More passengers died in the sinking of the Eastland than on the famous Titanic and Louisiana. Why was he forgotten? Steamship Eastland. Chicago Eastland ship disaster

Chicago with its skyscrapers and ports has always been important center, linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi. Generations of people built this world-class city, starting with the piers, whose achievements are celebrated at the Chicago Maritime Museum. Here you can see model ships and rusty anchors, but the city's maritime past is shrouded in dark secrets.

Among the many exhibits at the Chicago Maritime Museum is an inconspicuous, worn life jacket made of cork and fabric. Faded and damaged over the years, the inscription “SS Eastland” is barely visible. This life jacket serves as a reminder of the terrible tragedy in the American maritime history. The sinking of the Eastland ship shocked the residents of Chicago, as well as the entire country.

Early on Saturday morning, July 24, 1915, Western Electric employees and their families gathered on the pier in downtown Chicago for a short walk. boat trip along Lake Michigan to the site of the annual picnic. 7 thousand tickets were sold for this sea voyage. Sea cruise still remained best choice for excursions, despite fresh memories of the Titanic tragedy just three years ago.

The company rented six passenger ships, among which stood out the beautiful white steamer “SS Eastland” - the pride of the Great Lakes. At 06:40 in the morning the gangplanks were opened and crowds of people rushed to the ships. Shortly after 07:00, landing ended and the ramps were retracted. As guests filled the snow-white liner, it suddenly lost stability and tilted to port. All objects on board rolled to the left. After 30 minutes, the ship's tilt angle reached 30 degrees. After a few more minutes, the ship lay on its side, still moored to the pier.

The greeting was replaced by screams of horror. Passengers from the upper deck flew into the water, and some, in panic, threw themselves into the river. Many had difficulty rising to the surface, as the Chicago River was heavily littered with debris. For the trapped passengers on the lower decks, there were only two options, either drowning or being crushed to death.

The city authorities immediately organized a full-scale rescue operation. Life jackets were thrown to people floundering in the water. Due to the imperfection of the suits, the divers had difficulty lifting those who could still be saved.

The Eastland tragedy claimed 844 lives. A week after the disaster, the bodies were recovered. 22 families ended up in Chicago morgues. They represented 28 nationalities.

The outraged public immediately demanded an answer to the question of how such a terrible disaster could happen to a moored ship. The investigation team soon cleared the crew entirely and identified a key design problem.

The sinking of the SS Eastland was bound to happen - it was only a matter of time. The fact is that the shipbuilders decided to build a high-speed vessel, so even when developing the project, the emphasis was on speed rather than stability. In this regard, the steamship had a very narrow keel, which should cut the water like a knife at high speed. But this also meant that the ship was extremely unstable and stood too high in the water. After launching, Eastland had a good “sterling” safety record, and subsequently performed numerous voyages without incident. However, the incident with the legendary aircraft forced the rewrite of safety rules for passenger ships such as the SS Eastland.

One of the main points was that all ships should increase the number of lifeboats. The airliner, built a decade earlier, was re-equipped at no extra cost. Additional lifeboats were hung on the upper deck of the ship, which added hundreds of kilograms of displacement. In addition, sea trials with full load were not carried out. Therefore, as soon as passengers began to board, the countdown began. And the most annoying thing is that only one lifeboat was used during the shipwreck!

A year later, a congressional commission proposed stricter rules for ship stability so that no ship would repeat the sad fate of the SS Eastland. And the life jackets remain on display at the Chicago Maritime Museum, a reminder that lessons learned nearly a century ago are still important today.

An American excursion steamer, leaving the pier, capsized on board. The number of victims exceeded 1000 people.

The Great Lakes, located in Canada and the United States, including Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario, cover almost a quarter of a million square kilometers. The Great Lakes are interconnected by rivers and artificial canals, the water from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan flows into Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, from there along the St. Lawrence River to Atlantic Ocean. They connect not only to the ocean, but also to the Hudson and Mississippi rivers.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Eastland was considered one of the fastest among passenger steamships plying the great lakes.

On August 9, 1910, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper ran the following ad: “$5,000 reward offered! The steamship Eastland was launched in 1903. This is a steel ocean-going vessel. It has a length of 82 meters, a beam of 11 meters, and a draft of 4.3 meters. The vessel is equipped with two propellers driven by two powerful triple expansion steam engines, to which steam is supplied by four boilers. Its ballast tanks hold 800 tons of water. The material of which the steamboat is built, its type and its powerful engines make it the strongest, fastest and safest vessel for travel on the Great Lakes. All this is well known to those familiar with maritime affairs. However, there are thousands of people who know absolutely nothing about ships, the laws and regulations of their operation, and their inspection by the United States Government. In order to intimidate these people, someone spread a rumor that the Eastland steamer supposedly could not be considered a safe ship. Unfortunately, we do not know who spread such ridiculous rumors, but their purpose is clear to us. Therefore, as proof of our rightness and out of respect for the feelings of 400 thousand people who over the past four years have enjoyed walks on this floating palace (and without a single problem), we are offering the above award to anyone who introduces us to a marine engineer, shipbuilder, ship engineer or any other person of sufficient qualification who will express his opinion on the qualities of our ship and declare that the steamer Eastland is not a seaworthy vessel and will not withstand any storm that may arise either on the lakes or on the ocean."

