Traits of wildfires, urban conflagrations

This essay’s purpose is for an example of interventionism and the ultimate iatrogenic/cost. I learned about the S.S. Eastland from Mark Spitznagel and I give full credit to my education of the incident to eastlandmemorial.org. However, this is not merely a summary of the incident, but specifically highlighting only the interventionism and the resulting cost. The lesson from this is to prioritize risks in a “what to avoid” way, which can be conducted through a CRO or risk champion’s “what-if analysis.”

Early indications

July 17, 1904

Near catastrophe occurred with 3,000 passengers aboard. The S.S. Eastland began listing to port by 12 to 15 degrees. The water ballast was adjusted to correct the list, but then a worse list to starboard occurred, estimated to reach 20 to 25 degrees. The main deck flooded with approximately 18 in. (46 cm) of water.

• • If the ship had capsized, she would have continued over until she rested keel up in the water. The loss of life would have been devastating.
  • This incident occurred in full view of South Haven and the public was alarmed

July 1, 1912

Another severe listing of approximately 25 degrees while loading passengers in Cleveland.

1914:

Final Warning A.A. Schantz (general manager of the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company)

He is well known for his prophetic remarks during the La Follette Seaman’s Act testimony in which he petitioned against increasing lifeboat requirements for Great Lakes vessels. He stated that the additional weight requirements would cause many Great Lakes vessels to become top heavy and prone to capsizing. (eastlandmemorial.org).

Iatrogenic modifications

During the winter, the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company decided to outfit the Eastland with 6 additional life rafts and 3 additional lifeboats in June 1915 while the ship was in for other repairs.

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.

One can naturally deduct that was inspired by the events of the Titanic. But it was not just inspired, it was regulated by The federal Seamen’s Act which been passed in 1915 following the RMS Titanic disaster three years earlier. The rules-based regulation required retrofitting of a complete set of lifeboats on Eastland. This additional weight may have made Eastland more dangerous by making her even more top-heavy

S.S. Eastland’s “top-heavy condition was now amplified and precarious at best when fully loaded.”

Disaster strikes

On Saturday, July 24, 1915, the passenger ship Eastland was docked in downtown Chicago on the Chicago River preparing to depart for a Lake Michigan cruise to Michigan City, Indiana for a Western Electric employee picnic. Soon after 2,500 passengers boarded the ship it began to list. First to starboard, then to port while still moored to the wharf. The Eastland rolled onto its side, spilling passengers into the river and trapping others underwater in the interior cabins, mostly women and children. The disaster claimed 844+ lives. This tragedy remains relatively obscure in American history, even though it resulted in the largest death toll of any single disaster occurring in the continental United States in the twentieth century.

The majority of those preparing to board the ships were actual employees of Western Electric. Because the company picnic was an important social event, a great many of the employees in attendance were young, single adults in their late teens or early 20’s.

At 6:53, the ship began to list again,  port list resumed at 7:20, at which time water began coming into the ship through the gangway openings on the port side. Even so, no great panic occurred among the passengers. In fact, some began to make fun of the manner in which the ship was swaying and leaning.

By 7:23, the list had become so severe that the crew directed passengers, many of whom were on the ship’s upper decks, to move to the starboard side. However, by 7:27, the list had reached an angle of 25 to 30 degrees. More water began to flow into the ship from openings in the port side, as chairs, picnic baskets, bottles, and all sorts of items began to slide across the decks.

At 7:28, the list had reached 45 degrees. At this point, many of the crew began to realize the seriousness of the situation. Many more passengers were now on the port side of the ship, securing bench seating for their families and settling in for the trip. The furnishings, piano, dishes, iceboxes, lemonade stand and appliances fell over with loud crashes and slid across the decks. The passengers began to panic. Many began to crawl out of gangways or other openings on the starboard side as the Eastland gently continued to list to port until it finally settled on its port side at 7:30.

Some passengers who had pulled themselves to safety were fortunate to find themselves standing on the starboard hull of the Eastland. Others who were not so lucky were trying to stay afloat in the currents of the river. Others were trapped within or under the Eastland. One eyewitness described the scene:

“I shall never be able to forget what I saw. People were struggling in the water, clustered so thickly that they literally covered the surface of the river. A few were swimming; the rest were floundering about, some clinging to a life raft that had floated free, others clutching at anything that they could reach–at bits of wood, at each other, grabbing each other, pulling each other down, and screaming! The screaming was the most horrible of all.”

THE RESCUE
Other boats in the area and people nearby began helping with rescue operations immediately. Workers used cutting torches to cut holes in the side of the hull to pull out survivors as well as dead. The screams coming from those inside the ship were disturbing the onlookers. By the time the holes were cut in the hull, many who had been alive at the time the ship rolled had since drowned. A great effort was expended to remove the dead from inside the ship as divers had to go underwater within the hull to retrieve bodies.

841 passengers, 2 from the Eastland’s crew, and 1 died in the rescue effort. Although the Titanic, which sank over three years prior in 1912, had a higher total death toll of 1,523, the Titanic actually had a lower death toll of passengers than the Eastland as crew deaths of the Titanic totaled 694.

Anecdote

Rumors of past instability still followed the Eastland. As a result, The Eastland Navigation Company placed a half-page newspaper advertisement in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Cleveland Leader on August 9, 1910. The ad read, in part: “. . .there are thousands of people who know absolutely nothing about boats, the rules and regulations for their running, and inspection and licensing of the same by the U. S. Government. In the hope of influencing this class of people there have been but into circulations stories to the effect that the Steamer Eastland is not safe.” The ad also offered a five thousand dollar reward to anyone who could “bring forth a naval engineer, a marine architect, a shipbuilder, or any one qualified to pass on the merits of a ship who will say that the Steamer Eastland is not a seaworthy ship, or that she would not ride out any storm or weather any condition that can arise on either lake or ocean.” There is no record showing that anyone ever came forward to claim the reward.

References

The Eastland. Eastland Memorial Society. https://web.archive.org/web/20090122125939/http://www.eastlandmemorial.org/eastland2.shtml