadn't been identified sooner was B of his parents had also perished on the Eastland no direct family had survived to identify him in the immediate wake of the disaster the public in Chicago would be left wondering how this could happen but not just that they were out for blood someone was to blame for this and they want wanted answers immediately after court proceedings commenced but they were both numerous and complicated while I'm familiar with maritime law after my years in the Coast Guard I'll pass this part over to a trusted guest of Mine Jeff of legal vices is an admiralty lawyer and specializes in maritime law go ahead and take it away Jeff the SS Eastland capsizing the Chicago River has been described as the greatest Maritime casualty in Chicago or on the Great Lakes when incidents like this occur one of the first things that happens is people begin assigning fault and blame the Captain Henry Peterson the chief engineer Joseph Ericson and a few other crewmen were arrested almost immediately a total of seven separate inquiries into the cause of the accident had begun within a few days of the accident there were criminal proceedings as well as numerous civil lawsuits involving hundreds of claimants and millions of dollars that were filed in the aftermath of the disaster in the criminal proceedings a total of six people were charged Captain Henry Peterson chief engineer Joseph Erikson two of the ship owners and two Steamboat inspection service inspectors one of whom was chief engineer Joseph Ericson's father-in-law now chief engineer Erikson was represented by Clarence Darrow one of the greatest criminal defense attorneys in history and one of my personal Heroes a Federal grand jury was convened to determine whether the defendants would face trial in Chicago however due in no small part to the arguments made by Clarence Darrow the judge ruled that the capsizing was purely an accident and that none of the defendants would face a criminal trial now as a result there were no legal findings of criminal negligence on the part of the owners or their employees now although the criminal proceedings were brought to an end in early 1916 there were still civil lawsuits to deal with now millions of dollars were claimed by hundreds of claimants including the salvage company that towed the wreck away from the accident site the people involved in the rescue of passengers and more than 800 wrongful death claims by the bereaved families now in the end Court decisions found that the primary cause of the accident was improper ballasting of the vessel however litigation of the Civil claims relating to the accident continued for 24 years so with millions of dollars at stake which parties received how much money is compensation for the accident and its aftermath well that's an interesting story in and of itself in order to understand the outcome of the civil lawsuits we have to take a step back and look at a peculiar aspect of maritime law the right of a ship owner to limit the amount of their liability for an accident now since the beginning of trade by ship and long before insurance came along shipping was understood to be a very dangerous operation and full of risks an accident could be financially crushing to a ship owner and damages could easily exceed the assets of the owners and their ability to pay so if the owners of a vessel are forced to be fully liable for all losses and damages arising from an accident involving their vessel they would be less likely to engage in the risky business of shipping which is essential for Global Commerce now allowing a ship owner to limit liability provides a measure of financial protection for them thus to encourage and incentivize ship owners to continue to sail their vessels and to engage in this risky Commerce ship owners are given the privilege of limiting their liability in certain circumstances it also ensures that the owners will have sufficient resources to pay the predictable amount of their liability the right of a ship owner to limit their liability for accidents Is Not A New Concept the amalfitan table is a collection of sea laws compiled around the end of the 11th century by the people of Amalfi which is in Italy the amalan table provides the earliest recorded example of laws allowing a ship owner to limit their liability thus the concept of limitation of liability has been around for nearly one thousand years at least so what does all of this limitation of liability business have to do with the Eastland at the time of the accident the limitation of liability laws in the US provided that quote the liability of the owner of any vessel for any loss damage or injury by Collision shall in no case exceed the amount or value of the interest of such owner in the vessel and her freight then pending close quote in other words basically the owner's liability for a ship accident at the time was limited to the value of the vessel well why is this a problem well first of all the St Joseph Chicago steamship company bought the ship in 1914 the purchase price was only $150,000 but the total value of the claims was approximately $5 million so the one $150,000 value of the ship could not have covered the nearly $5 million in claims but secondly and most importantly for the purpose of limitation of liability and understanding this case the value of the ship before the accident was not used to determine the limitation amount the value of the ship after the accident was used to determine the limitation amount so to see how this played out we have to turn to the Judgment handed down on December 23rd 1919 it says it became the duty of the owners under the law promptly to raise and remove her to this end on July 27th 1915 the owner of the vessel entered into a contract with the Great Lakes towing company to raise and deliver the steamer writed and pumped out to a dock in the vicinity where she lay for the sum of $334,500 no cure no pay under the contract the towing company began the work of raising the steamer on August 4 1915 completed the work and turned the steamer over to the owners on August 16 1915 on August 7 1915 limitation proceedings were begun in this court by the owners of the steamer on December 15 1915 the trustee of the Court sold the vessel at public auction for 46,000 and that sum was paid into the court registry so what that tells us is that the Great L's towing company the towing company that was tasked with removing the wreck from its position was guaranteed a payment of $34,500 if they could remove the vessel and the vessel was later sold at public auction for $46,000 so under this law the liability of the ship owners was limited to only $46,000 and under the laws governing the distrib R bution of the limitation amount amongst all of the more than 800 claimants the top priority was given to the Great Lakes towing company so from this $46,000 Great Lakes towing company took $344,500 off the top this left only about $11,500 to pay all of the other creditors that have a higher priority than the victims the victims were near the bottom of the priority scale so at the end of the day after distribution of the money to