Perhaps the most well-known maritime disaster is that of the Titanic. That vessel’s demise was dramatic, and many of its passengers were rich, so of course people still talk about it. It was a horrible tragedy, no doubt.
But have you heard of the Eastland Disaster? It occurred just 3 years after the Titanic sank, and more passengers died than had on the Titanic. But these passengers were primarily poor immigrants, so while it did cause a sensation in Chicago, and impacted that city for decades, it was quickly forgotten in other parts of the world.
The death toll on the Eastland was 844 passengers, and the event occurred 19 feet from shore in just 20 feet of water. Needless to say, this never should have happened. The warning signs were there for the 13 years of this ship’s life up to that point, but they were ignored, covered up, and smothered in a sea of greed.
But let’s begin on July 24, 1915, the horrific day itself. It started off pleasant enough. The Eastland was one of 5 Great Lakes passenger steamers that had been chartered for a company event. 7000 tickets had been sold for Western Electric employees and their families. The itinerary was to enjoy a boat ride across Lake Michigan to Michigan City, Indiana where they were to have a picnic.
There was much excitement surrounding this outing, which the employees considered to be the social event of the season. It was an opportunity to not have to work on Saturday for a change, and since the average age of the passengers was 23, it was a chance to meet people in hopes of finding a future spouse. Toward that end, everyone was dressed to impress.
2,572 people piled onto the Eastland that morning, having no idea that they were climbing aboard a death trap. Many people crowded on the top deck to admire the view. It was chilly outside, though, so quite a few of the women and children went below where they could get out of the wind.
The ship listed from side to side many times, but most people ignored it because it always seemed to right itself, and surely the captain and crew knew what they were doing. And the steamer was still tied to the dock, after all. But just 8 minutes after the last passenger boarded the Eastland, before the crew had completely cast off so that they could start their journey, the listing reached the point of no return, and the Eastland settled on its side, away from the dock, and was quickly half submerged in water.
Purely from the standpoint of the vessel, it was a gentle demise. No fire. No explosion, no visible reason for its newfound position. It was almost as if it had decided to lie down and take a nap.
For the people aboard, on the other hand, the situation was pure chaos. It was reported that you could hear their screams from several blocks away. Many of those who had been on the top deck were now in the river; a sea of humanity from shore to shore. They held onto anything they could to stay afloat. Some people, in their panic, drowned others by clinging to them.
Parents watched their children sink down into the murky water. Witnesses on shore threw things in the river for the people to use to stay above water, but in some cases those projectiles knocked people out and sped up the inevitable.
On the lower decks, as the ship capsized, people began sliding down the deck as if they were on sleds. They weren’t just crushed by the people now above them. There was debris on the move as well. Deck chairs. Tables. Even a grand piano and a refrigerator.
Below decks it was even worse because they were dealing with all of the above, and in addition, water quickly came rushing in from the gangways and the portholes. Many people were found submerged in a tangled mass beneath the stairs. Since a lot of those people were women and children who were dressed in the heavy layered clothing of the day, which was now made heavier by the water, they did not stand a chance.
Believe it or not, 2/3rds of the passengers actually survived, but among the dead were 228 teenagers, 58 infants and young children, 175 husbands, 84 wives and 22 entire families. 70% of the fatalities were under the age of 25.
Many of the survivors had climbed through portholes and over railings and were standing on the starboard side of the ship, which was now pointing skyward. They were taken ashore by a variety of vessels.
Chicagoans came from miles around to volunteer to help in the disaster’s aftermath. One person who stood out was a woman named Helen Repa, a Western Electric Nurse who had been on her way to the outing herself when she heard the screams. She started helping the injured, and sending those with minor injuries home, because the nearest hospital was quickly overwhelmed.
Repa told the hospital staff to send for 500 blankets from the Marshall Field department store. Then she began calling local restaurants to have them bring soup and coffee to the hospital. She also stopped cars in the street and had them shuttle the less injured to their homes. She managed to persuade every single driver. What an amazing woman.
