"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..."
As always, THANK YOU to all my Patreon patrons: you make this channel possible.
https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror
SOCIAL MEDIA:
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueHorrorTales
► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fascinatinghorror
► Suggestions: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
► "Creep" by Emmit Fenn
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
As always, THANK YOU to all my Patreon patrons: you make this channel possible.
https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror
SOCIAL MEDIA:
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueHorrorTales
► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fascinatinghorror
► Suggestions: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
► "Creep" by Emmit Fenn
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00On the 24th of July, 1915, the SS Eastland, a passenger steamer, capsized in the Chicago
00:19River. Conditions at the time were perfectly calm, the water placid. There was no fire,
00:26no impact from another ship, no explosion. There was barely even any wind. In fact, the ship was
00:33still tied up at the dock. Help was on hand almost instantly, the water was relatively shallow,
00:40and the boat didn't even completely sink. And yet, despite all this,
00:45the Eastland disaster would turn into one of the deadliest in Chicago's history.
00:51The Eastland was constructed in Michigan in 1902 and started sailing in 1903, hauling passengers
00:59and cargo across the Great Lakes. Over the next few years she changed hands several times and
01:06had a few minor modifications made to her design to improve her speed and make conditions on board
01:12more comfortable for passengers. Over the course of the first decade of the 1900s the Eastland
01:21carried out thousands of trips that, for the most part, were smooth and enjoyable.
01:27There were, however, a few notable incidents. In July 1904, during a routine voyage, the ship
01:35listed heavily and almost capsized, causing much alarm amongst the 3,000 passengers on board.
01:43Similar incidents also took place in 1906 and 1912. Both times the ship listed alarmingly to
01:52one side or the other, making passengers fearful that it was about to capsize altogether.
01:58Following each incident of excessive listing, changes were made to the design of the ship.
02:04Cabins were removed to adjust the weight distribution, and the smokestacks were
02:09shortened to reduce her height and make her more stable. Additionally her capacity was reduced
02:15several times, going from a maximum of 3,000 passengers down to just 2,570.
02:24These changes were all intended to make the ship more stable, but as she changed hands again and
02:30again some owners also made changes that reduced her stability. For example, in 1914 a heavy
02:38concrete floor was added high up in the ship. A little later on, following changes in legislation
02:44in the wake of the sinking of the Titanic, more lifeboats, rafts, and life jackets were also added.
02:51Again, all of them stored in the upper parts of the ship. The end result was a vessel that was,
02:58quite simply, top-heavy. By 1915 the Eastland was in the hands of the St. Joseph and Chicago
03:06Steamship Company, and was mostly running pleasure cruises. On the 24th of July 1915
03:13it was booked out for the exclusive use of the Western Electric Company, along with several
03:18other similar ships. Together they would transport workers from Chicago to a park in Michigan City
03:26for the company's annual picnic. Coming at a time when workers had far fewer opportunities to take
03:33vacations or go on trips of any kind this was a much bigger deal than it might be today.
03:40Workers and their families attended in droves. At around 6 30am passengers began boarding the
03:48Eastland, and within half an hour it was at full capacity. Many of those on board went below decks
03:55to escape a light drizzle that had begun falling, but others remained on deck to enjoy the view.
04:01It was at this point that the ship took on a very slight list to one side, something which
04:07was quickly noticed by the crew. They attempted to remedy the list by pumping water into ballast
04:14tanks, but this was not successful. At 7 28am, with no further warning, the Eastland listed
04:22sharply to port and, after a heart-stopping moment, toppled into the water on its port side.
04:31The part of the river where it was moored was relatively shallow, little more than six meters
04:37or 20 feet deep, in fact, and so the capsized vessel didn't sink but instead came to rest on
04:44its side only partially submerged. Passengers on deck were thrown into the water of the Chicago
04:51River. Hundreds of thrashing bodies churned the muddy river into a foam. Few of the people thrown
04:58from the deck knew how to swim, and many were weighed down by clothes or had children to try
05:04and look out for. Being on the surface of the river, however, they did at least have a chance
05:11of escaping with their lives. Those below deck, on the other hand, faced an entirely different fate.
