The Eastland Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

[@wilting_alocasia]

My absolute favourite thing about Fascinating Horror is that the opening plays, we get a date and we get exactly what happened told to us instantly No prattling around to lead up to it Straight forward facts immediately and then explanation after

[@doll_dress_swap12]

No kidding

[@Mrsjam96]

That why I am a long time subscriber! He is GREAT!!!

[@Tuning_Spork]

Yes. Like a proper newspaper article, you get the who/what/where/when/how in the first paragraph, then the story follows. It wouldn't surprise me if our narrator has a journalism degree.

[@tarragoncake1556]

I click off a lot of videos that prattle too much in the beginning. He’s awesome!

[@jessicadaugherty9011]

This format is so high above other formats. I absolutely love it.

[@yesterdaydream]

God, that illustrated cross-section of the event is so simple but so nightmare-inducing

[@chatteyj]

A capsized vessel is no joke its a terrible inescapable situation, I think they should install ladders on the walls and ceilings or at least foot holds to aid people in their escape should such a thing occur.

[@crazyphan18]

First hearing of the high death count and seemly innocuous settings I was wondered how it got so high, until that cross-section and horrifying understanding flooded in “oooh it resulted in a Crush. Fuck.”

[@5amH45lam]

Was that the circular illustration that rotated clockwise in the video? I agree. It was a simple, yet stark image. The water has a voracious appetite for souls, particularly when they come, packed like tinned sardines, in highly unstable vessels. History is pockmarked with incidents, where hundreds of individuals - _thousands_ occasionally - are trapped, dying in minutes.

[@megiab]

agree completely.

[@darthixion957]

Where can I find it?

[@elliottprice6084]

848 deaths. When looking at how quickly the disaster happened and where it happened, it's almost unbelievable how so many died. The saddest part being that this tragedy has been largely forgotten

[@Spoiled_Rat]

I've lived in NYC my whole life and never heard of it. With nearly a thousand dead i'm baffled by how little this is known.

[@elliottprice6084]

@@Spoiled_Rat the other major ship tragedy in New York was the sinking of the General Slocum in 1904..Over 1000 people were lost in that tragedy 😥

[@Spoiled_Rat]

@@elliottprice6084 YeS! Even that I learned about surprisingly late. I guess I shouldn't be so shocked though, after 9/11 there wasn't much else on our mind for a while.

[@lls6001]

@@Spoiled_Rat I thought this happened in Chicago?

[@Spoiled_Rat]

@@lls6001 (it did, i was just surprised i hadn't heard of it as a city-dwelling American.)

[@ShojoBakunyu]

I am only alive because my Great Grandpa survived on the Eastland. He was with friends and one was crushed when furnature hit him when the boat tipped. In 2004 I moved into a building near the Loop that had been a funeral home on the 1st floor at the time of the disaster and bodies from were stored there until things got settled. To think that something as some as one man deciding to stand on the right instead of the left led to my whole family being what it is today... Little things really can change the world.

[@melancholymelanie]

Life is so random. My grandpa got hurt on base in World War 2, a jeep he was riding in crashed and rolled on his head. He was in the infirmary when his Unit was sent to Normandy Beach. A lot of his friends were killed. He only suffered slight permanent hearing loss, but I often think that if that hadn't happened, maybe none of us would even be here. I'm glad your great grandpa survived. ❤

[@christophermerlot3366]

I'm half-Polish. My grandparents were from opposite sides of Poland and they never would have met if they hadn't both been sent to Auschwitz where they met talking through a fence (and you think you have had bad first dates). It weirds me out sometimes to think that I wouldn't exist were it not for a Nazi death/concentration camp.

[@YeahNo]

@@christophermerlot3366 Similar here. Without WW2 all 4 of my grandparents would have stayed in their own countries. Only two were even on the same continent. Many people don’t realise that WW2 didn’t really end until the Soviet Union and Berlin Wall fell. My grandfather could finally go home to his family after 40+ years.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@YeahNo Yup... Kinda funny, so many don't realize that the "Cold War" wasn't separate from WWII, just a quieter, more sordid epilogue to it... ...at least, it WOULD be funny if it wasn't so sad. ;o)

[@GeekRaj]

Butterfly effect

[@Caroline-ok9ro]

My great-grandmother survived this disaster. According to family lore: when the boat capsized, people were hanging from whatever they could reach, including each other, forming chains of humans hanging from the boat. My grandmother was in one such chain, hanging on to dear life to a man while many more were hanging from her. There was someone holding her ankles, screaming "Don't let go! Don't let go! We'll all die!". My grandmother was eventually rescued, but could not walk for a week because of her ankles being injured from so much weight hanging from them.

[@connormclernon26]

Chilling

[@federicocherchi6493]

she was really a hero for resisting the urge of letting go

[@dianer.9461]

My grandmother was supposed to go onboard, but got sick and stayed home. Several good friends of hers died. This was six years before my mom was born.

[@GuadalupeGuacamole]

I can’t imagine what it must be like to hear a first hand account of some of the disasters on this channel.

[@catz122122]

An ancestor of mine witnessed the aftermath. She was in the city from Evanston and wondered why there was this sea of people gathered by the river, and, well...

[@lsrengines]

This series has made the word crush absolutely nightmare inducing whenever I hear it

[@TheMuni777]

Forreal! I had heard of them happening before but this channel made me aware of just how common they are or can be. Makes you appreciate the small things that have been invented to prevent such things, like crash doors.

