Michael Peregrine: The SS Eastland tragedy shocked Chicagoans 110 years ago. Its relevance endures.
But before the morning ended, over 840 people would perish in what remains the greatest tragedy, in terms of death, in Chicago history. More than the Great Chicago Fire, more than the 1995 heat wave, more than the Our Lady of Angels School fire and more than the crash of American Airlines Flight 191. And it had collateral implications for three Chicago historical figures.
To get its employees to and from the Dunes, Western Electric hired a small fleet of excursion boats, including the SS Eastland. Somewhat unpublicized was the Eastland's troubled history with instability, dating to its initial launching and to several subsequent listing incidents. Additional federal-mandated lifeboats, prompted by the Titanic disaster, created additional stability issues.
On July 24, the Eastland began loading passengers about 6:30 a.m. from the south side of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle streets. Among those scheduled to board was a young George Halas, who was working a summer job at Western Electric. The weather was clear and the river calm.
A timeline prepared by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society describes the unbelievable terror of the subsequent, tragic minutes. As quickly as 10 minutes after boarding started, the ship listed starboard to the dock. The ship then listed to port (north) before slowly righting after the crew took countermeasures. At 7 a.m., the list to port returned as 1,000 passengers boarded.
Boarding closed at 7:10 a.m. when the ship reached a maximum capacity of about 2,500 passengers. Over the next 15 minutes, the ship vacillated between stability and a list to port, with water accumulating on the port deck. By 7:27 a.m., the list increased to 25 to 30 degrees, and the engine room crew abandoned its station. Minutes later, the list reached an unrecoverable 45 degrees; the ship slowly and silently sank, its starboard side resting on the river bottom.
Rescue efforts began immediately but were frustrated by rapid internal flooding and a lack of emergency access. The dead and suffering were transported to a triage station in the Reid, Murdoch & Co. warehouse.
The victims included 22 families. Many of the victims were recent immigrants from Eastern Europe, a circumstance that moved Carl Sandburg to pen the angry poem 'The Eastland.'
Halas arrived too late for the boarding process — but not too late to witness the disaster. His friend, future Bears general manager Ralph Brizzolara, escaped by being pulled through a porthole.
Ultimately six men, including senior executives of Eastland's owner, as well as its captain and chief engineer, were indicted by a federal grand jury for various crimes. Famed Chicago lawyer Clarence Darrow represented the chief engineer. All of the defendants were found not guilty, basically for want of evidence that they had failed to take proper precautions to prevent the tragedy.
A parallel civil case took almost 18 years to resolve, and while it found the chief engineer to have been negligent, the damages were limited to the scrap value of the ship and were paid over to the creditors, with none to the victims' families.
The Eastland was later raised, repaired, sold to the Illinois Naval Reserve and converted to a gunboat, which served as a training vessel on the Great Lakes during the two World Wars, as the USS Wilmette. One of the Wilmette's most notable assignments was to carry President Franklin D. Roosevelt and key aides Adm. William Leahy, James Byrnes and Harry Hopkins on a 1943 cruise.
Most of us have seen the grainy black-and-white photos and films of the partially capsized Eastland, its grimy hull protruding above the river waters. And most of us have passed it off as the product of another time, another setting, another milieu. That it was all so primitive and it couldn't happen again.
Indeed, one would hope and expect that human nature, technology and regulation have all advanced over the last 110 years to prevent future Eastland-like tragedies. That investment in public safety has been exponentially increased and maintained. That responsible officials — government and corporate — as well as consumers and other stakeholders are now so attentive to warning signs that they are willing to intervene, especially when those signs have accrued over time.
Have the right lessons truly been learned? Probably. But just in case, pause a bit the next time you're on Wacker Drive, between Clark and LaSalle. When you're looking across the river at the beautifully restored Reid, Murdoch & Co. building. And when you are looking straight down where the Riverwalk meets the waters, where the Eastland once lay.
And then think about your answer to that question and where it might take you.
Michael Peregrine is a Chicago lawyer and a graduate of Oak Park High.
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