 SSEastland in Cleveland, Ohio (1911) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Eastland |
| Owner | Michigan Steamship Company |
| Route | South Haven, Michigan – Chicago, Illinois |
| Ordered | October 1902 |
| Builder | Jenks Ship Building Company |
| Launched | May 6, 1903; 121 years ago (1903-05-06) |
| Christened | May 1903 by Francis Elizabeth Stufflebeam |
| Maiden voyage | 16 July 1903 |
| Nickname(s) | "Speed queen of the Great Lakes" |
| Honors and awards |
|
| Fate | Sold during 1905 to the Michigan Transportation Company |
| United States | |
| Name | Eastland |
| Owner | Michigan Transportation Company |
| Operator | Chicago-South Haven Line |
| Route | South Haven – Chicago route |
| Fate | Sold 5 August 1906, to the Lake Shore Navigation Company of Cleveland, Ohio |
 United States | |
| Name | Eastland |
| Owner | Lake Shore Navigation Company of Cleveland, Ohio |
| Route | Cleveland-Cedar Point route |
| Fate | Sold during 1909 to the Eastland Navigation Company of Cleveland, Ohio |
 United States | |
| Name | Eastland |
| Owner | Eastland Navigation Company of Cleveland, Ohio |
| Route | Cleveland-Cedar Point route |
| Fate | Sold on 1 June 1914 to the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company of St. Joseph, Michigan. |
| United States | |
| Name | Eastland |
| Owner | St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company of St. Joseph, Michigan |
| Route | St. Joseph, Michigan, to Chicago route |
| Fate | Raised after accident in October 1915 and sold at auction on 20 December 1915 to Captain Edward A. Evers, sold on 21 November 1917 to the IllinoisNaval Reserve. |
 United States Navy | |
| Name | USSWilmette |
| Acquired | 21 November 1917 |
| Commissioned | 20 September 1918 |
| Recommissioned |
|
| Decommissioned |
|
| Renamed | Wilmette on 20 February 1918 |
| Reclassified |
|
| Stricken | 19 December 1945 |
| Honors and awards |
|
| Fate | Sold for scrap on 31 October 1946 to Hyman Michaels Company of Chicago and scrapped, scrapping completed in 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Passenger Ship |
| Tonnage | 1,961 gross |
| Displacement | 2,600 (estimated) |
| Length | 265 ft (81 m) |
| Beam | 38 ft 2 in (11.63 m) |
| Draft | 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | Two shafts |
| Speed | 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) |
| Capacity | AsEastland: 2,752 passengers |
| Complement | As USSWilmette: 209 |
| Armament |
|
| Notes |
|
SSEastland was a passenger ship based inChicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915, the ship rolled over onto its side while tied to a dock in theChicago River.[1] In total, 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on theGreat Lakes.[1][2]
After the disaster,Eastland was salvaged and sold to the United States Navy. After restorations and modifications,Eastland was designated agunboat and renamedUSSWilmette. She was used primarily as a training vessel on the Great Lakes, and was scrapped after World War II.
The ship was ordered during 1902 by the Michigan Steamship Company and built by the Jenks Ship Building Company ofPort Huron, Michigan.[3] The ship was named in May 1903, immediately before her inaugural voyage.
