#MaritimeDisaster

[pasthistoricalevents]

Titanic's Darkest Secrets: The Warnings That Never Reached #ytshorts #sh...

[global-education]

🚢 Unveiling History's Deadliest Shipwrecks 🌊

When we think of shipwrecks, images of sunken treasure, ghostly vessels, and epic adventures often come to mind. However, beneath the allure of these maritime mysteries lies a grim reality: history is dotted with some of the deadliest shipwrecks, claiming thousands of lives and leaving behind haunting stories that still send shivers down our spines. Let's dive deep into the turbulent waters of history to unveil some of the most harrowing tales of shipwrecks.

The Titanic Tragedy 🚢 The RMS Titanic, often dubbed "unsinkable," met its tragic fate in 1912 when it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage. Over 1,500 lives were lost in one of the most famous shipwrecks in history.

The Wilhelm Gustloff 🌊 This German cruise ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in 1945, resulting in the deaths of approximately 9,000 passengers and crew, making it the deadliest shipwreck in terms of lives lost.

The Lusitania ⚓ A German submarine sank the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, leading to the loss of nearly 1,200 lives, including 128 Americans, which influenced the U.S. entry into World War I.

The USS Indianapolis 🇺🇸 The USS Indianapolis met a tragic end during World War II when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Over 800 crew members lost their lives in shark-infested waters.

The Empress of Ireland 🇨🇦 In 1914, this Canadian passenger liner collided with another ship and sank in the St. Lawrence River. More than 1,000 people perished, making it one of Canada's deadliest maritime disasters.

The Dona Paz 🇵🇭 In 1987, the MV Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker in the Philippines, resulting in a catastrophic fire. Around 4,000 people lost their lives in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime tragedies.

The MV Le Joola 🇸🇳 The Senegalese ferry MV Le Joola capsized in 2002, claiming the lives of over 1,800 passengers and crew members. It remains one of the deadliest non-military shipwrecks in history.

The Sultana 🚢 The steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River in 1865, killing an estimated 1,800 people, most of whom were Union soldiers returning home after the Civil War.

The Royal Charter 🇬🇧 A violent storm wrecked the Royal Charter off the coast of Wales in 1859, resulting in the deaths of around 450 passengers and crew members.

The Toya Maru 🇯🇵 In 1954, the Japanese ferry Toya Maru sank during a typhoon, claiming over 1,150 lives in one of Japan's worst maritime disasters.

These shipwrecks serve as chilling reminders of the perils faced by seafarers throughout history. While some were due to natural disasters or war, others were caused by human error or engineering flaws. Each tragedy has left an indelible mark on history, drawing us closer to the eerie mysteries of the deep sea.

In the age of modern navigation and advanced safety measures, we remember these shipwrecks not only as cautionary tales but also as testaments to the resilience of the human spirit. 🌟

[sohailjawaid]

Due to the carelessness of the captain of the ship, the ship collided with the marine fleet. The ship was completely destroyed. Heartbreaking video is released.

For Details Watch Video: https://rb.gy/lqe17a

#ShipCollision #CaptainNegligence #MarineAccident #FleetCollision #MaritimeDisaster #SeaAccident #BreakingNews #NauticalIncident #ShipCrash #MarineSafety

[whencyclopedia]

RMS Empress of Ireland

The RMS Empress of Ireland was a transatlantic passenger ship that sank early in the morning of 29 May 1914 on the St. Lawrence River killing 1,012 of the 1,477 people on board. It is considered Canada’s worst maritime disaster and one of the most tragic in history.

Continue reading...

[husheduphistory]

Storm and Fire: The Handcrafted Tragedy of the SS Morro Castle

Tom Burley was having a busy night at work on September 8th 1934. As the radio station manager for WCAP out of Asbury Park, New Jersey it was his job to broadcast the goings on of the world in an accurate, timely manner and tonight there had been a great deal to report. At just after 7:30pm he moved to take a break from the strenuous evening when something caught his eye outside. Smoke, thick smoke, accompanied by a terrible red glow that defied the heavy rain pelting Convention Hall that night. It was headed directly for the building when 200 feet from shore there was a crash, screeching, and finally, and awful stillness with what looked like fire and brimstone blocking out Burley's office windows. As completely shocking as this was, Burley had an idea what he was looking at. He had been talking about it all night, a nightmare that only days before was a glittering paradise in the business of making dreams come true.