However, no one came for the promised reward. The Eastland continued to cruise the Great Lakes. Since its construction in 1903, this steamship has been considered the most beautiful, comfortable and fast ship on the Great Lakes. Residents of lakeside towns called him the “Queen of Speed.” It was an excursion steamer with a displacement of 1960 tons, with very sharp contours of the underwater hull. Despite the relatively low power of steam engines (1300 horsepower), it could reach a speed of up to 22 knots. The Jenks Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Port Huron, which built the Eastland, was very proud of it.

The steamship was assigned to the port of Chicago, from where it made daytime excursion voyages to Cedar Point on Lake Michigan or week-long voyages to Lake Erie. Cleveland then became his home port. "Eastland" was especially popular among young people - on the upper deck there was a steam organ, under which, while sailing in good weather there were dances. There were legends about this organ; they said that in calm weather its sound could be heard 5 miles away.

During 1913, the owners of Eastland sold 200 thousand tickets for it. The following year the steamship returned to Lake Michigan. Eastland was commanded by Captain Harry Petersen. He completed the 1914 navigation, like all previous ones, without a single damage.

In the summer of 1915, the Eastland was chartered for excursions on Lake Michigan by the Western Electric Company.

At 7 o'clock in the morning, on Saturday, July 24, sightseers began to flock to the pier on the Chicago River where the Eastland was moored. These were mostly workers and company employees with children and friends. Almost all passengers carried baskets of picnic provisions.

The morning turned out to be sunny, matching the mood of the tourists. The departure was scheduled for 7:40 am. Despite the early hour, the sounds of ragtime rushed from the upper deck, masterfully performed on a steam organ by a famous Michigan musician.

The ticket cost only 75 cents. The board of the company allowed children under ten years of age to board the ship without a ticket. The Eastland was designed to transport thousands of people during daylight hours. Captain Petersen often accepted fifteen hundred on board if the owners insisted on it. This time 2,500 tickets were sold. Probably Captain Petersen did not know about this, since the controllers did not keep a count of the passengers at the gangplank. Of course, the captain saw that there were many more people boarding the ship than was normal, but he did not stop boarding. Thus, there were 300 more passengers on the Eastland than on the Titanic...

The Eastland was docked on the Chicago River on its starboard side, with a steam tug moored at its bow, which was supposed to take it out of the river into the expanse of Lake Michigan. The whistle sounded and the ship's sailors pulled in the gangplank. The captain stood in the doorway of the wheelhouse and was ready to give the command to chief engineer Eriksen to start the cars.

As soon as the stern clamping end was released, the ship barely noticeably trembled and began to slowly fall onto the port side. At first no one paid attention to this. However, the roll increased every second. Benches and sun loungers moved to the edge of the port side along the upper deck, furniture began to move below and in the salons, and heavy boxes with ice stored for drinks crawled into the buffets. A woman screamed on the upper deck, then another... The Eastland tilted more and more, people, losing their support, began to slide to the left side. Those excursionists who at that moment were below deck in the cabins were pressed against the longitudinal bulkheads, others (the majority of them) who were standing on the upper decks were knocked into heaps and pressed against the port side railings.

When the roll reached 30 degrees, fear turned to panic. Hundreds of people rushed from the lower decks up the ladders. A crush began in the aisles, corridors and staircases. Screams, screams, and crying of children were heard everywhere, the roar of cabinets and cupboards being torn from their places, and the sound of breaking glass could be heard. Hundreds of passengers remained in cabins and in the corridors of the lower decks. Almost everyone at the top was thrown into the water. Some managed to grab benches, boxes, and boards floating in the water in time. People struggled helplessly in the dirty water of the Chicago River, clinging, biting, scratching and drowning each other.

Eastland continued to fall to port. The strong hemp mooring lines, which never had time to be released, stretched like strings and tore the mooring bollards and shore bollards out of the ground. Finally, the steamer capsized on board, covering hundreds of people floating on the water. A roar and hissing was heard - steam engines were torn from the foundation, and water flooded the fireboxes. For several minutes the river in this place was covered with a white veil of steam. The hiss of steam and the whistle of air escaping from the interior drowned out the screams of people. "Eastland" lay on its left side on the bottom of the river. Only 6 minutes passed... And only after another 10 minutes did water police boats and tugboats begin to arrive at the scene of the disaster. Police and fire trucks rushed to the pier. But they could only save those who were still floating on the water.