Great Lakes towing company and other creditors there was basically no money left to pay the claims of the injured and deceased victims of the accident as stated by Jeff the Great Lakes Tong company was contracted to refloat and write the Eastland her lifeboats were removed and her mass and funnel were cut off the lifeboats were never launched one had fallen off and the upside down boat was used by a small boy to cling on to the lifeboats that were hastily added to make the ship safer amounted to nothing holes in the ship were covered up and great lak's Towing brought in a large Salvage ship called the favorite using steam pumps and cranes she was rided over the duration of a few days then broken and covered in mud her white hle stained gray and Port holes broken she was to away shortly after she was put on auction and only two buyers arrived to even bid on her she was sold to Captain Edward a Evers of the Illinois naval Reserve he had intentions of using her as a naval training ship but soon the US Navy would turn her into a gunboat in anticipation of her being possibly used in the mounting tensions of World War I her Pilot House and hurricane deck were cut away her tween deck was cut in half and crew quarters were added for a crew of about 200 3-in guns were added on Deck as well heavily altering her profile but ultimately removing large amounts of weight to her top decks she was named the USS wilmet and was commissioned in September of 1918 as a practice her ballast tanks were run full at all times on top of that she also received permanent solid ballasts in the form of piled pig iron in her bunkers after she was converted from a Coal Fired boiler to oil fired she joined the fleet too late to serve in the Great War but oddly enough actually fired the last Naval shots of the war after the war the United States received 10 German OTS to be disposed of as per the try of Versailles on June 7th 1921 wilmat was task was sinking UC 97 the ubo was towed out onto Lake Michigan where the Wilm mat's guns were manned by Gunner mate Jo o Sabine who fired the first US Naval guns of World War I and Gunner mate AF Anderson who fired the first US Torpedoes of World War I wilmat continued operating on the Great Lakes most of her crew never knowing she was the infamous Eastland her stability issues cured but for one occasion when she inexplicably listed nearly 10° whilst on the Chicago River before riding back to an even Keel she performed her duties diligently as a training ship even transporting Franklin D Roosevelt and others during an August 1943 planning meeting and fishing trip finally she would be decommissioned in November of 1945 and sold for scrap one last time she was towed down the Chicago River passing by the very place she had claimed over 800 lives over 30 years before in 1947 she was completely scrapped and sold away the Eastland story was largely forgotten to time rumors circulated as to the cause of her demise wild accusations as far-fetched as blaming the passengers for rushing to her Port rail saying her keill rested on a piling to even accusing the company of conspiracy to sink the The Vessel due to her not being profitable enough ultimately blame was laid upon chief engineer Erikson in spite of the fact that Captain Pon had failed to account for the list of his vessel or properly inform Ericson of its temperamental nature even going so far as to commit perjury during the trial proceedings Harry Patterson went on to retire and live on his farm in Michigan until his death in 1939 from kidney failure he died at the age of 79 Ericson however never truly recovered from the accident following the disaster he began a job at a factory but his health quickly declined the stress and the guilt was too much for him he died in 1919 of heart disease it was 5 days after his 37th birthday blame was soon assigned to Ericson the paston chief engineer was an easy scapegoat only time exonerated Joseph Ericson we know today the truth behind the accident a poorly designed and topheavy ship not well suited to the passenger numbers that she was assigned a faulty and inefficient and ineffective ballast system that could easily raise the ship center of gravity before it was lowered then finally the Titanic and the knee-jerk government policies that followed in her wake those lifeboats added on top of the ship to raise her passenger cout only had succeeded in raising her center of gravity the adding of the lifeboats in the wake of the tight tanic had the perceived effect that many Mariners feared in the end it's possible to claim the Titanic had succeeded in claiming 800 more lives politicians too concerned in pacifying the public to concern themselves with the realistic ramifications of their actions today Eastland is rarely Remembered in Chicago the site is barely recognizable the Reed Murdoch building is still there but the spot where the Eastland capsized is bisected by a bridge all that exists is a plaque briefly mentioning the disaster a disaster that could not easily be answered and the answer was nothing anyone wanted to hear thank you for tuning in to another Maritime Horrors wow is this a long one I really hope you enjoyed this one and learned something this video took me a great deal of time and and required at least two rewrites as I learned new things and found new books on the topic I'd like to thank the Eastland disaster Historical Society for speaking with me and giving me some excellent info on the subject they recommended me the Fantastic book Eastland Legacy of the Titanic by George W Hilton if you want to know more about the Eastland and have a mind for the more technical aspects of ship building a stability I highly recommend it also if you're in the Chicago area go check out the Eastland historical society it's almost criminal how unknown this incredible disaster is I'd also like to thank Jeff from legal VI he's an admiralty lawyer and knows an incredible amount about maritime law being the Coast Guard I knew a bit but I was always on the enforcement side of things he studied it and is just a wealth of information and he's a super friendly guy awesome to talk to so go check out his channel Link in the description give him a watch and a sub if you'd like I know this one took quite some time and I'm sorry I assure you I wasn't writing for 6 months straight as some of you know I work on a ship on the Great Lakes which leaves me very little time I'm getting to the end of the season so I'll have more time soon but just know that's where I've been I'd like to thank all the patrons for sticking it out I appreciate all their support the channel artist and I are actually working on a new tier for patreon supporters so keep an eye out for that we also still have our patches for the channel available link is in the description we also have this awesome new shirt design available on tuu it shows some of the major disasters on the Great Lakes we might even be designing a poster soon so I'm working a lot on new stuff Channel artist is as well and I'm excited to show you all of that as it comes out so please stay tuned until then Fair wins and following SE Shipmates