05:19As the ship turned over on its side they slid in a mass against the walls, where they were crushed
05:25by heavy furniture and the bodies of their fellow passengers. As water rushed in they were forced to
05:32fight for a way out. Some escaped through portholes, while others clambered towards exit doors,
05:39only to find themselves pinned in a crush of bodies. Within just minutes many hundreds of
05:46people had been drowned. Above the water the scene became a hive of activity. Boats of all
05:54kinds converged on the stricken ship and began plucking people from the water as fast as they
05:59could. People on the shore flung life preservers and empty wooden crates into the water for
06:06survivors to cling to while they awaited rescue, and those who were dragged up onto dry land were
06:12sent to hospital in private cars or given shelter by local businesses. Later on, once all those who
06:20had survived had been pulled from the water, amateur and professional divers would use their
06:25expertise to retrieve the many hundreds of bodies that were trapped below the waterline inside the
06:31hull of the ship. In total 848 people were killed in the disaster, 844 passengers and four members
06:41of the ship's crew. Witnesses reported that, quite unusually, there were very few seriously injured.
06:49The vast majority either made it out of the water in the first few minutes of the disaster,
06:54or simply did not survive. This number of dead was quite unprecedented in Chicago history.
07:03For days afterwards funerals were arranged back-to-back, with morticians working around
07:09the clock to prepare the bodies. There was a shortage of hearses within the city, and church
07:15bells tolled for the dead throughout the day and night for several days running. In the aftermath
07:21of the disaster not just one but seven separate inquiries were launched. The legal proceedings
07:28which followed were intensely complex, and dragged on for many years... so long, in fact, that one of
07:36the main suspects, Chief Engineer Joseph Erickson, passed away from natural causes. Once he was no
07:44longer alive to defend himself blame was pinned squarely on him, allegedly for mismanaging the
07:50ballast tanks on board the vessel. In this manner the owners and other operators of the Eastland
07:57managed to avoid any legal consequences for the disaster. Looking back now, of course, we can see
08:04that no one person was solely to blame for what happened, although many had been negligent or
08:10careless. The tragedy took place for a range of reasons, but mainly because the ship was rendered
08:17unstable by changes in use and changes in design. One of these changes was the addition of extra
08:24lifeboats and life jackets, which were added in 1914 in response to the sinking of the Titanic.
08:32Intended to save lives, the extra weight of this equipment had instead unbalanced the ship and
08:38ended up causing a fatal disaster. Passengers who were affected by the sinking received little by
08:46way of compensation. Western Electric did set aside some funds for compensation, but given the
08:52sheer number of dead this money didn't stretch very far. Many of the bereaved were left with nothing.
09:00The Eastland, however, was raised and sold to the US Navy, who renamed her the Wilmot and converted
09:06her to a gunboat. She was put to use in a range of settings, everything from transporting trainee
09:13naval reservists across the Great Lakes to taking President Franklin D Roosevelt on a cruise.
09:20Despite being involved in one of the worst passenger disasters ever to take place, the ship
09:25kept on working and wasn't scrapped until 1947, 32 years after the disaster. Today the Eastland
09:34disaster has its place as part of Chicago history. More passenger lives were lost in this tragedy
09:40than in the sinking of the Titanic, but the incident, which mostly affected ordinary and
09:46working-class people, has never achieved the same status in history and is much less well remembered.
09:53A few small monuments to the dead remain in place on the banks of the Chicago River,
09:58and many residents of Chicago are aware of the disaster for its impact on their ancestors.
10:05In many ways, though, the disaster which struck the SS Eastland,
10:09terrible as it was, has been almost forgotten in the years since.
10:34you