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Read the rest of the story in Hushed Up History Volume I, available now through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com!

[starlightiing]

Think I have a problem? 12 books about the sea, and just about all of them are maritime disasters/shipwrecks. I think I have a problem. #books #bookstagram #maritimehistory #maritimedisasters https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs-kqXogBMg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qand3p4npwx5

[sandyhookhistory]

"A Loss In The Delaware River" Eighty Years Ago, Yesterday - (Tuesday) February 23rd, 1943: Folks, I'm sorry but there just wasn't enough room to fit this one in last night, so we're playing catch-up today. Not all of our losses were overseas - we lost plenty of men, women and material right here at home. The US Navy loses another YP (District Patrol Vessel) not out at sea or to the enemy... but right in the Delaware River. YP-336 runs aground, and sinks. And sadly, details are so sketchy, that's all we know about it. We don't have a location or casualties. Hell, I can't even find a photo of her. The YP's, despite being a class, were anything but standardized, and were literally any small wooden or metal hulled vessel between 22 and 100 feet long that the Navy could get their hands on, from pleasure boats to fishing trawlers. So, on that note, we're sharing this photo of a sister hull, YP-422, for perspective. Again, we don't have the specifics, but today we remember the loss of YP-336 right in our own backyard, and will continue to research her story and that of her crew. 🇺🇲🇺🇲 ** Please Like & Follow "Sandy Hook History" on Facebook & Instagram for more amazing maritime and military histories of the Garden State and New York Harbor as well as a review of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle Of The Atlantic and World War 2** 🇺🇲🇺🇲 Photos: PubDom #visitmonmouth #newjerseybuzz #thejournalnj #locallivingnj #journeythroughjersey #centraljerseyexists #discovernj #yesnj #newjerseyhistory #newjerseyforyou #sandyhookbeach #sandyhooknj #sandyhookhistory #forthancockhistory #forthancock #battleoftheatlantic #harbordefense #delawareriver #delawarebay #delawareriverhistory #unitedstatesnavy #usnavy #ranaground #yardpatrol #yardpatrolcraft #pressedintoservice #maritimedisaster #maritimehistory # #homefront #thewarathome (at Fort Hancock, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpDmwW_gmNS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[britishadmiraltychart]

CLICK https://wa.me/6281268878103, Ba Charts 1655, Ba Charts 1426, Ba Charts 1046, Ba Charts 2738, Ba Charts 2444

CV. Trissan Arminda Madani Perumahan Bukit Sakinah Blok Shofa 1 No.08 RT 01 RW 01 Kelurahan Buliang, Kecamatan Batu Aji Kota Batam

Kunjungi Website Kami Di : https://www.tokopedia.com/cvtrissan https://www.instagram.com/cvtrissanarmindamadani/ https://www.tiktok.com/@cvtrissanarmindamadani

#pelayaranhitssss, #maritimeculture, #maritimedisaster, #maritimediaries, #maritimedekoration, #dmaritimebiz, #pelautfreedom, #pelautflores, #pelautflores🚢, #pelautferdinandmagellan

[instapicsil3]

⁠A victim is carried up the SS Eastland as the steamship lies on its side in the Chicago River after slowly rolling over and drowning 844 people on the morning of July 24, 1915. The Tribune wrote, "It lay like a toy boat of tin wrecked in a gutter, its starboard half rising clear of the water." ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The Eastland would be the greatest peacetime inland waterways disaster in American history and the deadliest single day event in Chicago's history. Read about the disaster by clicking the link in our bio. #EastlandDisaster #SSEastland #ChicagoRiver #MaritimeDisasters⁠ https://ift.tt/2GsZxm3

[instapicsil2]

⁠A victim is carried up the SS Eastland as the steamship lies on its side in the Chicago River after slowly rolling over and drowning 844 people on the morning of July 24, 1915. The Tribune wrote, "It lay like a toy boat of tin wrecked in a gutter, its starboard half rising clear of the water." ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The Eastland would be the greatest peacetime inland waterways disaster in American history and the deadliest single day event in Chicago's history. Read about the disaster by clicking the link in our bio. #EastlandDisaster #SSEastland #ChicagoRiver #MaritimeDisasters⁠ https://ift.tt/2GsZxm3