But the real hero was William Bright, captain of the steamship Missouri. Seeing that the Eastland had capsized on board, he took a taxi and rushed to the pier where the disaster occurred. Bright could not get through the crowd gathered on the embankment, so he went up to the second floor of the house that stood opposite the pier. From the window he saw that hundreds of people floating in the water could not climb onto the slippery side of the lying steamer. Among them there were many wounded and maimed. People were drowning in front of rescuers. Bright leaned out of the window and shouted to the police: “Take the ash from the fireboxes of the three tugs and pour it on the right cheekbone of the Eastland!” After that, he called the nearest weaving factory: “Urgently deliver fifty blankets to where the Eastland lies!” Ashes and blankets spread on the slippery side of the ship made it possible for many to crawl out of the water.

Rescue efforts did not last long. Everyone who was pulled ashore alive was given first aid or sent to the hospital.

Chicago was declared in mourning. For many days, the corpses of the dead were fished out of the river and removed from the overturned hull of the Eastland. Several hundred dead were pulled from the ship when acetylene was used to cut through its starboard side. Even more corpses were found when the ship was put on an even keel and the water was pumped out of it.

The official US press reported that the disaster claimed the lives of 835 people. But this is not true, since the indicated figure was announced in Chicago on the third day after the disaster. The ship was raised five days later, and several hundred more corpses were removed from it. An American investigative doctor from Chicago said at a press conference that he personally counted 1,300 corpses in the city morgue. On July 25, 1915, the city's newspapers published the following headlines: “2,100 drowned when the Eastland capsized at the pier,” “The ship had an increased center of gravity and began to collapse while still moored at the pier,” “All previous disasters did not end with such a number of victims.” , “The history of Eastland is a history of mistakes and failures.”

The Eastland disaster is the worst disaster in the history of shipping on the Great Lakes, and it is no coincidence that American historians call this ship the “Titanic” of the Great Lakes.

When the ship was lifted from the bottom of the river, for some time they did not know what to do with it. Finally, the Americans decided to convert it into a training ship for the US Navy Reserve, and under the name "Wilmette" it served until 1946.

Twenty years after the disaster, the American press shed some light on the real reason the death of Eastland. On August 7, 1935, the American Press published the following report: “The United States Court of Appeals today confirmed the decision of the visiting court that the St. Joseph Chicago Steamship Company is the former owner of the steamship Eastland, which sank on the Chicago River on July 24 1915 - is not responsible for the deaths of people in the disaster. The court finds that the vessel was seaworthy, but responsibility fell on the engineer who negligently filled her ballast tanks incorrectly.”

After the Titanic sank in 1912, the United States passed the Sailors Act, which required ships to be equipped with an adequate number of lifeboats. The passenger steamer Eastland was modified to accommodate the required number of lifeboats, but this added more weight to the already super-heavy ship. The inevitable disaster that followed ironically killed more passengers on the Eastland than on the Titanic, and the disaster occurred not on the open sea, but on the city river, and so close to the pier that you could throw a stone to it.

Let's remember how and why this happened...

Photo 2.

Photo 3.

After the Titanic sank in 1912, a campaign called “lifeboats for all” was launched by maritime officials around the world. In March 1915, President Woodrow Wilson introduced the Sailors' Act, which was passed on the initiative of Senator La Follette and required ships to be equipped with lifeboats for 75% of passengers. Lawmakers ignored warnings that ships on the Great Lakes were not built to handle the extra weight.

Eastland complied with the law and was equipped with eleven lifeboats (she was designed to carry only six) and thirty-seven life rafts weighing half a ton each, as well as sufficient life jackets to ensure the safety of all passengers and crew. The stage for tragedy was set.

Photo 4.

On the fateful day of July 24, 1915, workers of the Western Electric Company and their families sailed to the lake for their annual picnic. 2,573 passengers and crew filled the Eastland at its berth on the Chicago River in a festive mood. Orchestras played, friends and acquaintances greeted each other. No one seemed alarmed when the ship began to list to port. Some reports indicated that a crowd had gathered on one side to pose for a photo. At 7:28 p.m., Eastland listed 45 degrees. The mechanic desperately tried to hold the ship by opening one of the ballast tanks. But it was already too late. The Eastland capsized while anchored just six meters from the jetty, in just six meters of water, trapping hundreds of men, women and children beneath the vessel's bowels. It happened so suddenly that there was simply no time to use rescue equipment.

Photo 6.

Some lucky passengers simply walked ashore on the overturned hull of the ship without even getting their feet wet. But for much more For people, that day became a nightmare of screams and struggles trying not to sink. Onlookers gathered on the river bank jumped into the water to help, or threw everything that could keep them afloat into the water, straight into the mass of drowning people.
Rescuers managed to pull out forty people alive. But for the 844 others nothing could be done except to retrieve their bodies and send them to the Second Regiment armory for identification. Twenty-two families were completely killed. Most of the dead were under twenty-five. Although more passengers died on the Eastland than on the Titanic (not counting the crew), the event remains little known to the public.

Photo 7.