[@tiyenin]

I learned what crash doors are from this channel

[@lsrengines]

@@tiyenin I'd always known about the doors but I didn't realize they had such a history and blood. It's amazing these things what happened in the 1800s and then turn around and happen in modern times. You walk around in big modern venues and you wonder why the halls are such big and grand objects and you realize now that that's to allow people to leave in emergencies

[@dannydougin3925]

Just enjoy some Grape Crush soda and forget about it!

[@jamieholtsclaw2305]

"No one person can be blamed..." Whoever's idea it was to put a concrete deck high on the ship can be blamed. I blame them at any rate.

[@owenchristie6958]

Yeah… concrete and ships don’t go well

[@skylined5534]

@@owenchristie6958 I think it's safe to assume a lot of modern liners have concrete floors.

[@jamieholtsclaw2305]

@@skylined5534 Yes. But whoever puts a concrete floor in should make an assessment of how that affects sea-worthiness. They can't just put a floor of whatever weight wherever they want.

[@abcdef-cs1jj]

@@jamieholtsclaw2305 Yeah, so it's not as much the person that came up with the idea of installing that floor and more the people that should have done the math and told him "No". At some point in the process an engineer must have had a look, right? Even in America.

[@jackwright3050]

That only sounds like a bad idea now in retrospect.

[@thegamingteen44mc5]

When a ship is so poorly designed that regulations caused by one sinking would lead to another

[@NGMonocrom]

When it's so poorly designed.... that adding *Life* Boats leads to hundreds of _Deaths._

[@holdencross5904]

@@NGMonocromYOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!!! You were supposed to save lives! Not take them!

[@Bloomkyaaa]

@@NGMonocrom I think the *concrete floor* was heavier than the lifeboats honestly.

[@NeilMalthus]

It's just terribly designed in general. Not at all stable. Where it capsized was shallow, see how much of the ship was above water level? It was always going to capsize sooner or later. With or without the extra weight.

[@NGMonocrom]

@@Bloomkyaaa Adding more to meet the new regulations was definitely a contributing factor. Along with the concrete floor. People forget how heavy those old-fashioned wooden life-boats were.

[@crispycritterz]

There are many grim events in the city’s history. This took place about one mile from the infamous Iroquois theater. And about three miles from the acknowledged starting point of the Chicago fire.

[@hauntedcliffside]

there also the cherry mine disaster, chicago riots, 1993 floods, west frankfort mine explosion,, centralia coal mine disaster, Effingham hospital fire, wingfoot air express crash, 1972 chicago commuter rail crash, the tylenol murders.... i'm sorry rumbling

[@jenniferpayne6101]

Sounds like Chicago's cursed

[@AwakeAndGrateful]

@@hauntedcliffside Gosh! Makes you wonder what’s next??

[@hauntedcliffside]

​@@jenniferpayne6101 thats just the cherry on top, sugar. there's more ice cream to the caramel tuesday.

[@Novusod]

@@hauntedcliffside You forgot another mega disaster that struck Chicago in 1995 when a heat wave killed over 700 people. It was the one of most deadly natural disaster in the 20th century.

[@dergeier117]

As horrific as these stories are, I really do appreciate that the narrator almost always highlights random people who immediately did what they could to try to help.

[@flickcentergaming680]

Just another reason why this is probably the best disaster channel on KZbin. Keep doing what you're doing, FH!

[@crystanick2697]

No... he did a half assed crappy job with this one. If you want to see an accurate one with the stuff you just mentioned with the one Part-time Explorer did. This guy was awful.

[@enigmabodylanguage]

Strange how the sinking of the Titanic may have also caused this ship to capsize due to the influx of lifeboats needed. Awesome video as usual!

[@bobby-c7731]

I have read a couple of books and many articles about the Eastland. The best is "Ashes Under the Water". that book goes into details about the original construction of the Eastland, and how it was changed over time. To be sure, the added weight of the lifeboats on the deck added to it being top heavy. But those boats were never considered a primary factor in the inquiries. The inability to quickly trim the ballast due to undersized pipes between the tanks was far more to blame. Also, the weight of the concrete floor would have dwarfed the weight of the lifeboats.

[@karaamundson3964]

This is a *true* example of bitter irony

[@greenapple9477]

You know what they say: you can have too much of a good thing.

[@lordofthesandvich171]

Now this is what we call "Trial by error"

[@Backroad_Junkie]

@@lordofthesandvich171 Nah, it's called the "Law of unintended consequences". A law put into place to save lives, cost hundreds of others theirs...

[@-NateTheGreat]

I swear everytime a ship changes hands it's probability of disaster is increased ten fold.

[@silentjay01]

They say its bad luck to rename a ship. This changing of hands thing to someone who makes design changes or uses it for a purpose it wasn't intended for probably plays into that saying.

[@eesti919]

MS Estonia also changed hands and names several times. Death toll was almost same as here...

[@davidjones332]

There's probably something in that. As ships get older they are cascaded down to increasingly poverty-stricken owners, often in poorly-regulated countries, where repairs are skimped and competent crews are rarer. Add the fact that increasing age increases the likelihood of mechanical or structural failure and the chances of something going badly wrong increase exponentially.

[@eesti919]

@@davidjones332 Indeed so. Also add that the new crew often has no idea of hidden issues or tiny details that last crew knew about...