[lollipoplollipopoh]

Estonia ferry disaster: French court denies compensation claim by Al Jazeera English Relatives of hundreds of people who died in one of Europe's worst maritime disasters have lost their claim for compensation. 852 people died when the MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994. Most of the victims' bodies were never discovered. Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports. - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL #AlJazeeraEnglish #EstoniaFerryDisaster #MaritimeDisaster

[husheduphistory]

Wrecked and Remembered: Two Canadian Catastrophes and their Stories in Stone

The natural beauty of Canada can seem almost unreal. Mountains meet glaciers and dense, sprawling forests while other areas look like epic desert landscapes. Intertwined with all the amazing rock and soil are Canada’s many stunning coastlines, rivers, and lakes. Canada has had an important connection with its bodies of water and waterways, relying on them throughout history to provide growth, food, and avenues for travel and commerce. Like many other regions deeply connected with their waters, there is always a chance for disaster when navigating the routes, carrying potentially dangerous cargo, and dealing with uncontrollable weather conditions. The coastlines of Canada are littered with shipwrecks, but some of these ships fell into circumstances that went far beyond unfortunate and resulted in utter disaster for those involved.

Located on a coastal road near the St. Lawrence River in Pointe-au-Père in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada is a tall stone structure inscribed with a grim tale of an excessive loss of life. The words are not alone in telling their tale; this monument is situated alongside a mass grave commemorating the spot where Canada experienced one of the greatest peacetime maritime disasters ever seen.

The RMS Empress of Ireland was a Scottish-built ocean liner measuring 570 feet long and had ninety-five voyages under her belt by May 1914. She was a relatively young ship, just under eight years old, with no reason to suspect that there was anything for any of her thousands of passengers to worry about.

On the morning of May 29th 1914 the Empress was setting out on her latest journey, traveling to Liverpool England from Quebec City, a routine trip headed by the newly promoted Captain Henry George Kendall who would be making his first venture up the St. Lawrence River. The passengers of the ship bid farewell to Quebec City, serenaded by the jovial sounds of the Salvation Army Band. The ship was manned by 420 crew members on hand to attend to the 1,057 passengers on board, some of which belonged to the higher classes of British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand society. The first-class passengers occupied cabins on the upper deck and lower promenade decks which encircled the ship. There were plants, a café, smoking room, a library, a string quartet, and a private dining area for the children of first-class passengers. Second class passengers traveled in the stern of the lower promenade and upper decks with a smoking room and access to the first-class café. The largest number of passengers on this voyage were traveling third class with cabins below decks with access to a section of the upper decks. They were all anticipating a comfortable and peaceful voyage to Liverpool.

A colorized image of the Empress of Ireland. Image via Wikimedia Creative Commons.

By 1:38am on the morning of May 29th the Empress had departed Pointe-au-Père and was making their way along their normal course. The conditions were clear when ship lights were first spotted approximately six miles from the Empress. The lights belonged to a Norwegian collier, SS Storstad, who also saw the Empress’s masthead lights off in the distance.

The clear conditions deteriorated extremely fast, enveloping the ships in a fog so dense that visibility was lost and the only indicator to the locations of the ships came from sounding their fog whistles. It was not enough. The next thing Captain Kendall saw were the lights of the Snorstad plowing out of the fog and heading directly for his ship.

At 1:55am the Snorstad made a direct hit onto the Empress at a 45 degree angle, slicing through the ship and sealing the fates of many. The situation escalated terrifyingly fast. Given the early morning hour most passengers were asleep in their cabins at the time of the collision and had no time to realize what was happening, let along scramble to the upper decks in hope of a lifeboat. Water poured into the ship, trapping and drowning those below deck. As the Empress listed sharply to its side water began pouring in through the open portholes. The ship was tilting over at such an extreme angle that even if anyone could get to the lifeboats, they could not be launched. Ten minutes after the collision the ship lay completely on her side in the water and only four minutes later the RMS Empress of Ireland sank beneath the river taking 1,012 of the 1,477 souls who had boarded the previous day. The death toll was even larger than that of the Titanic which had occurred two years earlier.

The SS Snorstad with damage sustained from the collison. Image via Wikipedia.org. Public Domain.