There were no rich or famous people on board."

Explains Ted Wachholz, president of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society.

Photo 8.

When it became clear that everyone who could be rescued was already safe, provided with blankets to keep warm, it was the turn of the divers - a job as grim as it was necessary. Over the next 24 hours, bodies were caught from the river, which was blocked downstream by a net. Divers made their way inside the ship, into the water-filled compartments. Many had to be replaced after a few hours of work - the human psyche could not withstand such a number of corpses. Captain Don Donovan, who had seen a lot, however, spent whole days in the water - someone had to pull the bodies out of even the most remote compartments.

Seventeen-year-old volunteer Henry Bowles climbed into the most dangerous places a sunken ship, where experienced professional divers did not dare to venture. Perhaps only teenagers have such reckless courage.

Photo 9.

Photo 10.

They say that the waters of the river in this place are also restless - sometimes a person passing along the Clark Bridge hears screams and noise, as if many people are struggling in the water, trying to get out. The man, in bewilderment and horror, rushes to the handrails - but the water is calm, there is no one.

Others have seen and heard water splashing out big wave on part of the embankment, near the cafe - as if something huge had suddenly fallen into the water. Those who were bolder came closer to the shore and looked into the water, and later told how, instead of their own reflection, they saw strangers’, dead faces. Strange stories they also talked about the ship itself immediately after it was lifted from the river and laid on the shore to dry before the necessary repairs. People passing by spoke of eerie sounds and flickering lights. However, Captain Edwards, who was assigned to be on the ship, was a sensible man and not at all cowardly. He also heard strange noises, but he feared ghosts much less than living and understandably unfriendly townspeople. He explained the eerie sounds in the night by the creaking of drying boards and chuckled at passers-by shouting in panic: “Look, look, the light is on there!” Of course, there was a light on - the captain couldn’t sit in the dark in the evenings!

Photo 11.

To what has been said, we can only add that neither the captain of the ship nor its owners were subsequently found guilty of the tragedy by the court. The proceedings in courts at various levels that lasted until 1936 were unable to name a single cause of the tragedy. Most likely, it was not there - the reason was a combination of many factors.

Photo 12.

Photo 13.

Newspapers across the country reported this terrible story with a small degree sensationalism For example, 1,200 people died or 300 went missing. However, newspapers were the best source of information and quickly the number of victims decreased.Everyone wanted to know the cause of the disaster. What was the mistake and what contributed to the incorrect construction of the ship, faulty equipment, negligence of the captain and engineer, bribery and greed. Naturally the whole load " responsibility" was placed on completely different shoulders.The possible reasons leading to the death of Eastland are still disputed.Some would like to say that she is simply a "capricious ship" and should never have sailed.Evidence proved that she sailed for twelve years without incident if the ballasts contained water.Who is responsible for the ballasts and keeping the ship even the keel is also discussed.Trying to find an answer to the question of why the SS Eastland capsized has never been resolved.Even after nearly twenty years of criminal and civil investigations, no one has been brought to justice.

Photo 14.

After repairs, the ship was sold to the Illinois National Reserve, renamed "Wilmette" and used first as training ship, then - as a combatant in the First World War. During the modernization of the ship as a combat vessel, Four 4-inch guns, Two 3-inch guns, Two 1-pounder guns were installed, the deck was completely re-equipped, as well as the interior of the ship.

Class and type: passenger ship
Type: Steamboat
Tonnage: 1961 Gross (Gross is a now rarely used counting unit, equal to 144 items.)

Displacement: 2600 tons.
Length: 265 m
Width: 38ft 2in
Project: 19 feet 6 inches
Installed power: two to three steam engines, four boilers (coal-fired)
1750 hp
Drive: Two shafts
Speed: 16.5 knots
Capacity: Like Eastland: 2752 passengers
Addendum: As USS Wilmette: 209

Armament: Like USS Wilmette:
Four 4-inch guns
Two 3-inch guns
Two 1-pounder guns
Notes: Two chimneys, two masts

Photo 15.

Photo 16.

Photo 17.

Photo 18.

Photo 20.

Photo 21.

Photo 22.

Further fate.

After the First World War, the ship, given its merits, as well as the hull IX-29 (similar to a transport) on February 17, 1941, continued training personnel to perform manning duties, firing guns on armed merchant ships. Training on this ship continued until the end of World War II, until the threat of attack by German submarines on the Transantlactic trade route was eliminated.

In August 1943, the Wilmette had the honor of transporting President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral William D. Leahy, James Byrnes and Harry Hopkins on a 10-day cruise to McGregor and White Bay, during which the war strategy was planned.

Wilmette was decommissioned on November 28, 1945, and her name was stricken from the Navy list on December 19, 1945. In 1946, Wilmette was offered for sale. Finding no takers, on October 31, 1946, she was sold to the Hyman Michaels Company for scrapping, which was completed in 1947.

Conclusion.

