Eastland Steamer Danielle Lacko MEP March 2, 2001

Topics of Discussion Background What Happened Causes Results of Disaster

Background Commissioned in 1903 Occurred July 24, 1915 at 7:30 AM Western Electric Picnic Occurred on the Chicago River (downtown) It was docked

What Happened 6:40 passengers started boarding 6:41 ship began to list starboard 6:48 port ballast 2 and 3 were partially filled 6:53 ship lists to port- starboard ballast 2 was partially filled 7:07 water was emptied from port ballast 3 7:10 no more passengers allowed on board 7:10-7:15 listing to port increased to degrees

What Happened 7:16 tried to fill starboard ballast 2 and 3 7:18 ship righted itself 7:20 port list returned- water came on ship- stopped the engines 7:23 list became worse 7:27 list reached angle of degrees 7:28 list reached 45 degrees 7:30 capsized

What it looked like

Causes Metacentric Height Ballast System Management/Human Error

Metacentric Height WHAT IS IT??? Measure of stability of a ship in the water Positive, negative, zero metacentric height

Positive Height -The Ship’s Metacenter is above the center of gravity -Righting arms are created -The ship rights itself

Negative Height -Center of gravity is above the metacenter -Negative righting arms -Ship capsizes

Zero Height -Metacenter and center of gravity at the same point -No righting arms -Stays at incline

Metacentric Height Original design had a metacentric height of 18 inches 60ft of length taken away (lower metacentric height) Another deck added (top-heavy) Thought it was for freight Addition of Ellis and Eaves Draft System (speed) and McCreery System of Air-Conditioning (cooling)

Metacentric Height cont. Sleeping compartments taken out Concrete added (15-20 tons) Addition of lifeboats due to sinking of the Titanic (LaFollette’s Seaman’s Act) There was an easy inclination test to measure and calculate the height- never done

Ballast System WHAT IS IT??? Large tanks at the bottom of a ship Used to stabilize the ship by emptying and filling tanks with water

Ballast System cont. Eastland had twelve tanks Water was pulled into pipe Connected to a manifold Into desired tank The tanks were different sizes

Problems with the Ballast System There were no gages- time was used Same manifold used for water to leave ballast tanks Water couldn’t be pumped from tanks on one side to the other Slow process of opening and closing different tank valves

Errors During the Disaster 6:48 port ballast 2 and 3 filled- dangerous due to negative height  Free surface effect  Shifted list to port side 7:07 water emptied from port ballast 3  Didn’t empty port ballast 2  Still weight below center of gravity 7:16 starboard ballast 2 and 3 wouldn’t fill

Management/Human Error New Chief Engineer in 1915, Joseph Erickson He was used to working on ships with a long metacentric height No one discussed addition of lifeboats with him He was not told that the changes may have cause the metacentric height to be negative with a heavy load He didn’t know the capacity had been increased He didn’t know the ship should be handled differently

Results 841 passengers died- more passengers than died on Titanic (829) 22 families were wiped out Worst disaster in terms of loss of life in history of Chicago Morgue was set up in the Armory because there were so many dead that needed to be identified

What it looked like

Another View

Why people died People were stuck in the lower decks They were crushed or drowned

References American Red Cross. Eastland Disaster Relief. Chicago, Illinois: American Red Cross, Bowen, Dana Thomas. Lore of the Lakes. Cleveland, Ohio: Freshwater Press Inc., Davis, Lee. Man Made Catastrophes. New York, New York: Facts on File Inc., “Engineer’s Report Blames Eastland Disaster on Poor Design, Overloading and Mishandled Ballast.” Engineering Record 21 Aug. 1915: Griggs, John. “Excursion to Death.” American Heritage Feb. 1965: Hilton, George W. Eastland Legacy of the Titanic. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, “Probable/Possible Causes.” Eastland Disaster Historical Society. Home Page <

References “The Eastland Disaster of 1915” ound.html “The Capsizing of the ‘Eastland’.” Engineering News 29 July. 1915: “Chicago Historical Information.” Chicago Public Library. December photos.html “Photos.” Chicago Historical Society