The wreck of the Empress came to rest only 130 feet below the surface and shortly after the disaster crews began diving in the search for bodies and valuables that had gone down with the ship. In 1964 a team of Canadian divers were able to recover a brass bell and due partially to the influx of divers the site of the wreck became protected under the Cultural Property Act in 1999 and was added to the Register of Historic Sites of Canada. While diving expeditions to the wreck are still carried out the dive has taken the lives of six more people since 2009.

The mass grave located at Pointe-au-Père was marked on the site several years after the disaster by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Several other memorials have been established in the region with monuments in the Mount Herman Cemetery in Quebec, a memorial in Saint Germain Cemetery in Rimouski, and a monument erected by the Salvation Army in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto where an annual memorial service is held on the anniversary of the disaster next to their statue reading “In Sacred Memory of 167 Officers and Soldiers of the Salvation Army Promoted to Glory From the Empress of Ireland at Daybreak, Friday May 29, 1914".

Empress of Ireland Memorial. Image via Wikipedia Creative Commons.

The wreck of the RMS Empress of Ireland quickly faded from many minds with some saying it simply got overshadowed by pre-WWI tensions. Only three years later though Canada would suffer another horrific wreck with an impact that reached far beyond the ship itself.

The SS Mont Blanc was less than twenty-five years old on December 6th 1917. Measuring at 320 feet long, it was a steamship that transported general cargo to wherever the shipment was needed freeing it from standard schedules and a port of call. In November 1917 the ship was chartered to carry a cargo of miscellaneous munitions and explosives from New York to France and on December 1st the SS Mont Blanc departed for Halifax, Nova Scotia under the command of Captain Aime Le Medec.

The ship was very slow moving, and on December 5th it arrived in Halifax, intending to join a convoy of other ships gathered in the Bedford Basin before heading to Europe. But, the ship arrived too late to enter the harbor that evening and was forced to sit and wait with a cargo full of explosive TNT, picric acid, gun cotton, and barrels of high-octane benzol sitting on the deck. When it first arrived the ship was boarded by harbor pilot Francis Mackey who asked if they had and “special protections” or a guard ship to help guide them into the harbor given the extremely volatile cargo. They did not.  

Early the next morning on December 6th 1917 the Mont Blanc began traveling through the strait that connects the upper portion of the Halifax Harbor to the Bedford Basin with its cargo of over 2,500 tons of explosive materials. Mackey was keeping an eye on the waters around them, but approximately ¾ of a mile out he caught sight of the SS Imo, a Norwegian ship with no cargo due to head back to New York. The Mont Blanc blew their whistle signaling the Imo, but the Imo simply responded with their own whistles, indicating they had no intention of changing their course. The Mont Blanc tried to shift, the ships cut their engines, but momentum carried them dangerously close to each other. The crew of the Mont Blanc knew they had to be extremely careful, their ship was essentially a massive floating bomb, something that no one on the Imo or anyone else gathering to watch the ships was aware of. After some maneuvering, the ships were nearly parallel, but then the Imo put their engines in reverse, sending them into the Mont Blanc’s starboard side.  

Stern of Mont-Blanc before the explosion during a prewar visit to Halifax, Aug. 15, 1900. Image via Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, MP18.196.11, N-4,395.

The severity of the situation may not have been obvious at first. The two ships collided at extremely low speeds at approximately 8:45am, knocking over the barrels of benzol, and sending the fuel spilling onto the deck and flowing into the holds. At this point people on other ships were beginning to gather on their decks to watch. When the Imo disengaged from the Mont Blanc it caused sparks, igniting the fuel and starting a fire. The crew of the Mont Blanc knew they, and everyone around them, were in extreme danger. Captain Le Medec ordered his crew to abandon the ship and the fire quickly grew out of control. People were still watching from other ships, and now people living on the coast were coming out of their homes and staring out their windows at the inferno. They had no clue what was about to happen. The smoke and noise muffled anything the frantic crew of the Mont Blanc were screaming, and even if they could be heard no one understood the warnings being yelled in French.