This is the difficult fate that befell the ship Wilmette. The ship, which previously, due to such incredible coincidence of circumstances, had claimed so many lives, and one could not believe in its continued existence, decided to continue its journey in the form of a warship. His merits may not be so impressive, but perhaps thanks to him, the personnel who walked along the thin razor’s edge along the Transantlactic route were subsequently trained on him, saving more than one hundred lives.

And we'll find out what happens The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

The story of this sad incident, which, a year after the sinking of the Empress of Ireland liner, shocked the United States and Canada, is best to begin with short excursion into the history of the Great Lakes and shipbuilding in the region.

It is also known from school geography that these lakes represent a unique and largest cluster fresh water on the globe. Located in Canada and the United States, this lake system includes Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. The area of the lakes covers almost a quarter of a million square kilometers, which is equal to the territory of the British Isles. The Great Lakes are interconnected by rivers and artificial canals; water from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan flows into Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, from where along the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. These "fresh seas" are connected not only to the ocean, but also to the Hudson and Mississippi rivers.

The first shipbuilders and fishermen on the Great Lakes were the Algonquin, Huron, Iroquois, Ottawa, Chippie and Winnebug Indians. According to scientists, the first Europeans to visit the “fresh seas” of America were probably the Scandinavian Vikings and fishermen of Brittany. The initial period of colonization of the banks of the St. Lawrence River, which began in 1535, is associated with the names of French navigators Jacques Cartier, Samuel Champlain and Robert La Salle.

Today, the Great Lakes are considered one of the busiest shipping areas on earth. There are more than twenty major seaports, of which the most visited by European ships are Toronto, Buffalo, Oswego, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago and Duluth.

To reach the Great Lakes, oceangoing ships pass through Montreal, pass seven locks on the St. Lawrence Canal, and enter Lake Ontario. After that, they go through eight locks of the Welland Canal, which bypasses Niagara Falls, rise to a height of 99.5 meters and fall into Lake Erie. From here the path is open to them in lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior. Any ship can enter the Great Lakes if its length does not exceed 222.5 meters, width - 23 meters, draft - 7 .9 meters.

Anyone who comes to the Great Lakes for the first time cannot help but be surprised by the unique architectural form of local ships. Since the birth of industrial shipbuilding, new ships of original designs and the most bizarre shapes, never seen before in Europe, began to appear here. It began in 1843, when on Lake Erie the Americans built the first iron gunboat, the Michigan, which was unlike any of the warships then existing in the world. In 1868, the first iron packet boat on the lakes, the Merchant, was launched in Buffalo. The designs are also super original. Less than a year had passed since a large cargo steamer launched from the slipway in Cleveland, with the steam engine located in the stern and the wheelhouse slightly aft of the stem. This was the first wooden ore carrier in the history of shipbuilding. They called it "Forest City". However, the prototype of modern Great Lakes bulk carriers was the Onoko, also built with a machine in the stern and a wheelhouse in the bow, but made of iron. Nicknamed the "floating shoebox", she proved to be an exceptionally durable vessel and brought considerable profit to her owners. Onoko sank aground in 1915.

Another type of cargo ship unique to the Great Lakes was the so-called "whale". Its design was developed by Alexander McDougall, a blacksmith by profession, who came to the shores of Lake Superior in the seventies of the last century from Scotland. Here he became the captain of a ship, saved up some capital and opened a shipyard in Duluth, where he began building his strange-looking, but, as it turned out, very durable seaworthy cigar ships.

The length of these steel ships was 77-84 meters, width - no more than 11 meters, draft - no more than 4 meters. appearance they really looked like a huge cigar and had a low freeboard. Like the Onoko, the steam engine was located in the stern, and the wheelhouse was in the form round tower, reminiscent of the conning tower of a destroyer, in the very nose. These ships had a spoon-shaped nose, the tip of which resembled the nose of a pig, for which they were nicknamed “pigs.” In the “patch” itself two anchor fairleads were made. In the stern there was a small cabin with a circular cross-section in plan, where the crew quarters were located. On the sloping deck, which had a huge slope and resembled the back of a whale, several narrow hatches were made, battened down with steel covers that did not reach the sides by 3-4 meters. The height of the hatch coamings did not exceed six inches. McDougall knew perfectly well the nature of the steep waves of the “fresh seas”. These floating "cigars", taking 2,800 tons of ore into their holds, could travel at fifteen knots without experiencing particularly strong rolling in a moderate storm. Water rolled freely along and across the “whale’s back”, and due to the rounded shape of the deck superstructures, resistance to its hull was minimal. Ships designed by McDougall were successfully used in winter as icebreakers: thanks to the shape of their bow, they could freely overcome meter-long ice.

A former Scottish blacksmith built 44 “whales” in 1888-1898 (not counting barges of a similar shape). At the end of the last century, their fame spread throughout the world, McDougall's "pigs" were successfully exploited not only on the Great Lakes, but also along the Atlantic coast of America, they were met in the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea, they circumnavigated the world.