[@poutinedream5066]

Maybe ships are like cars- they selling it for a reason. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[@bearanov]

I read a good book called "The sinking of the Eastland." The ship was so unstable that the Engineers routinely used the pumps to bring more water into the ballast tanks as passengers loaded on, and then would move that ballast water around the different tanks when in motion, it was a nightmare job for the engineers. When it sank in the river, the list that had started put some of the pumps into the mud on the bottom of the river, unable to bring in water and pump it around, the Eastland was doomed. also, most of the passengers were women and children, not everyone had the day off, some of the husbands were at work. It was not common to be a swimmer, and even less so if you were a woman or child. The clothing that the females wore at the time were preposterously heavy which dragged even able bodied woman to their death. Inside the sinking ship the men were anything but chivalrous and climbed on top of drowning people to survive.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

But there is a nice ending for 2 of them. A woman who was taught to swim said the kid saved her life. She married him later on! 7 great years. Eastland doc

[@deprofundis3293]

My god. How horrible.. Thank you for sharing these additional details!

[@vgamedude12]

You want men to drown themselves or what?

[@chuckschafer6728]

SAME THING ON THE GENERAL SLOCUM

[@ajgjngfthyfbk7564]

@@vgamedude12 No but it's true that people would knowingly pull weaker people down with them, trying to get higher up in the process. One of the reasons why so many women died especially was the male victims' desperation/selfishness.

[@kanamisprs4330]

Never seen a more top heavy looking ship. She actually looks a lot more seaworthy after the navy conversion. It's also crazy a vessel that size could have 3000 souls aboard. It would be interesting to see how she looked at launch, it looks like more decks could have been added afterward.

[@ElTurbinado]

wth don't talk about my mom like that

[@nickd3157]

Thats what i said when i saw the cross section drawing off the ship. Like holy hell, who in the f**k approved this design? The center of gravity was wayyyy above the water line. There lucky this happened at the dock and not as soon as they went to sea, otherwise i fear there would be far fewer survivors.

[@Ozymandias1]

It was deemed safe enough to carry the President after the conversion.

[@bobby-c7731]

modern cruise ships look far more top heavy

[@quillmaurer6563]

My understanding is vessels of the Great Lakes are designed to far lower standards than those for the open ocean. As they're on "lakes," regarded as inland waterways, they are a bit more complacent about safety, not taking hazards as seriously, despite the lakes being huge and having storms and waves no less powerful than the open ocean. I've seen a lot of discussion about the Edmund Fitzgerald saying similar, that Great Lakes freighters typically were not nearly as seaworthy as their oceangoing counterparts. Of course any sort of waves would be terrifying in a vessel that could capsize at the dock, this vessel wasn't just not seaworthy, it capsized sitting still in calm water.

[@verynotreally]

This is pretty well-known in Chicago. They set up a temporary morgue at the 2nd Regiment Armory that eventually became Harpo Studios (Oprah's studio), and there are lots of tales of hauntings.

[@evonekky3672]

Oprah scares me more than any ghost !!! 😂

[@X1M43]

Yeah, this is part of the city's lore. It caught me off-guard when he said it was mostly forgotten.

[@leezurligen227]

@@X1M43 Until Oprah mentioned it on her show, and a couple of books were published about it, it was virtually unknown outside of Chicago.

[@eikopoppy29]

Yeah it's not well known outside of Chicago but here I think most people know about it. And anyone visiting who walks along the river walk would probably notice the memorial (which is shown at the very end of the video).

[@ForeverLaxx]

Of course there's tales of hauntings. Dumb people believe ghosts are real and only idiots would be in Oprah's audience. There's a lot of overlap there.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

From a ship designer; Thank you for being one of the only KZbin channels that does a decent job covering shipping accidents without making ridiculous errors

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Tell me something as a ship designer. I don't know what you'd call it in nautical terms, but isn't this ship awfully "tall and skinny"? It seems the height-to-width ratio is off, which even without the added top weight would make it awfully unstable.

[@sirridesalot6652]

@@indy_go_blue6048 Another problem with SS Eastland was that she was intended to ship both cargo and passengers at the same time. I think that being low in the ship that the cargo would help stabilize the ship.

[@AK-jt7kh]

@@indy_go_blue6048I wish they had answered you. That was a good question. I've wondered about that myself.

[@mbryson2899]

I grew up in Cicero, in the shadow of Western Electric's Hawthorne plant. More than 200 Ciceronians died that day (a few households were completely wiped out) so it was legend in my town. Some of my neighbors were related to the lost. The Eastland had a reputation as a fast but skittish ship, she competed with other lake liners for the title. She often was "pumped shallow" to reduce drag and thus go faster. One local story recounts that the Eastland's boarded crowd rushed to one rail to wave at people in a passing boat, thus causing the rollover. In any case, learning how to swim was stressed in school starting very young. I learned well before kindergarten. Chasing bubbles to find "up" was also taught, as was how much oxygen is in an air pocket. They never directly said it was because of the Eastland but we all knew.

[@rockstarJDP]

How is it that his narrative voice can soothe my nerves so well and cause a sensation of complete existential dread simultaneously?

[@mrsx7944]

Because British accents are a dichotomy.

[@kevincarlson4562]

Same with me regarding the daily news announced in a deep,calm voice.

[@mattsisoler6125]

If you’ve watched a lot of his videos, hearing his voice and the background music immediately makes me think “oh no, what the hell is gonna happen now?”