The Mont-Blanc, now engulfed in flame, began to drift and it made its way to Pier 6, setting it ablaze, before finally grounding itself at the foot of Richmond Street. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed for the people of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Just before 9:05am the fire reached the cargo hold and an explosion erupted in a blinding flash of white light. The shockwave ripped through Halifax, traveling more than 1,500 meters per second with the heat at the center of the blast reaching 5000C pushing a fireball of chemicals, debris, and shrapnel miles into the air and temporarily vaporizing the water around the ship. Soon after a tidal wave surged through Halifax bringing more devastation to the already nearly-leveled city. The Mont-Blanc itself was blasted into pieces and twisted parts of it would later be found miles from the site of the explosion. The Imo was lifted by the tidal wave and slammed into the shoreline. Halifax, a bustling city mere moments earlier, was hit by the largest man-made explosion in history before Hiroshima.

The SS Imo after being tossed by the tidal wave from the Mont Blanc explosion. Image via Wikipedia.org Public Domain.

The toll of the explosion was disastrous to Halifax with approximately 1,600 people losing their lives and another 9,000 sustaining injuries. More than 12,000 homes and buildings were damaged or completely leveled with the entire Richmond district laid to total waste. Structures were reduced to rubble and splintered wood, every window was shattered, every door ripped from their hinges, and rail cars and boats in the vicinity were simply crushed. Miraculously, all but one crew member of the Mont Blanc survived.

The devastation of Halifax after the Mont Blanc explosion. Image via Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Recovery efforts came in from hundreds of sources and six weeks after the explosion the Halifax Relief Commission was formed to take on the monumental task of managing and re-building Halifax with the North End being rebuilt as the Hydrostones, Canada’s first public housing project.

Halifax Exhibition Building in the aftermath of the explosion. Image via Wikipedia. Public Domain.

In 1966 the Halifax North Memorial Library was constructed with the first monument to the disaster, the Halifax Explosion Memorial Sculpture, placed in its entrance (the statue was later dismantled in 2004). Constructed in 1985, the Halifax Memorial Bell Tower stands today overlooking the site of the disaster and is the site for an annual remembrance ceremony that takes place every year on December 6th. It is the largest reminder among several still remaining in the Halifax region, with large pieces of the SS Mont-Blanc standing in Dartmouth and the clock tower of Halifax City Hall housing one clock on its north side permanently set at 9:05am to commemorate the minute that the city was nearly erased from the map.

Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower. Image by Jesse David Hollington from Toronto, Canada - Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3670253

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Sources:

Halifax Explosion https://www.britannica.com/event/Halifax-explosion

Explosion in The Narrows: The 1917 Halifax Harbour Explosion, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion

The Great Halifax Explosion, History.com https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-halifax-explosion

Kiloton Killer The Collision of the SS Mont-Blanc and the Halifax Explosion https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-2013-01-07-ssmontblancandhalifaxexplosion.pdf?sfvrsn=d4ae1ef8_6 

Two ships collided in Halifax Harbor. One of them was a floating, 3,000-ton bomb by Steve Hendrix washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/06/two-ships-collided-in-halifax-harbor-one-of-them-was-a-3000-ton-floating-bomb/

SS Mont-Blanc Explosion – 1917 https://devastatingdisasters.com/ss-mont-blanc-explosion-1917/

The Empress of Ireland, National Museums Liverpool https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/merseyside-maritime-museum/maritime-museum-floor-plan/lifelines-gallery/empress-of-ireland

On this day: The Empress of Ireland, 'Canada's Titanic,' sinks in 1914 by Kayla Hertz  https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/empress-of-ireland-sinking

RMS Empress of Ireland https://www.shipwreckworld.com/maps/rms-empress-of-ireland

[wildflowerwhispers95]

This is a wonderful book that everyone should read. #amazingbook #historicalfiction #maritimedisaster Also the author answer a tweet of mine. #awesome 🌺

[instapicsil3]

#TDIH 1915, the Eastland capsized in the #Chicago River, taking 844 souls with her. #History #ChicagoHistory #MaritimeDisasters https://ift.tt/2LmxWHK

[husheduphistory]

A Shipwreck in Chicago: The Disaster of the SS Eastland

On the chilly early morning of July 24th 1915 the south bank of the Chicago River was bustling with activity. Young men dressed in their Sunday best and the ladies arrived in long dresses, hats, and boots in eager anticipation of the activities ahead. The yearly picnic for the employees of Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works (located in present-day Cicero) was a huge event for the company with the hard workers, their families, and friends taking a day off from their grueling work week for fun and relaxation. Thousands arrived that morning, but hundreds of people never left.