In 1893, an enterprising Scot built a passenger "whale", which he named "Christopher Columbus". This ship had a capacity of 1511 register tons, a length of 110.3 meters, a width of 13 meters, and its 3 thousand horsepower steam engine provided a speed of about 18 miles per hour. During the Chicago World's Fair, it operated regularly from Buffalo, bringing more than a thousand visitors to the fair each time. From 1909 to 1933, the Christopher Columbus served the Chicago-Milwaukee passenger line. It was scrapped only in 1936.

At the beginning of this century, the Eastland was considered one of the fastest and most popular passenger steamships among the population that plied the Great Lakes. But his fate turned out to be tragic.

On August 9, 1910, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper published the following advertisement.

"A reward of $5,000 is offered! The steamship Eastland was launched in 1903. It is a steel ocean-going vessel. It has a length of 82 meters, a beam of 11 meters, a draft of 4.3 meters. The ship is equipped with two propellers driven by two powerful triple expansion steam engines, to which steam is supplied by four boilers. Its ballast tanks hold 800 tons of water. The material from which the steamer is built, its type and its powerful engines make it possible to call it the most durable, fastest and safest ship for traveling on the Great. lakes. All this is well known to those who are familiar with maritime affairs. However, there are thousands of people who know absolutely nothing about the ships, about the laws and regulations of their operation and about their inspection by the United States government. Someone disbanded these people with the intention of intimidating them. rumors that the Eastland steamer allegedly cannot be considered a safe ship. Unfortunately, we do not know who spread such ridiculous rumors among the people, but their purpose is clear to us. Therefore, as proof of our rightness and out of respect for the feelings of 400 thousand people who over the past four years have enjoyed walks on this floating palace (and without a single problem), we are offering the above award to anyone who introduces us to a marine engineer, shipbuilder, engineer or any other person of sufficient qualification who will express his opinion on the quality of our ship and declare that the Eastland is not a seaworthy vessel and will not withstand any storm that may arise either on the lakes or on the ocean."

A day, two, a week, a month passed, but no one came to claim the announced reward, and the newspaper editor waited in vain for the appearance of “a specialist with sufficient qualifications.” The Eastland continued to operate its cruise voyages on the Great Lakes. Soon the advertisement in the newspaper was forgotten.

Since its construction in 1903, this steamship has truly been considered the most beautiful, comfortable and fast ship on the Great Lakes. Residents of lakeside towns invariably called him the “Queen of Speed.”

It was an excursion steamer with a displacement of 1960 tons, with very sharp contours of the underwater hull. Despite the relatively low power of steam engines (1,300 horsepower), it could reach speeds of up to 22 nautical miles per hour. The Jenks Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Port Huron, which built the Eastland, was very proud of it.

The steamship was assigned to the port of Chicago, from where it made daytime excursion voyages to Cedar Point on Lake Michigan or week-long voyages to Lake Erie. Then Cleveland became his home port. As already mentioned, the Eastland was a favorite of passengers on the Great Lakes. Especially among young people. Apparently, this was explained by the fact that on its upper deck there was a steam organ, to which dances were held during the voyage in good weather. There were legends about this organ; they said that in calm weather its sound could be heard 5 miles away.

During 1913, the owners of Eastland sold 200 thousand tickets for it. The following year, the Queen of Speed returned to her native Lake Michigan - the ship now belonged to the St. Joseph Chicago Steamship Company. It was still commanded by Captain Harry Petersen. He completed the 1914 navigation, like all previous ones, without a single scratch on board.

In the summer of 1915, the Eastland was chartered for excursions on Lake Michigan by the Western Electric Company.

At 7 o'clock in the morning, on Saturday, July 24, excursionists began to flock to the pier on the Chicago River where the Eastland was moored. These were mostly workers and employees of the company with children and friends: women in hats with feathers and flowers, men in straw hats with black ribbons, girls with ribbons and bows in their braids, and most of the boys were dressed in sailor suits for the occasion of the voyage. Almost all passengers carried wicker baskets containing picnic provisions.

The morning promised a clear sunny day, everyone was in a festive, high spirits. After all, it’s not every month that you have such luck - to take a trip across the lake, and even on the most beautiful ship! Departure was scheduled for 7:40 am. Workers and employees of the electric company had been waiting for this pleasure trip on the Eastland for a long time; they had long dreamed of getting out of the huge smoky city and breathing in the fresh air of Lake Michigan. Despite the early hour, deafening sounds of ragtime were heard from the upper deck of the ship, masterfully performed by a famous musician of the city on a steam organ.

A ticket for the tour cost only 75 cents. The board of the company allowed children under ten years of age to board the ship without a ticket. The Eastland was designed to carry thousands of people on daytime flights. Captain Petersen often accepted fifteen hundred on board if the owners kindly asked him to do so. This time 2,500 tickets were sold. Apparently, Captain Petersen did not know about this, since the controllers did not count the passengers at the gangway - they simply tore up the tickets. Of course, Petersen saw that much more people boarded the ship than was normal, but he did not stop boarding. Thus, there were 300 more passengers on the Eastland than on the Titanic.