All the survivors were off the Eastland within a half hour. It took much longer to remove all the dead. No morgue could house 844 corpses, so they were laid out in rows of 80 on the floor of the Second Regiment Armory. Loved ones, after having stood in line for hours, then had to walk up and down the aisles to hunt for their family members, hoping not to find them.
That must have been horrific to bear witness to. In the end, all but one little boy was claimed, and he was finally identified by a schoolmate. There was no one to claim him because both of his parents had died, too.
There were not enough coffins, hearses, gravediggers or priests to keep up with the overwhelming demand after this disaster. Some coffins were transported to the cemetery by being stacked up on Model A Fords. It left an emotional and spiritual scar on the entire city for years to come. And yet today, busy commuters breeze past this placard without giving it a thought. I wonder how many of them have ever taken the time to read it.
The Eastland Disaster may not have been as “sexy” of a story as the sinking of the Titanic. The people who died may not have been as “important”. But this tragedy was real, and it matters, and it should never be forgotten.
So how did this catastrophe happen? It all boils down to greed. The vessel, which had its inaugural voyage in 1903, was originally built for 500 passengers, and the rest of the ship was meant to haul fruit. But that didn’t last long.
By the end of that first year, it was returned to dock for modifications, because the owner did not feel that it was moving fast enough. The ship’s machinery was moved upward so that they could reduce the draft of the hull. A heavy air conditioning system was added at that time. The Eastland was now much faster, but those changes made the vessel top-heavy and unstable.
Oh, but it gets worse.
With all that speed, forget the fruit. Now the focus shifted to passengers only. Cabins were added, increasing the ship’s weight. In 1904 it nearly capsized while 3000 passengers were aboard. So they reduced the capacity to 2,800 passengers, removed most of the cabins, but added a few lifeboats. In 1906 another listing incident occurred, resulting in several complaints to the company that owned the Eastland at that time.
By 1907, the ship had had several different owners, each one more greedy than the last. In 1909 the last of the cabins were removed and the smokestacks were shortened in hopes of reducing the top-heaviness. In 1912, the ship listed again while loading passengers. None of these early incidents resulted in capsizing, but at least once it listed 25 degrees. There is no doubt that the owners knew that there was a problem.
In 1914, the hardwood flooring was removed and replaced with concrete. More weight. 15 to 20 tons of weight, to be exact. Then, in 1915, as a result of the Titanic disaster, all vessels were required to have adequate lifeboats for their passengers. The owners of the Eastland decided to not only comply, but to add many more lifeboats so they could increase the vessel’s capacity to 2,570 passengers. Additional weight.
By the time the Western Electric employees boarded the Eastland, it was so top-heavy that it was unable to right itself in the end. And that was the end of 844 people’s lives. This shouldn’t have happened
The litigation went on for decades, but when all was said and done, the families of the victims were left with next to no compensation. Blame was being cast right, left, and center, and as is always the way with rich people, ultimately no one was held accountable. The court said that the Eastland had operated for years and carried passengers safely, and therefore it was justifiable that all officials deemed it seaworthy.
Seriously?
So what became of the Eastland after it was dragged away from the site of the tragedy? It was sold to the Naval Reserve and renamed the USS Wilmette. (Your tax dollars at work.) It was then converted to a gunboat, but didn’t see any action in World War I. It was used primarily as a training ship.
It was finally decommissioned in 1940. And then brought back to service a year later, to help protect Merchant Marines from U-boats in the North Atlantic. In 1943 President Roosevelt used it for a 10-day fishing vacation on McGregor and Whitefish Bays. It’s hard to imagine that someone signed off on that.
The Navy decommissioned the Wilmette one last time in 1946, and sold it for scrap metal, since no one wanted to buy it to use. It was stripped of all it’s metal by 1947. What a fitting end for a steamer that never should have been floating in the first place.
The last known survivor of the Eastland disaster died in 2014 at the age of 102. She would have been 3 years old on that fateful day. May all the passengers who were part of the Eastland Disaster rest in peace.
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