In the early 1900s a standard work week was typically six days long and well exceeded forty hours so when the picnics first began for Western Electric employees, they were an instant success. Washington Park, located across Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana was a idyllic setting for the event offering merry-go-rounds, a roller coasters, bandstands, a baseball park, beaches, and picnic grounds alongside tranquil wooded sections for calmer conversational relaxation. The ticket prices ranged from $.75 to $1.00, not a small fee in those days, but to those buying it was well worth it and that year ticket sales hit an all time high with over 7,000 sold.  For many people the picnic was the social event of the year, they would not have missed it for the world.

Enjoying the beach at Washington Park.

In order to get the employees and their guests across Lake Michigan Western Electric chartered five excursion boats, one of which was the SS Eastland, the “Speed Queen of the Great Lakes.” The ship had already been in the hands of several owners and had even been the scene of a mutiny in 1903 when six of the ship’s firemen refused to tend to the fires because they had been denied potatoes with their meals. Despite its colorful past there was no reason for anyone to feel nervous boarding the Eastland. Earlier in the year the federal Seamen’s Act was passed requiring all passenger ships to be retrofitted with a complete set of lifeboats, a move partially enacted because of the tragedy of the Titanic only three years earlier. On July 2nd 1915, just under three weeks before the picnic, the owners of the Eastland complied with the new regulations and added three lifeboats and six rafts all weighing approximately fourteen tons to its top deck. By all appearances the vessel was the safest ship in the world. That morning it was also the most desirable ship to be on because it was scheduled to leave the dock first. Boarding the "Speed Queen" began at 6:30am and people rushed onto the decks at a rate of fifty people per minute in anticipation of a 7:30am departure. The 2,500 passenger limit was soon reached and excited picnic goers began to stake claims on their spots for the boat ride. Due to the light rain many women and children went to the lower decks while others went to the top deck where they gazed over the railings and called to friends down below. Music from a band drifted out from the main cabin beckoning people to dance and begin their festivities early.

The festivities never did begin, because they never had the chance to.

The SS Eastland docked in Ohio circa 1911

The tilting of the Eastland began just after 7am but initially it did not alarm those already on board. At first it was able to right itself, the problem was that tilting did not stop there. The ship was listing toward the port side (the left-hand side of a vessel facing forward) and passengers were asked to disperse and move to the starboard side (the right-hand side of a vessel facing forward) but they did not follow these directions. At 7:20am water began to pour onto the main deck and engines were ordered to stop. However, departure was still not called off as the ship was able to again right itself. Minutes later the tilting resumed and despite being ordered to move to the starboard side passengers still refused due to rain making the desk slippery. The captain of the Eastland, Captain Harry Pedersen, still did not call off the departure, instrad ordering a standby. By 7:27am the listing resumed with the ship tilting away from the dock at a forty-five degree angle, only this time it did not right itself.

The jovial scene only moments before quickly disintegrated into chaos. Dishes began falling off of shelves, the refrigerator behind a bar crashed over pinning passengers underneath, water began to pour onto the ship and the piano on the promenade deck was thrown to the other side of the room crushing two people. Realizing the imminent disaster passengers began to scream and run toward staircases that would become deathtraps in a matter of seconds. Passengers were suddenly whisked off their feet and found themselves inexplicably falling, crashing into other people and anything else in between them and the floor which had been a wall only a moment earlier. The piles of bodies grew and were added to by the tables, chairs, bottles, lunches, and garbage that no longer had anything to hold them upright. Those who were on the top decks wondered if they should jump, and some of them did.

At 7:30am the SS Eastland rolled over in place, coming to rest on it’s side on the muddy bottom of the Chicago River submerging the port side and trapping hundreds of people in twenty feet of cold, murky water. It was only feet from the dock with its ropes still attached.

The disaster happened so fast that none of the new lifeboats were launched, no life jackets were handed out, and no life rafts were utilized simply because passengers did not even have the time to react to the sudden danger they found themselves in. Horrified onlookers, some of which were other picnic goers still waiting to board a ship, began to help in any way they could and people began to jump into the river that had transformed into a frantic screaming sea. Nearby boats hurried to the scene and onlookers began to throw ladders and shipping crates into the water for people to hold onto. To those still trapped in the non-submerged portion of the ship, salvation came in the form of welders who ran to the site and were able to cut holes into the hull with their torches giving people a way out. Bystanders dragged people out of portholes in hopes of saving them from suffocation and those still on the visible portions of the ship scrambled to the dock with some being able to simply walk across the now-horizontal side of the ship to safety.