The Eastland was docked on the Chicago River on its starboard side, with a steam tug moored at its bow, which was supposed to take it out of the river into the expanse of Lake Michigan. The whistle sounded and the ship's sailors pulled in the gangplank. Captain Petersen stood in the doorway of the wheelhouse and was ready to give the command to Chief Engineer Eriksen to start the machines.

As soon as the stern clamping end was released, the ship barely noticeably trembled with its elegant hull and began to slowly fall onto the port side. At first no one paid attention to this. The roll increased with every second. Benches and sun loungers moved to the edge of the port side along the upper deck, furniture began to move below and in the salons, and heavy boxes with ice stored for drinks crawled into the buffets. A woman screamed on the upper deck, then another... The Eastland tilted more and more, people, losing their support, began to slide to the left side. Those excursionists who at that moment were below deck in the cabins were pressed against the longitudinal bulkheads, others (the majority of them) who were standing on the upper decks were knocked into heaps and pressed against the port side railings.

Why did the Eastland begin to list not to the starboard side, with which it was moored at the pier, but to the opposite side?

Anyone who has traveled on river vessels, seen off or met them, has probably noticed that when approaching the pier, passengers accumulate at the side on which the ship moored or departed from the pier. This is quite natural: people say goodbye or look in the crowd for those who meet them. Often in such cases, the command is given to passengers: “Please move away from the board!”

"Eastland" began to list on the side farthest from the pier for the reason that its pleasure voyage was designed for one day and no one saw off the excursionists. What interest does it have for passengers to look from the ship at a pier that they have already seen? It was more interesting to look at the river and see what was happening there. Perhaps at that time some steamship was passing along it or something was happening that attracted the attention of the passengers. One way or another, the Eastland began to list on the opposite side from the pier.

When the list reached 30 degrees, even those who had never been on the ship understood what was happening. Fear turned to panic. Hundreds of people rushed from the lower decks up the ladders. A crush began in the aisles, corridors and stairwells. Screams, screams, and crying of children were heard everywhere, the roar of cabinets and cupboards being torn from their places, and the sound of breaking glass could be heard. Hundreds of passengers remained in cabins and in the corridors of the lower decks. People fought in cramped spaces like fish caught in a net. Almost everyone at the top was thrown into the water. Dozens of women and children were floundering in the river, and others fell on their heads from above. Some managed to grab benches, boxes, and boards floating in the water in time. The fear of death began to speak in people, the animal instinct awoke. The drowning people struggled helplessly in the dirty water of the Chicago River, clinging, biting, scratching and drowning each other.

Eastland continued to fall to port. The strong hemp mooring lines, which never had time to be released, stretched like strings and tore the mooring bollards and shore bollards out of the ground. Finally, the steamer capsized on board, covering hundreds of people floating on the water. A roar and hissing could be heard from its interior—steam engines had been torn from the foundation, and water had flooded the furnaces. For several minutes the river in this place was covered with a white veil of steam. The hiss of steam and the whistle of air escaping from the interior drowned out the screams of people. "Eastland" lay on its left side on the bottom of the river. Only 6 minutes passed... And only after another 10 minutes did water police boats and tugboats begin to arrive at the scene of the disaster. Police and fire trucks rushed to the pier. But they could only save those who were still floating on the water.

But it was not the policemen and firefighters who proved themselves to be heroes here. The hero turned out to be a certain William Bright, captain of the steamship Missouri. He had just moored his vessel at the Northern Michigan Shipping Company. Seeing that the Eastland had capsized, he took a taxi and rushed to the pier where the disaster occurred. Bright was unable to break through the crowd gathered on the embankment and climbed to the second floor of the house opposite the pier. From the window he saw that hundreds of people floundering in the water could not climb onto the slippery side of the lying steamer. Among them there were many wounded and maimed. People were drowning in front of rescuers. What could the captain do to save these people, being on the second floor of the house? He leaned out of the window, as if from the wheelhouse of his steamship, cupped his hands into a bullhorn and shouted to the police: “Take the ash from the fireboxes of the three tugboats and pour it on the right cheekbone of the Eastland!” After that, he asked the owners of the house where the telephone was and called the nearest weaving factory: “Urgently deliver fifty blankets to where the Eastland lies!” Ashes and blankets spread on the slippery side of the ship made it possible for many to crawl out of the water.

Rescue efforts did not last long. Everyone who was seen on the water or inside the part of the steamer protruding above the river level alive was pulled ashore, given first aid or sent to the hospital.

Chicago is in mourning. For many days, the corpses of the dead were fished out of the river and removed from the overturned hull of the Eastland. Several hundred dead were pulled from the ship when acetylene was used to cut through its starboard side. Even more corpses were found when the ship was put on an even keel and the water was pumped out of it.