[@deprofundis3293]

I like to fall asleep to these 😂

[@daffers2345]

I've been wanting to say for some time that I LOVE the fact that the narrator does not beg for likes or nag us to "click the subscribe button." There is no solicitation at the end of any of FH's videos, nor even a list of supporters. It's just a quiet outro that allows me to digest what I've just heard and deal with feelings that sometimes involve tears for those who experienced the disaster. In my opinion, the lack of solicitation shows how much the narrator cares about the subject rather than his own self-promotion, and that's part of what makes these videos great. Please keep it up.

[@DaimyoD0]

While I do agree that the lack of solicitation does feel respectful toward the solemnness of the subject matter and respectful to the victims of the disasters that Fascinating Horror discusses, on the contrary, I also don't fault other content creators for including a "call to action" at the end of their video. Research suggests that doing so significantly increases subscription rates and engagement, so it seems to suggest that in most cases, it really is just reminding people already interested in subscribing, or people who might even think they already are subscribed, to check and confirm. It's not really about trying persuade people do to something that they wouldn't already like to do. And considering a lot of educational/infotainment content creators make the transition to making videos full time, with no other source of income, and do dozens of hours of research and editing to produce those videos we might only spend 20 minutes watching, I don't look down on them for asking for engagement. I feel like if anyone is to blame, it should be the algorithm, and those who implement it, for putting the weight of success and therefore the financial independence of content creators so heavily on trivial metrics such as "Likes." The issue is nuanced, and I can understand why people do what they do on KZbin, is really what I mean. They are providing this content for free. In my opinion, it doesn't take on the same air as advertisers pandering to you and trying to convince you to buy something. This is someone who took on personal risk to teach other people, full time, about the things they find compelling. They are not doing this for profit, they're most often doing it to just make enough money to support themselves with their passion project. And all they asking from you, the end user, in return, is to press a couple buttons. I really don't find that all too offensive. But I do respect your right to feel otherwise.

[@danielboom72]

And still has 930k subscribers without begging for likes

[@MatthewDoel32]

Hell, I don’t even know the narrator’s name. That’s how much he doesn’t need solicitation.

[@I_am_a_cat_]

Couldn't agree more

[@lofthouse23]

Ironically by not begging for likes and subscriptions this channel is very popular.

[@ShojoBakunyu]

I cannot stress enough just how polluted that water was... I'm surprised anyone thrown in didn't die of some sort of toxic shock.

[@ethanstaaf404]

It probably wasnt nearly as bad back then

[@ChicagoMel23]

@@ethanstaaf404 actually it was due to the stockyards. The waste was dumped in the river

[@c0t0d0s7]

At least this happened before that incident when the Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumped 800 pounds of human waste from the bus’s septic tank onto a passenger sightseeing boat in the river.

[@donnamariedavidson5065]

@@c0t0d0s7 omg I didn't know that. Wow......

[@robertwilloughby8050]

@@c0t0d0s7 You do know that Fascinating will do that later for one of his more light-hearted ones, now that you've told us!

[@carriefoley685]

My Great Aunt, was the last survivor of The Eastland. She lived a long life and passed at the age of 99.

[@DramaisFunny]

If you don't mind me asking how old was she when it happened and how did she survive? Did she tell stories about it?

[@rattisetboyalive5898]

Yeah I’m curious too now

[@the4tierbridge]

@@DramaisFunny He's lying. The last survivor died at 102.

[@the4tierbridge]

@@rattisetboyalive5898 He's lying. The last survivor died at 102 in 2004.

[@the4tierbridge]

Was this woman by any chance named Marion Eichholz?

[@anthonyellis987]

The fact the ship almost capsized three times should've raised some concerns. It's incredible that so many died in such normal conditions.

[@karaamundson3964]

"There were, however, a few notable incidents." "Workers and their families attended in droves" Classic *Fascinating Horror* heads-ups for tragedy

[@stevestone5978]

He telegraphs his punches, but it still hits you so hard! He's an amazing story teller.

[@AG-ng8gt]

This truly is fascinating and horrific. I haven't heard of this before. I appreciate that about your videos, that I learn something about history which I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

[@MultiMoo20]

Totally agree!! Great job FH ❤️😊✅

[@fwueileen]

yess

[@Catglittercrafts]

I have heard of it before because I’ve been to Chicago on a city tour. It’s so tragic. The fact that women back then had to wear so many layers and they just sunk to the bottom and had no chance of saving them selves by swimming was what struck me and stuck with me the most.

[@channelsixtysix066]

A concrete floor added to the upper decks .... WTF? The owners got away with it. What a surprise.

[@donbrashsux]

They were cowboys

[@Wix92]

It always makes me sad when good intentions backfire. The company wanted to go the extra mile for their workers only for it to result in 848 dead...

[@thesketchydude1315]

I always found it strange how for some reason SO MANY passenger ships back then on the great lakes were so thin and tall...they seem so unstable, and even more so on the rough waters of the great lakes!

[@tjroelsma]

Probably because they also travelled over the rivers and those narrow ships made it possible for two ships to pass each other.

[@DartTyler]

Greed of owners and lack of regulations.

[@andxx0r_the_second671]

Even by the standards of the day, Eastland was particularly narrow and tall. The first owners had told the Jenks shipyard he wanted the most SANIC GOTTA GO FAST boat on the lakes and Jenks responded by building an extremely narrow and tall ship with bigger steam engines than most. It was unstable even in early sea trials before it was delivered to the new owners. It was doomed before it even launched.

