Photo courtesy of Eastland Disaster Historical Society
Remember a few weeks ago when we spotlighted River North? We made mention of the fact that the former Historical Society building (also formerly the nightclub Excalibur) is said to be haunted for a variety of reasons, including holding bodies from the Eastland Disaster in it when it was used as a makeshift morgue. The club has been featured on the Travel Channel’s website and given a rundown on the Illinois Paranormal Society‘s site, as well.
What’s the Eastland Disaster, you ask? Everyone knows about the tragic trip of the Titanic. Movies have been made and museums built. But rarely do people talk about or know about another huge civilian maritime disaster that happened while the boat in question (the Eastland, people!) sat feet from shore. 98 years ago tomorrow, the SS Eastland tipped over, killing 844 people — all while it sat feet from shore.
The Western Electric company had hired three boats to take their employees on a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. This was a big deal for the employees — many of them didn’t get to take vacations or holidays. Due to the Titanic tragedy, a law was passed requiring boats to be retrofitted with lifeboats — to ensure that if anything happened, there would be enough lifeboats for everyone.
However, the problem was in the SS Eastland from the start. It was already known to have issues with being top-heavy and listing, and had already had an incident where too many passengers on top had caused the boat to take on water. Adding the lifeboats just added weight to an already top-heavy, flawed design vessel.
On the morning of the trip, passengers boarded the Eastland on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle Streets around 6:30, and by 7:10 a.m., the ship was at the capacity of 2,572 passengers. Many passengers stood on the open upper decks, and the ship began to list slightly to the port side — away from the dock. The crew attempted to stabilize the ship by admitting water to its ballast tanks, but it didn’t make much of a difference. Sometime in the next 15 minutes, a number of passengers rushed to the port side, and at 7:28, the Eastland lurched sharply to port and then rolled completely onto its side, coming to rest on the river bottom, which was only 20 feet below the surface.
Due to the fact that the day was cool and damp to start out, many passengers had moved below decks to warm up. Unfortunately, although the boat was feet from shore, this meant that hundreds were trapped inside by the water and the sudden rollover; and others were crushed by heavy furniture, including pianos, bookcases, and tables. All in all, a total of 844 passengers and four crew members died in the disaster.
Several people had commentary on the incident — Carl Sandburg wrote a poem called “The Eastland.” It was so harsh, that it wasn’t published during his lifetime. Writer Jack Woodford witnessed the disaster and gave a first-hand account to the Herald and Examiner, a Chicago newspaper.
In his autobiography, Woodford writes:
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.
If you’re interested in the macabre aspects of Chicago’s past, Chicago Elevated, a local tour company (disclosure: I am good friends with Margaret, but her tours are A-rate), has a disaster tour that discusses several large disasters in Chicago, including the Eastland.
Have you heard of the Eastland Disaster before? What are your favorite “haunted” places in Chicago?