On 27 July of her 1903 inaugural season, the ship struck the laid-up tugboatGeorge W. Gardner, which sank at its dock at the Lake Street Bridge in Chicago.Eastland received only minor damage.[4][5]
On 14 August 1903, while on a cruise from Chicago toSouth Haven, Michigan, six of the ship's firemen refused to stoke the fire for the ship's boiler, claiming that they had not received their potatoes for a meal.[4] When they refused to return to the fire hole, Captain John Pereue arrested the six men at gunpoint. Firemen George Lippen and Benjamin Myers, who were not a part of the group of six, stoked the fires until the ship reached harbor. Upon the ship's arrival in South Haven, the six men were taken to the town jail and charged withmutiny. Shortly thereafter, Captain Pereue was replaced.[4]
Because the ship did not meet a targeted speed of 22 miles per hour (35 km/h; 19 kn) during her inaugural season and had adraft too deep for theBlack River in South Haven, Michigan, where she was being loaded, the ship returned in September 1903 to Port Huron for modifications, including the addition of an air-conditioning system, aninduced-draft system for the boilers to increase power, and repositioning of the ship's machinery to reduce the draft of the hull.[4][6][7] Even though the modifications increased the ship's speed, the reduced hull draft and extra weight mounted up high reduced themetacentric height and inherent stability as originally designed.[6][7]
Upon her return to South Haven in May 1904, the ship handily won a race to Chicago against theCity of South Haven.[6] In the meantime, theEastland was experiencing periodic problems with her stability while loading and unloading cargo and passengers, and nearly capsized on 17 July 1904 after leaving South Haven with about 3,000 passengers.[4][6] Subsequently, her capacity was lowered to 2,800 passengers, cabins were removed, lifeboats were added and the hull was repaired. On 5 August 1906, another listing incident occurred, which resulted in complaints filed against the Chicago-South Haven Line that had purchased the ship earlier that year.[6]
Before the 1907 season, the ship was sold to the Lake Shore Navigation Company and moved toLake Erie.[4] In 1909, the ship was sold again to the Eastland Navigation Company and continued running excursions between Cleveland andCedar Point.[6] After the 1909 season, the remaining 39 cabins were removed, and prior to the 1912 season, the top smokestack sections were removed to shorten her stack height.[6] On 1 July 1912, another incident occurred when theEastland experienced a severe listing of about 25° while loading passengers in Cleveland.[4][6]
In June 1914, theEastland was sold to the St. Joseph–Chicago Steamship Company and returned to Lake Michigan for St. Joseph, Michigan-to-Chicago service.[4]
On 24 July 1915,Eastland and four otherGreat Lakes passenger steamers—Theodore Roosevelt,Petoskey,Racine, andRochester—were chartered to take employees fromWestern Electric Company'sHawthorne Works inCicero, Illinois to a picnic inMichigan City, Indiana.[8][9]
The federalSeamen's Act had been passed in 1915 following theRMSTitanic disaster three years earlier. The law required retrofitting of a complete set oflifeboats onEastland, as on many other passenger vessels.[10] This additional weight may have madeEastland more dangerous by making her even more top-heavy. Some argued that other Great Lakes ships would suffer from the same problem,[10] but the bill was signed into law by PresidentWoodrow Wilson.Eastland's owners could choose to either maintain a reduced capacity or add lifeboats to increase capacity, and they elected to add lifeboats to qualify for a license to increase the ship's capacity to 2,570 passengers.[11]Eastland was already so top-heavy that she had special restrictions concerning the number of passengers that could be carried. In June 1914,Eastland had again changed ownership, this time bought by the St. Joseph and Chicago Steamship Company, with captain Harry Pederson appointed the ship's master. In 1914, the company removed the old hardwood flooring of the forward dining room on the cabin level and replaced it with 2 inches (51 mm) of concrete. It also added a layer of concrete near the aft gangway. This added 15–20 tons of weight.[12]
On the morning of 24 July, passengers began boardingEastland on the south bank of the Chicago River betweenClark andLaSalle Streets at about 6:30 a.m., and by 7:10 a.m., the ship had reached her capacity of 2,572 passengers. Many passengers were standing on the open upper decks when the ship began to list slightly to the port side (away from the wharf). The crew attempted to stabilize the ship by admitting water into herballast tanks, but to little avail. At 7:28 a.m.,Eastland lurched sharply to port and then rolled completely onto her port side, coming to rest on the river bottom, only 20 feet (6.1 m) below the surface; barely half of the vessel was submerged. Many passengers had already moved below decks on the cool and damp morning to warm themselves before the departure. Consequently, hundreds were trapped inside by the water and the sudden rollover, and some were crushed by heavy furniture, including pianos, bookcases, and tables. The ship was only 20 feet (6.1 meters) from the wharf. Captain John O'Meara and the crew of the nearby vesselKenosha responded quickly by pulling alongside the hull to allow stranded passengers to leap to safety. Other notable heroes of the day included Peter Boyle, a deckhand from the SS Petoskey who drowned saving passengers, andHelen Repa, a Western Electric nurse who commanded much of the rescue operation. However, 841 passengers and 2 crew members died. Many of the passengers onEastland were immigrants, with large numbers from present-day Czech Republic, Poland, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, and Austria.[13] Many of theCzech immigrants had settled in Cicero; of the Czech passengers aboard, 220 perished in the disaster.[13]
The bodies were taken to temporary morgues established in the area for identification; by afternoon, the remaining unidentified bodies were consolidated in the armory of the 2nd Regiment.[8][14]
In the aftermath, theWestern Electric Company provided $100,000 (equivalent to $3.11 million in 2024)[15] to relief and recovery efforts of the family members of the victims.[16]
Among those scheduled to be onEastland was 20-year-oldfootball playerGeorge Halas, later the coach and owner of theChicago Bears and a founding member of theNational Football League, who was delayed leaving for the dock and arrived after the ship had overturned. Halas's name was listed on the list of deceased in newspapers, but he was later revealed to be unharmed. His friend and future Bears executiveRalph Brizzolara and his brother were on theEastland when she capsized but escaped through portholes.[17] Despite rumors to the contrary, entertainerJack Benny was neither aboardEastland nor scheduled for the excursion.