[@stevie-ray2020]

They were built long & narrow to fit through the canals & locks between the Great Lakes, but some were narrower so they could navigate several canal-systems in the surrounding Great Lakes region.

[@quillmaurer6563]

My understanding is that Lake ships were built to lower standards of seaworthiness than oceangoing ships - as "inland waterways" the dangers the lakes presented wasn't taken as seriously, even though the storms and waves could be just as powerful. Seen that talked about with the Edmund Fitzgerald disaster.

[@GracefulValley]

I'd never heard of this - though it's not surprising that a ship disaster that affected working class people and had less drama than "hitting an iceburg in the middle of the ocean on the maiden voyage with no-one there to help" would receive less attention. 7:52 Also, you just *know* that the owners pushed for the outcome of putting all the blame on one man when it still wasn't clear if they were solely responsible just so they could avoid any blame themselves.

[@brendanfoehr5086]

His saying “more passenger lives were lost than the sinking of the Titanic” seems misleading at best. 832 Titanic passengers died as compared to the Eastland’s 844, but Titanic lost 685 crew compared to the Eastland’s 4, and the Titanic deaths included 536 in Third Class and 166 in Second, so how is that not a disaster effecting the working class? I mean, I understand that press coverage of the Titanic focused intensely on the 130 First Class deaths and the Eastland got far less attention, but so did the Lusitania and The Empress of Ireland? It just seems like he used a strange way to get to that point. Is that just me?

[@MrMiniman629]

@@brendanfoehr5086 You're right. He seems to not understand that the Titanic was first and best of its class. It was an ocean liner, and offered state of the art accommodations. And it was advertised as virtually unsinkable. Also it sank on its first voyage. There are a million more reasons why the Titanic would be a more interesting case than the Eastland.

[@deborahbarry9421]

Yes the Titanic made a bigger scene. There was so much press and excitement upon it leaving Port in England not mention the many multi-rich people who were on its maiden voyage.

[@rfhsrzh2064]

i can tell your life is miserable and that you don't know how to take responsibility for your actions purely based on this comment

[@planescaped]

@@rfhsrzh2064 Calm down mister internet cretin.

[@melasnexperience]

My dad told me about this when I was a kid (he’s into nautical history), and I haven’t seen or heard any discussion of it since until now. This was such a terrible miscarriage of justice that it deserves to be better known. EDIT: one of the things Dad told me is that welders cut a rescue hole into the hull & the owners threw a fit. Not sure if that’s true, though.

[@hauntedcliffside]

A crew from the Acme Welding company was called to the scene to cut a hole in the overturned ship through which trapped passengers might escape. It took an hour of pleading to get through the police lines. "Who knows how many lives we might have saved in that time?" said the company manager. "The captain of the boat told us not to burn the holes. What we answered is not fit to print and he did not take our dare to come near and try to stop us." ~By Ron Grossman chicago tribune reporter

[@shards0fwords]

Pretty sure that it is true. There’s a podcast called “the constant: a history of getting things wrong” or just “the constant” for short. It had a 4 ep long story and the event kinda leading into this much bigger wild mystery is this particular disaster. The podcast host is from Chicago too n_n

[@marclytle644]

Continue to tell people about this disaster. So the fallen will be remembered.

[@reachandler3655]

@@hauntedcliffside I'd like to say this is surprising, but all too often money and property is given a higher value than lives.

[@hauntedcliffside]

@@reachandler3655 an official of the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company, which bought the Eastland for $150,000 in 1914, testified at a coroner’s inquest a few days after the accident, "I didn’t know much about the boat except that we got it at a bargain. All I do is sign blank checks." sad but true nowadays

[@kathyastrom1315]

In looking through the family photos I inherited from my grandmother, I found one of the Eastland lying on its side in the Chicago River. It was obviously taken from a small excursion boat providing river tours for sightseers. It must have been taken by my great-grandfather, a 33 year old barber on the far South Side of the city. Before they finally raised the ship, it would have been a grisly stop on such tours of the river.

[@pyramidschema8668]

Everyone talking about the extra lifeboats, no one talking about the CONCRETE FLOOR!

[@scottgrunow5201]

Which replaced a wooden floor that was falling apart.

[@garrick3727]

I think it's fair to say that the ship was top heavy, so adding anything was probably a bad idea. Concrete floors are not unusual. It's possible that they did the correct engineering when adding the floor and determined that the ship was still stable (ha!). But I bet when the company was forced to add lifeboats they did the absolute minimum of checking. Horrid government forcing us to spend money on additional equipment - well I'll be damned if we spend more money than we have to. This is why absolutely enormous fines with zero excuses are needed. Government can make any company self-regulating just by having huge civil and criminal penalties rather than this "too big to fail" nonsense.

[@cb2146]

I love this channel. The presentation of facts without any sensationalism is quite rare. You do an incredible job!

[@skylined5534]

His narration style and voice is also excellent! While I like the shorter videos I always find myself wanting him to go on as the video ends!

[@cb2146]

@@skylined5534 Right!? Even though the channel is about disasters, a guilty part of me is always like, more please!

[@skylined5534]

@@cb2146 Haha yes! I feel the same for wanting more content from him! He can relay the most horrific things and yet still sound soothing about it!