How many lives did this disaster claim?

The official US press cited the figure as 835 people. But this is not true, since the indicated figure was announced in Chicago on the third day after the disaster. The ship was raised five days later, and several hundred more corpses were removed from it. An American investigative doctor from Chicago said at a press conference that he personally counted 1,300 corpses in the city morgue. On July 25, 1915, the city's newspapers published the following headlines:

“2,100 drowned when the Eastland capsized at the pier.”

“The ship had an increased center of gravity and began to collapse while still on the moorings at the pier.”

“All previous disasters did not end with such a number of victims!”

"The ship sank in just six minutes!"

“What the diver saw inside the sunken steamer plunged him into unconsciousness!”

“The history of Eastland is a history of mistakes and failures!”

The Eastland disaster is the worst disaster in the history of shipping on the Great Lakes, and it is no coincidence that American historians call this ship the “Titanic” of the Great Lakes.

When the ship was lifted from the bottom of the river, for some time they did not know what to do with it. It was a pity to scrap it: the hull, steam engines, boilers and interior spaces remained in good condition and could be restored without much difficulty. There was no point in putting her back into service as a passenger ship, since no one would take a ticket for her. The Americans acted in a businesslike manner: they converted it into a training ship of the US Navy Reserve, and under the name "Wilmette" it served until 1946.

Exactly 20 years have passed since the great drama in Chicago. And finally, the American press shed some light on the true cause of the death of the Eastland. The Cleveland Plain Dealer published the following report on August 7, 1935: "The Eastland case has come to light. The United States Court of Appeals affirms its decision in the 1915 steamboat disaster. Chicago, August 7, American Press. Today the United States Court of Appeals affirmed The decision of the mobile court that the St. Joseph Chicago Steamship Company, the former owner of the steamship Eastland, which sank on the Chicago River on July 24, 1915, was not responsible for the deaths of people in the disaster. The court finds that the ship was seaworthy. , but the responsibility fell on the mechanic who negligently filled his ballast tanks incorrectly.”

An American excursion steamer, leaving the pier, capsized on board. The number of victims exceeded 1000 people.

The Great Lakes, located in Canada and the United States, including Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario, cover almost a quarter of a million square kilometers. The Great Lakes are connected by rivers and artificial canals; water from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan flows into Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, and from there along the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. They connect not only to the ocean, but also to the Hudson and Mississippi rivers.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Eastland was considered one of the fastest among passenger steamships plying the great lakes.

However, no one came for the promised reward. The Eastland continued to cruise the Great Lakes. Since its construction in 1903, this steamship has been considered the most beautiful, comfortable and fast ship on the Great Lakes. Residents of lakeside towns called him the “Queen of Speed.” It was an excursion steamer with a displacement of 1960 tons, with very sharp contours of the underwater hull. Despite the relatively low power of steam engines (1300 horsepower), it could reach a speed of up to 22 knots. The Jenks Shipbuilding Company in Port Huron, which built the Eastland, was very proud of it.

The steamship was assigned to the port of Chicago, from where it made daytime excursion voyages to Cedar Point on Lake Michigan or week-long voyages to Lake Erie. Cleveland then became his home port. The Eastland was especially popular among young people - there was a steam organ on the upper deck, to which dances were held during the voyage in good weather. There were legends about this organ; they said that in calm weather its sound could be heard 5 miles away.

In the summer of 1915, the Eastland was chartered for excursions on Lake Michigan by the Western Electric Company.

Eastland continued to fall to port. The strong hemp mooring lines, which never had time to be released, stretched like strings and tore the mooring bollards and shore bollards out of the ground. Finally, the steamer capsized on board, covering hundreds of people floating on the water. A roar and hissing was heard - it was steam engines falling off the foundation, and water flooded the fireboxes. For several minutes the river in this place was covered with a white veil of steam. The hiss of steam and the whistle of air escaping from the interior drowned out the screams of people. "Eastland" lay on its left side on the bottom of the river. Only 6 minutes passed... And only after another 10 minutes did water police boats and tugboats begin to arrive at the scene of the disaster. Police and fire trucks rushed to the pier. But they could only save those who were still floating on the water.

Rescue efforts did not last long. Everyone who was pulled ashore alive was given first aid or sent to the hospital.

The Eastland disaster is the worst disaster in the history of shipping on the Great Lakes, and it is no coincidence that American historians call this ship the “Titanic” of the Great Lakes.

Twenty years after the disaster, the American press shed some light on the true cause of the death of the Eastland. On August 7, 1935, the American Press published the following report: “The United States Court of Appeals today confirmed the decision of the visiting court that the St. Joseph Chicago Steamship Company is the former owner of the steamship Eastland, which sank on the Chicago River on July 24 1915 - is not responsible for the deaths of people in the disaster. The court finds that the vessel was seaworthy, but responsibility fell on the engineer who negligently filled her ballast tanks incorrectly.”