People standing on the side of the Eastland waiting to be rescued. Image via Smithsonian Magazine.

Being pulled from the capsized ship.

The SS Eastland on its side in the Chicago River.

While there was hope for a percentage of passengers, there was nothing that could be done for those that were trapped inside the ship underwater and the result was absolutely devastating. Nearly everyone that was on the port side of the ship when it tipped was doomed. 844 people lost their lives in the Eastland disaster including 228 teenagers and 22 entire families.Many were lost by drowning but just as many lives were snuffed out by suffocation.

In the days following the disaster the magnitude of the event and the loss became apparent all over the city. Surrounding buildings became morgues and makeshift hospitals where frantic family members circulated desperate for word of their missing loved ones or hoping to finally find a familiar body among the dozens lined up in rows. The tight-knit communities of Polish, Czech and Hungarian immigrants who worked for Western Electric began to drape their homes in black while preparing the so many unexpected funerals. The first week was dedicated to burying the dead with families being given assistance in arranging and paying for the burials. The bells seemed to never stop ringing, the local churches had multiple funerals for days, and funeral processions became a constant sight.

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church overwhelmed by funerals. Image via OriginalShipster.com.

When the initial shock began to fade it was only replaced by countless questions of what happened that day on the SS Eastland. The answer was simple, the ship was too top heavy to support the passengers and as a result it tipped over. The explanations as to how the ship ended up in the position to tip over with thousands of people on board were not as easy to accept.

The fact of the matter was that the Eastland had a long unstable history. Built in 1902, it was originally constructed to carry produce and only up to 500 people. The design of the ship was top heavy and relied on ballast tanks to keep it balanced but repeated modifications in order to increase passenger space and speed made it unstable when being loaded or unloaded. All inspections were done only when the ship was traveling, making it seem stable and earning it multiple safety certifications. 1904 and 1906 saw two extremely close calls with the Eastland nearly tipping over, each time with over 2,500 people on board. When the ship was bought by  the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company in 1914 the only thing that crossed their minds was how much of a bargain they were getting by only paying $150,000 for the vessel. Tragically, the final straw in the unsettling of the Eastland may have been the retrofitting of the life boats required by the federal Seamen’s Act which added thousands of pounds to its top decks.

A few days after the disaster of the Chicago River a coroner’s inquest questioned an official of the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company who remarked “I didn’t know much about the boat except that we got it at a bargain. All I do is sign blank checks.”

The Eastland being righted after the disaster

Despite the cause being somewhat agreed upon, many still felt someone needed to take the blame for what happened that day. Although it was widely agreed that Captain Harry Pedersen and other crew members were negligent, they were never prosecuted along with officers from the steamship company who also avoided legal action. The hammer seemed to fall on chief engineer Joseph Erickson who was blamed for mishandling the ballast tanks and failing to right the Eastland as it tilted away from the dock. Erickson died during the long proceedings putting the question of fault to rest with him. More than 800 wrongful death lawsuits were filed but the proceedings dragged for more than twenty years with families getting almost nothing in return.

It was not until 1990 that the city of Chicago placed a memorial plaque dedicated to the Eastland disaster on the site. The plaque was stolen but replaced and rededicated on July 24, 2003.Today, at the corner of West Wacker Drive and North LaSalle Street the five foot tall black marker stands silent, often being swallowed up by the bustling city around it. When someone stops to read it, it has a story to tell that sounds unbelievable. A shipwreck, called “Chicago’s Titanic”, that took over 800 lives and happened only feet from dry land.

The marker for the Eastland disaster. Photograph by Victorgrigas on Wikimedia (Creative Commons).

Remarkably, in 2015 a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Chicago discovered previously unknown video footage taken of rescue efforts of the disaster. That footage can be viewed here.

Please do take some time to look at the official website of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society for much more amazing information, stories, and images from this disaster. Click here to go directly to their site.

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Sources:

www.EastlandDisaster.org

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/eastland-disaster-killed-more-passengers-titanic-and-lusitania-why-has-it-been-forgotten-180953146/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-eastlanddisaster-story-story.html