[@cb2146]

@@skylined5534 like, this is what went wrong, this is why, this is how things have improved(maybe). Regulations are written in blood. ;)

[@skylined5534]

@@cb2146 That's true, gruesomely true! When there are dire warnings regarding certain things someone's indifference or negligence or just straight up lack of knowledge made sure those regulations came to be, scary really!

[@robertthomson1587]

When I visited Chicago I was surprised at the insignificance of the memorial plaque on the riverside, given how catastrophic the disaster was.

[@BLOODNIGHTMARE]

ive been stuck in the airport *in Chicago* all night due to a cancelled flight... thank you for this fascinating distraction, my friend!

[@bf1255]

Hang in there man, it’s blown over

[@annieZOK]

Oh, hare.

[@CommodoreFloopjack78]

Ooohhh, that sucks. O'Hare or Midway?

[@BLOODNIGHTMARE]

I'm safe at home, now. It was O'Hare. My plane ran out of fuel waiting in line to take off... next time I'm just driving up here!

[@CommodoreFloopjack78]

@@BLOODNIGHTMARE Ran out of fuel waiting to take off, huh? Yeah, that sounds about right.😳🙄

[@charlesclager6808]

The meager compensation paid to the victims reminds me of the Johnstown flood disaster in Pennsylvania where the many hundreds of victims received nothing and the owners of the dam (a private club) escaped all responsibility.

[@jonathanc.gillespie4897]

Plus ca change…

[@georgehill8285]

Sounds like a similar setup to the General Slocum in New York. A large group on the way to a social event, and issues with the maintenance of the ship caused so many of them to drown

[@ayindestevens6152]

Had the exact same thought and just like the Eastland it’s barely remembered

[@JosieJOK]

I suggested it to him as a possible subject a while back, so I hope it’s in his queue. Another fascinating, but largely forgotten, historical event.

[@forgenorman3025]

@@JosieJOK I did as well, and he confirmed that it is! There's like one decent docudrama about it that also interviewed some of the survivors. One of the more horrifying aspects is that the life vests on board were supposed to have a certain amount of high quality solid cork, but what was inside was granulated cork, with *thin iron bars* inside of them so they made the weight limit. Some mothers put their children into those and tossed them overboard, and had to watch helplessly as their child sank like a stone. That's why NYC no longer has a Germantown- its population was effectively wiped out.

[@JosieJOK]

@@forgenorman3025 Great to know! Have you read *Ship Ablaze*? It’s a great, descriptive take on the tragedy. I think a movie was made based on the book, but I haven’t see it.

[@forgenorman3025]

@@JosieJOK I haven't read the book, but the docudrama I mentioned was also called Ship Ablaze.

[@Tuberuser187]

With incidents like this you almost always see the horror and tragedy matched by the compassion people have for each other, rescuers who do whatever they can to help, even when they put themselves in danger too.

[@PaulSoth]

My great grandfather took part in the recovery efforts. I've been told that he was extremely shaken when he recovered the body of a young girl that reminded him of my then 7-year-old grandmother.

[@mrs.dr.spencerreid3992]

I live less than 60 miles north of Chicago & have been to the city countless times & I’ve never heard of this disaster until this video. Thank you, Facinating Horror, for bringing this story to the attention of the 21st Century ‼️😊

[@heathermilne3493]

I love how your episodes pop up as I head to bed each Tuesday night. A weirdly relaxing end to the day. Thank you, from New Zealand.

[@User-1543]

And it’s as i wake up each Tuesday and procrastinate about heading to work lol

[@aoijasmine8442]

@@User-1543 me tooooooooo!

[@piadarragh123]

Oh yes me too! Like clockwork every Tuesday night 🌙 - nz

[@alison4316]

Tuesday mornings with coffee 👍

[@miked7212]

5:30 AM EST US time here

[@JC42023]

Growing up in Chicago, I first learned about this when I was a kid. There was a Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (this being the late 90s/early 2000s, when the 1997 movie was still fresh on people's minds), and at the end of the exhibit was a section dedicated to the Eastland, referring to it as "Chicago's Titanic"

[@Tindometari]

The three most important considerations in naval architecture are stability, stability, and stability. If your ship doesn't have adequate roll stability ... then a time will come very soon when you learn what happens to an unstable ship and why all other design considerations are nothing without that.

[@fouresterofthetrees287]

When most people think of Chicago disasters, the think of the Chicago Fire. But thanks to this channel, we now know about the Iroquois Theater and Eastland Steamer disasters too. Great job as always.

[@garyb6219]

Lifelong Chicagoan here, 67 years. Thank you for this, very well done and the cross section was something I had never seen before. It really brings to a focus the extremely high death count.

[@hauntedcliffside]

thank you so much...the Eastland ferry disaster is one of the many long, lost, and forgotten tragedies. That society wishes to forget about, with the saying "the past is for the dead." Thank you again, this video made my older sister very happy, this is her favorite lost piece of history.

[@silverstarfinder]

Learned about this from the Disney show “So Weird” when I was a kid. First episode. Really intrigued me, and I read up on it further. It was just a badly designed ship - and no one was competent enough to fix it until after the disaster.

[@reizak8966]

Best show ever, imo. Really shaped who I am today.

[@ridethasno]

What’s up to everyone watching. 2:16am here on the west coast USA. ✌️❤️

[@faendralostrego5246]

5:17 am on the east coast 🤘🏻🤙🏻 what's good fam?

