THE 1914 SEASON
For the 1914 season, inspector Robert Reid certified the Eastland to carry 2,045 passengers on June 10, 1914. The Eastland was put into service with Ennes and Donaldson as chief engineer, both retained from her Lake Erie service. Both Ennes and Donaldson wanted to return to Cleveland, and the search was on for a replacement captain and chief engineer.

CAPTAIN HARRY PEDERSEN
Pedersen was born in Norway in 1860 and emigrated to the United States in 1885. He secured his pilot's license in 1896, and his master's license three or four years later. His 14 years of master experience was chiefly limited to freighters and yachts, not excursion vessels, but he came highly recommended and was hired effective June 26, 1914. Donaldson recommended Peter Robertson as chief engineer, who served only for the 1914 season. During the 1914 season, the Eastland rarely carried over 1,000 passengers at a time, generally on weekends. And only once was she loaded to her full licensed capacity, on July 25, 1914, for the Western Electric annual picnic.

1914 WESTERN ELECTRIC PICNIC
The Indiana Transportation Company chartered the Eastland for the Western Electric Hawthorne Club's Annual Picnic to Washington Park, Michigan City, Indiana. This picnic was an annual event of the Cicero, Illinois plant, dating back to 1911. The Hawthorne Club arranged the excursion each year with Walter K. Greenebaum, president and general manager of the Indiana Transportation company. Since the number of passengers far exceeded the capacity of his own ships, Greenebaum contracted and chartered additional vessels for the outing.

In 1914, the Eastland departed after the Theodore Roosevelt to drop off her passengers in Michigan City, continuing her route and returning to Michigan City that evening to embark the returning picnickers. But due to unloading problems in Michigan City, the Eastland ran behind schedule. The ships discharged their picnickers at the Indiana Transportation Company's wharf on the north bank of Trail Creek, just west of the Franklin Street Bridge. Washington Park had ample facilities with a bathing beach and amusement park to the north with access to the central business district of Michigan City across Trail Creek to the south.

The picnic was an escape. It is easy to forget what life was like in the large city of Chicago. Horses were still the primary mode of transportation throughout the city and suburbs. City streets were clogged with manure and constant stench. The chance to escape for a day to pristine Washington Park was very alluring to the Western Electric Hawthorne employees and their families.

The 1914 picnic was a success, and the Hawthorne Club began laying plans for next year's outing almost immediately.

LA FOLLETTE SEAMAN'S ACT
In response to the 'lifeboats for all' movement sweeping the country after the Titanic disaster, Senator Robert LaFollette sponsored a bill to improve seaman's rights and passenger safety. After a two-year battle in Congress, the bill was signed by President Wilson on March 4, 1915 and took effect in November of that year. The LaFollette Seaman's Act would enforce the increase in life-saving devices, while reducing the licensed capacity of passengers.

THE 1915 SEASON
Robertson was replaced as chief engineer by 32-year-old Joseph M. Erickson. Erickson had compiled considerable Great Lakes experience as an engineer of car ferries and freighters, which keep fairly stable loads and are built with sufficient stability. The Eastland was a tender ship with poor stability. And for 1915, she would undergo more modifications. During the winter season, the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company decided to outfit the Eastland with six additional life rafts and 3 additional lifeboats in June 1915 while the ship was in for other repairs. Since the law was not yet in effect, the Eastland was granted a license to carry 2,500 passengers, even though the Seaman's Act would have restricted the Eastland to about 1,200 passengers.

Other than the lifesaving equipment, the modifications performed on the Eastland for the 1915 season also included the rearrangement of certain compartments for usability, and the replacement of decking with tons of concrete in the 'tween deck dining room and the main deck near the aft gangways. This modification in particular reduced the metacentric height of the ship.

The Eastland's top-heavy condition was now amplified and precarious at best when fully loaded. But like the 1914 season, the Eastland never reached full capacity until she was chartered for the Western Electric picnic, and the Hawthorne Club excitedly arranged for the picnic on July 24th.

The stage was now set for disaster.