The first known film footage of the recovery efforts was discovered and released in 2015.[18]
Marion Eichholz, the last known survivor, died on 24 November 2014 at the age of 102.[19]
WriterJack Woodford witnessed the disaster and offered a first-hand account to theHerald and Examiner. In his autobiography, Woodford wrote:
And then movement caught my eye. I looked across the river. As I watched in disoriented stupefaction a steamer large as an ocean liner slowly turned over on its side as though it were a whale going to take a nap. I didn't believe a huge steamer had done this before my eyes, lashed to a dock, in perfectly calm water, in excellent weather, with no explosion, no fire, nothing. I thought I had gone crazy.[citation needed]
Carl Sandburg, then known better as a journalist than as a poet, wrote an angry account forThe International Socialist Review, accusing regulators of ignoring safety issues and claiming that many of the workers were aboard following company orders for a mandatory staged picnic.[20] Sandburg also wrote a poem, "TheEastland", which contrasted the disaster with the mistreatment and poor health of the lower classes. Sandburg concluded the poem with a comparison: "I see a dozenEastlands/Every morning on my way to work/And a dozen more going home at night."[21] The poem was considered too harsh for publication when written, but was eventually published in a collection of poems in 1993.[22]
Agrand jury indicted the president and three other officers of the steamship company formanslaughter, and the ship's captain and engineer forcriminal carelessness, and found that the disaster was caused by "conditions of instability" caused by overloading of passengers, mishandling of water ballast and the ship's faulty construction.[23]
During hearings regarding the extradition of the men to Illinois for trial, principal witness Sidney Jenks, president of the company that builtEastland, testified that her first owners wanted a fast ship to transport fruit, and he designed one capable of reaching 20 mph (32 km/h) and carrying 500 passengers. Defense counselClarence Darrow asked whether Jenks had ever concerned himself with the potential conversion of the ship into a passenger steamer with a capacity of 2,500 or more passengers. Jenks replied, "I had no way of knowing the quantity of its business after it left our yards ... No, I did not worry about theEastland." Jenks testified that a stability test of the ship was never performed, and stated that after tilting to an angle of 45° at launching, "it righted itself as straight as a church, satisfactorily demonstrating its stability."[24]
The court refused extradition, holding that the evidence was too weak, with "barely a scintilla of proof" to establish probable cause to find the six guilty. The court reasoned that the four company officers were not aboard the ship, and that every act charged against the captain and engineer was performed in the ordinary course of business, "more consistent with innocence than with guilt." The court also reasoned thatEastland "was operated for years and carried thousands safely", and therefore the accused were justified in believing the ship to be seaworthy.[25]
AfterEastland was raised on 14 August 1915, she was sold to the IllinoisNaval Reserve and recommissioned as USSWilmette, stationed at theNaval Station Great Lakes. She was converted to a gunboat, renamedWilmette on 20 February 1918, and commissioned on 20 September 1918 under captain William B. Wells.[26] Commissioned late in World War I,Wilmette did not experience combat. It trained sailors and experienced normal upkeep and repairs until placedin ordinary at Chicago on 9 July 1919, retaining a 10-man caretaker crew aboard. On 29 June 1920, the gunboat was returned to full commission.[26]
On 7 June 1921,Wilmette was tasked with sinkingUC-97, a German U-boat surrendered to the United States after World War I.[27] The guns ofWilmette were manned bygunner's mate J. O. Sabin, who had fired the first American cannon of World War I, and gunner's mate A. F. Anderson, the man who fired the first Americantorpedo of the war.[28]