[@omnibussy]

damn, 10 am where I am 😂😂

[@suzannafrazer1374]

10:18AM UK - gentlemen, it is time for you to sleep!

[@MelJHarris]

7:24pm where I am. East coast Australia

[@MurdochMMQCR]

4:21 out in the Gulf Coast

[@MrPGC137]

A couple of my ancestors (on my mom's side of the family, I think) were on board the ship when it rolled over, and (fortunately) they survived. I think they were on the upper decks and were quickly rescued, and unlike the Titanic tragedy, it happened in July, so the water was (relatively) warm, so they weren't stricken with hypothermia, the way the Titanic victims were. Not mentioned in the video, but immediately after the ship capsized, a bunch of construction-workers, who were working on a building nearby, rushed right over with their acetylene torches and immediately began cutting holes in the side of the ship to try to rescue the trapped passengers below-decks. They were able to rescue quite a few people that way. (According to one eyewitness account however, as soon as they started, one of the ship-owners I think it was, yelled at them: "Stop cutting holes in my ship!" They yelled obscenities right back at him & kept on working.)

[@meredithc2755]

Good for them!

[@TrappedinSLC]

Pissed off Chicago construction workers would definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

[@MrPGC137]

@@TrappedinSLC Definitely!

[@61rampy65]

My Grandmother witnessed the sinking. She was about 12 at the time. I don't know if she was on the dock or working in a nearby building, but she always told me about the horrors she saw. Thanks, FH, for finally putting a scenario to what she told me. RIP, Grandma, and the 848 people who died. :(

[@deathbycheese850]

I love this channel. I would love to hear your take on the Batavia. Part of the hull is kept in the Shipwreck Galleries, in Fremantle, Western Australia. I have fascinated with the story since I was a child. Keep up the fantastic work.

[@gotmypassport2]

I just looked this up! WOW, never heard of this, horrific!!! I even visited Fremantle in 1987 for the Americas Cup Races (I was from Newport, RI back then) Thank you for your comment. I also would love the FH take on this story!!

[@yvonnegill2155]

Yes that is an interesting story. They survived and were killed by a psychopath.

[@catcrapinahat]

I've heard this background song on almost every video and I still haven't got tired of hearing it, fits so perfectly with the stories and narration.

[@piadarragh123]

I always see 1 or 2 thumbs down on these videos. Who the heck are these people? Don't they realize how brilliant these videos are? Hands down my favorite KZbin channel 👌

[@VideoDotGoogleDotCom]

They are edgelords.

[@ZedBeardphase]

Relatives of the ship's owners

[@peecee1384]

Perhaps they are not voting on the video, but the accident. It’s hard to “like” the fact that 800 plus people died….

[@piadarragh123]

@@peecee1384 I actually never thought of it that way, good point peecee

[@imasspeons]

​@@peecee1384 depends who the 800 were.

[@EmmaDilemma039]

I love how in almost every case, the owners get away without consequences. They profited off of creating unsafe conditions, in this case a ship that was a disaster waiting to happen if anybody had paid attention.

[@derek96720]

Gotta love American capitalism, lifting people out of poverty only to murder them through negligence. And of course the fat cat owners never pay for their role in these disasters.

[@16voyeur]

Thank you! I'm a Chicago native and yet I'd never heard about the Eastland disaster.

[@Unownshipper]

"The owners... managed to avoid any legal consequences for the disaster" might as well become the tagline for this channel. Also, hard to fathom how a safety device like lifeboats can contribute to a disaster, but when a ship is as unsafe as the Eastland I guess anything is possible."

[@gailla]

Thank you for covering the Eastland disaster. You are correct, this incident has not been forgotten in the Chicago area. However, as the years go by, coming generations will forget it if accounts such as yours are not produced .You have done an excellent job of covering it and explaining what happened, factually. Beyond that, I had no idea the ship had continued in service after the disaster..Your research is amazing. This Chicagoan thanks you very much.

[@benjaminrichards679]

I would love to see you cover the Schoharie Limousine Crash of 2018, especially since the person at fault was recently handed his conviction. Great content, as always, FH.

[@melissamarsh2219]

Email him, he responds

[@deletdis6173]

Oh shit I remember that, almost forgot about that. :O

[@richardbend]

Oh man I live in the area, and that was god awful. I can’t believe that dirtbag got off the way he did.

[@zSprayzZ]

One of the most underrated KZbin channels, and I only found it two weeks ago!

[@greebo7857]

Yep. It's seriously worth your time to go back over his back catalogue.

[@robouzounian7109]

The British Ken Burns. The pace, the attention to detail and always honoring the deceased is what really impresses me. It's the ONLY channel I have all notifications set to on.

[@helpstopanimalabuse8153]

i have been in hospital for almost 8 months after being hit by a tram & your documentarys make passing the time so much easier. You have a great channel, thanks so much.

[@aceckrot]

It should be noted that after the ship's owners pleaded with the federal steamboat inspector at Grand Haven, Michigan, Robert Reid, the passenger capacity had been raise from 2183 to 2500. The Eastland's capacity was raised less than a month before the disaster.

[@davidsigalow7349]

Channels like this provide a worthwhile service in that it ensures that those who died tragically so many years ago are not forgotten through the sands of time. May they rest in peace.

