Many feel that the courts made a grave error in ignoring what they believe was the true cause of the disaster--the ship's top-heaviness. We also believe that the top-heavy construction of the ship was primarily to blame. There are many obvious explanations for the ship's top-heavy nature (and other explanations that require a knowledge of naval engineering, but will not be covered here).

The Eastland's very structure, in terms of length, height, and width was enough to make it top-heavy. A ship that was so long and so high with only a beam of 38 feet would inevitably experience stability problems. Just as it is difficult to balance a thin book on its spine, it is difficult for a tall, long, and narrow ship to stay balanced in water currents and waves, or while loading.

In addition, just prior to the 1915 season, several changes had been made to the Eastland. In particular, two inches of concrete had been laid between decks to keep the wooden floors from rotting. The weight of this concrete was probably well over 14 tons and only added to the top-heaviness of the vessel. However, the Federal inspectors apparently did not perceive this as a problem.

When the Eastland was first built, it had many cabins located on her lower decks. But because the ship was mainly used for day cruises, the cabin space aboard was decreased. Yet, most passengers preferred to ride on the upper two decks because these decks afforded the best view. The weight of passengers on the upper decks of the ship certainly increased her top-heavy and tender condition.

In his book, EASTLAND: Legacy of the TITANIC, George W. Hilton asserts that the Eastland's top-heaviness was largely due to the amount and weight of the lifeboats required on her. He explains that after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, a general panic led to the irrational demand for more lifesaving lifeboat capacity for passengers of ships. Lawmakers unfamiliar with naval engineering did not realize that lifeboats cannot always save all lives, if they can save any at all. (The speed and manner in which a ship sinks are greater determinants of how many can be saved than the total lifeboat capacity.) So, the owners of the Eastland, in an attempt to increase the registered capacity of the ship, found that they had to secure more lifeboats to the Eastland where several lifeboats already existed on the upper deck. Without question, many factors made the Eastland much more top-heavy than any ship should be.

Some have speculated that, at the time of the disaster, the Eastland had actually been resting on the river bed, making it more apt to tip as it was not actually floating. This theory has never been substantiated. Soundings made of the river bottom following the disaster indicate that the Eastland would have cleared the nearest obstruction by eighteen inches.

The issue of the ballast tanks cannot be ignored. (For those of you who do not know, ballast tanks are tanks within the hulls of ship that can be filled or emptied to balance a ship. On cargo ships these tanks are especially important as cargo often shifts uncontrollably in rough seas.) The way in which the Eastland's particular ballast tanks were engineered made them tricky to operate. The tanks could not be filled or emptied rapidly, and the water within the tanks could not be moved from one side to the other. Again, an in-depth discussion of the ballast tanks would involve naval engineering understanding, so we will leave that to those industrious individuals who wish to research this topic on their own.

Our interest in the Eastland disaster does not lies in the debate of what caused the disaster. We are concerned with a completely different aspect--why do so few people know about the disaster? We were told by the editor of Chicago History magazine that those from the Chicago area are quite familiar with the disaster. But while one of our co-founders was attending graduate school in Illinois (where the majority of her classmates were from the Chicago area), she was surprised to find that none of them had even heard of the incident.

PUBLIC AMNESIA
Almost everyone in the United States has heard of the Great Chicago Fire. Yet this event occurred almost 44 years before the Eastland disaster, and the fire claimed only a quarter of the lives lost on the Eastland. There are a few factors which may contribute to the obscurity of the Eastland disaster:

1. Sources. Finding books that contain more than a few paragraphs about the Eastland is quite a challenge. Take, for example, The World Almanac of the USA, published in 1996 by World Almanac Books. In the section titled "Moments in Recorded History," the almanac give a year by year account of major events in U. S. history. But, the almanac skips from 1914 to 1916. Apparently the editors and authors felt that a tragedy that claimed the lives of over 800 U. S. citizens was not substantial enough to list in the "Moments in Recorded History." Many other reference books display similar ignorance of the Eastland disaster. There is only one known book dedicated solely to the Eastland disaster (Hilton's). It is a great shame that more has not been written about this event. It is also sad that children in schools do not generally learn about the Eastland in their history classes. Please visit our resource section for book titles.

2. Money. The Chicago fire caused tremendous monetary damage. Some of the world's most notable rich and influential people perished aboard the Titanic. The Eastland, in contrast, resulted in a relatively low public cost. What price, the common man? A week following the disaster, a millionaire heiress in Michigan was married. Press coverage of her marriage garnered more attention than the Eastland disaster.

3. The Victims. The victims of the Eastland disaster were mainly Eastern European immigrants or first-generation Americans. They were not influential members of society. They were factory workers with last names like Rutvki, Buczkowski, Grajek, Frackowiak, and Zajicek. Their deaths impacted their families, the Western Electric Company, and nothing more. One cannot help but wonder--if the Eastland disaster had claimed the lives of wealthy, influential, fifth or sixth-generation Americans, would the disaster be more widely known and discussed today?

4. World War I. Self-explanatory. Yet, the Eastland disaster occurred two years before the U. S. officially entered the war. Distant newspapers published little news of the disaster within three weeks as war coverage splashed across the headlines.

5. A Cover Up? The Chicago-St. Joseph Steamship Co. may have been able to find ways to minimize damage to their reputation. Why would Eastland Gauge Tender John V. Elbert tell the press that the passengers 'rushed to port', causing the capsizing? To fuel the reporter's fire, he related to the press that he had survived the Titanic disaster as well, of which in reality he had never seen much less worked aboard.

Mr. Elbert was below decks and could not see what was happening on the upper decks. But without verification, press published this 'first hand' account initially as the cause of the disaster, and the public accepted it. This account still holds merit in the memories of Chicagoans even today. It is NOT true. If it was true, the Chicago-St. Joseph Steamship Co. could not have been held liable at all for the disaster. Was Mr. Elbert's story fabricated by the steamship's management?

IN CONCLUSION
We believe that the Eastland disaster should be remembered if only for the many lives lost and their affected families. Although the maritime lessons learned through this disaster are now obsolete, the Eastland's true legacy is that the unexpected can occur, even when all conditions indicate otherwise. No one would ever have suspected that a ship preparing to depart for a festive occasion on a warm July day would just "tip over" drowning hundreds.

The contrast of excitement before the disaster, and the disaster's dire results set up a dichotomy that make the entire event almost surreal to anyone picturing these events in his or her mind. Neither the victims or survivors of this disaster, nor the rescuers who saved lives that day, should ever be forgotten by American history.