For the remainder of her 25-year career, the gunboat served as a training ship for naval reservists of the 9th, 10th and 11th Naval Districts. It made voyages along the shores of the Great Lakes carrying trainees assigned to her from the Naval Station Great Lakes.Wilmette was placed "out of commission, in service" on 15 February 1940.[26]
Given hull designation IX-29 on 17 February 1941, she resumed training duty at Chicago on 30 March 1942, preparing armed guard crews for duty manning the guns on armed merchantmen. That assignment continued until the end of World War II in Europe obviated measures to protect transatlantic merchant shipping from German U-boats.[26]
During August 1943,Wilmette transportedPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt,Admiral William D. Leahy,James F. Byrnes andHarry Hopkins[4] on a 10-day fishing vacation in McGregor andWhitefish Bay.[29]
On 9 April 1945, she was returned to full commission for a brief interval.Wilmette was decommissioned on 28 November 1945, and her name was deleted from the Navy list on 19 December 1945. During 1946,Wilmette was offered for sale, but on 31 October 1946, she was sold to the Hyman Michaels Company for scrapping, which was completed in 1947.[26]
A marker commemorating the accident was dedicated on 4 June 1989. This marker was reported stolen on 26 April 2000, and a replacement marker was installed and dedicated on 24 July 2003.
As of 2016[update], plans exist for a permanent outdoor exhibit with a proposed name of "At The River's Edge". This exhibit would be located along the portion of the Chicago Riverwalk adjacent to the site of the disaster and is planned to consist of panels with text and images.[30]
On 12 July 2015, 100 years after the disaster, a memorial to the dead was dedicated atBohemian National Cemetery in Chicago.
The disaster was incorporated into the 1999 series premiere of theDisney Channel original seriesSo Weird, in which teenage paranormal enthusiast Fiona Phillips encounters the ghost of a boy who drowned.[31]
In 2012, Chicago'sLookingglass Theatre produced a musical entitledEastland: A New Musical, written by Andy White and scored byBen Collins-Sussman andAndre Pluess.[32][33]
TheEastland disaster is also pivotal to the story of one family told in the play/musicalFailure: A Love Story, written by Philip Dawkins, which premiered in Chicago in 2012 atVictory Gardens Theater.[34] The play premiered in Los Angeles on 24 July 2015, the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.[35] The play was again staged in Chicago at the Oil Lamp Theater and was nominated for multiple awards.[36]
In 2024, Chicago'sNeo-Futurists produced a puppetry show based on the disaster entitledSwitchboard.[37]
Whatever may have been the additional weight from the induced-draft and air-conditioning systems, it was enough to cause the ship tosquat when under way, promising to aggravate her chronic problem of striking bottom. To deal with the problem Wood undertook to relocate some of the ship's machinery. The exact nature of the repositioning was never stated, either at the time or after the disaster. Because the ship's machinery was quite limited, this probably meant some forward or aft movement of the engines and incidentally moving thecondensers. ... The new induced-draft and air-conditioning systems, combined with Wood's repositioning of machinery to reduce her draft, however, produced a ship that was to prove chronically top-heavy.
He decided they needed to set up a consolidated, temporary morgue. They did at the 2nd Regiment Armory building, which later became the studios forOprah Winfrey.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
| Telephones |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Switching systems | ||
| Other technology | ||
| Related companies | ||
| Competitors | ||
| See also | ||
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in July 1915 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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41°53′14.0″N87°37′54.1″W / 41.887222°N 87.631694°W /41.887222; -87.631694
