Historic Highlights: Eastland was deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history

The 1912 sinking of the Titanic is the nation’s most famous shipwreck, depicted on stage and screen while capturing the imagination of wistful Americans for its luxurious grandeur.

Of course, the hundreds of low-fare passengers down below in steerage would have told a different story.

Ask most Americans, and they will tell you that the Titanic is the deadliest maritime disaster in our history. And they would be wrong.

The loss of the 275-foot steamer Eastland, which capsized from its mooring in the Chicago River in 1915, actually cost more passenger lives than the Titanic.

In this July 24, 1915, file photo, passengers are rescued as they stand atop the Eastland passenger ship after the vessel capsized in the Chicago River in downtown Chicago. Film clips have surfaced of the 1915 disaster that left 844 people dead. The first-known footage of the Eastland disaster was spotted by Jeff Nichols, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was looking through seemingly unrelated material on World War I. (AP file photo) (AP file photo)

In the long and tragic history of maritime disasters on the Great Lakes, the Eastland is the deadliest. July 24 marks the 110th anniversary of the loss of the Eastland.

Some 2,573 passengers were aboard the steamer on the morning of July 24, 1915, most of them Western Electric Co. workers on their way to a company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana, a short distance across Lake Michigan, later that day. Those on shore noticed a portside list or leaning around 7:15 a.m., which steadily worsened until 7:28 a.m., when it listed at 45 degrees.

The Eastland had a history of severe listing and carried a reputation as a “hoodoo boat.” Ironically, safety regulations installed by Congress in the wake of the Titanic disaster may have contributed to the Eastland’s demise.

The laws required enough lifeboats for at least 75% of passengers on any vessel, and the Eastland was in compliance, though no tests had been done on how the extra weight would affect its stability.

Around 7:30 a.m., the Eastland rolled over, in the words of cub reporter and future literary star Carl Sandburg, “like a dead jungle monster shot through the heart.” The roll happened so suddenly that no lifeboats could be launched, and many passengers were thrown into the water.

This postcard shows the SS Eastland under the State Street bridge in Chicago. (Public domain photo)

The mass drowning rocked the city of Chicago and left officials scrambling to identify and transport hundreds of dead bodies. So many graves were needed in the coming days that 52 diggers worked 12-hour days, and still fell behind.

Photos show rescue workers and survivors standing on the hull of the Eastland as it lay in the water. Incredibly, the ship was raised, sold, and later refitted as a Naval training vessel under a different name.

Rescue efforts are shown on the SS Eastland excursion boat, which was chartered to take thousands of Western Electric Co.'s employees to a picnic but capsized just 20 feet from the wharf at Chicago on July 24, 1915. The death toll was 844, 70% of them under age 25. (AP file photo/AP)

Of the human losses in the celebrated Titanic tragedy, some 829 were passengers, while 785 passengers were lost in the bombing of the Lusitania. By comparison, the Eastland disaster resulted in the deaths of 844 passengers – 70% of them under age 25.

But even the Eastland pales in comparison to the loss of life on the Sultana, an overloaded steamboat that exploded in the Mississippi River near Memphis on April 27, 1865. Death tolls are inexact, but most estimates place the total at over 1,700, exceeding the 1,517 lost on the Titanic.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.