[@glorygloryholeallelujah]

I was definitely not prepared for that high of a death toll ….Holy heII. 🥺💔

[@debshaw680]

I grew up on Lake Erie. When I was a kid in the 60s, most kids were taught to swim from a young age because the lakes are dangerous with strong undercurrents and they’re vast. Erie is the 3rd largest.

[@canadasleftcoast.5744]

Erie is the 4th largest...Or second smallest after Ontario.

[@nicholasschroeder3678]

Seems like the concrete floor more than the lifeboats would have been the biggest factor. The boats were just the straws

[@maylalyons677]

When it shows the vessel capsizing from the front so you can see it from that point of view, it's absolutely haunting. How terrified and hopeless you would feel in that moment, especially if you had children to protect! Just wow!

[@nickyblue4866]

It's so top heavy looking.

[@maylalyons677]

@@nickyblue4866 I know right?!

[@ferrreira]

"There was no fire, no impact from another ship, no explosion." Me: 😅 "In fact, the ship was still tied up at the dock. Help was on hand almost instantly, the water was relatively shallow, and the boat didn't even completely sink." Me: 🤗 "And yet, despite all this, the Eastland Disaster would turn into one of the deadliest in Chicago's History." Me: 👁👄👁

[@pandishe]

so happy that people are finally covering this disaster- it’s truly tragic how it’s been overlooked for so long.

[@danevertt3210]

Can you imagine so many people in a room or area, with only so much surface area for people to breath above water, while body after body below the water can’t get to the surface to breath It had to be a crazy situation

[@KiloOne]

Wow, you actually took my email request and made a video about it. I can’t thank you enough, my man. You’ve got my undying support already before this, and now I will walk to the ends of the earth for you

[@jackzimmer6553]

I learned something new today…even though it was terrible. I don’t know how many Americans outside of Chicago/Illinois know about this! Thank you for the great job on your video presentations. Kudos!

[@rajjy1976]

I was one of the survivors on this boat. Watching this video brought back bad memories. But thank you for bringing it to peoples attentions.

[@Tuning_Spork]

You were on that boat 106 years ago? 🤨

[@rajjy1976]

@@Tuning_Spork Yes

[@ronkemperful]

Thank you for bringing up this disaster; not only to remember those who had perished but to recall history. When we forget historical events, we are bound to repeat them.

[@Enki1013]

I found this after watching a recent video by Ask a Mortician on the subject. i would have been unaware of this story without these quality educational channels. I have watched educational TV channels on the subject of shipwrecks (accidental or acts of war) during times when they focus only on the subject every night of the week (Titanic, Edmund Fitzgerald, USS Indianapolis, Lusitania, etc etc etc) and never once saw this one.

[@DidIDoGoodMum]

Has been forgotten. That’s now a thing of the past thanks to you digging it up and giving it the recognition it deserves.

[@amblingiris2875]

I think I watched a documentary about this disaster a little while ago. If I remember right, welders were also among the volunteers who rushed to help after the capsizing. They began cutting into the hull to reach the people still trapped inside. However, the Eastland’s captain tried to stop them and claimed they would “ruin” his ship. He had to be pulled away and arrested by police.

[@bsidegirl9069]

This story IS fascinating, And truly horrific! Those poor souls! Thank you for all you do to make this channel so darn interesting! history shouldn't be forgotten!

[@w.randyhoffman1204]

Would love to see a video on this channel about the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889, another disaster visited mostly on poor working families by the negligence of rich and powerful people who (as always) escaped any accountability.

[@TrappedinSLC]

Same

[@donnix768]

Kristian, thank you for covering the Eastland. My great grandfather was a Titanic survivor but with so much emphasis on the Titanic I’m glad you brought the Eastland disaster to light. It happened about 20 minutes from where the Hammond Circus train wreck took place and a lot people even in my home area Hammond/Chicago area don’t know about the Eastland and how horrible it was.

[@bethanypuleo]

Wow! They make so many movies about the Titanic and this one was so much worse. It's so sad these people have been pushed aside in history. Another Fascinating story. 👍👍

[@MarcelVos]

It makes sense though. The Titanic was a highly anticipated ocean liner and the sinking was much more spectecular and took a much longer time. People don't remember things purely for the number of deaths, but also for how spectacular something is.

[@yellowflagswaving]

this channel is so unique to dig up (for most of us) never heard of disasters and respectfully bringing it in our minds to remember. Thank you again.

[@ROCKYTHEWOLFY]

Had to come back here after watching Ask a Mortician's video about it. You were the reason ive discovered this disaster in the first place!

[@zachariasvega5698]

She just released a video saying her video on this disaster was dinged by KZbin

[@ROCKYTHEWOLFY]

@@zachariasvega5698 i saw it too! Ffs youtube is a fucking joke.

[@pickles3128]

in 3rd grade the class was having trouble giving examples of one of the words on our spelling list, irony, so I said, "The Eastland boat in Chicago packed so many lifeboats vests that it capsized and sank and killed many people." My teacher said that was a perfect example of irony, although a dark and messed up one. A quarter century later and I still remember getting praise. Thank you, Mrs. Vehgie, and I'm sorry I stole the classroom copies of each "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" 1, 2 and 3 off the bookshelf, I just loved the art.

[@runsfromelk509]

There was some footage rediscovered in 2015 of survivors being rescued, as well as footage of the ship being raised and righted. Although less than a few minutes, it is amazing to watch how this was accomplished more than 100 years ago. There are also tragic photos of the dead being pulled from the water, as well as heartbreaking images of the temporary morgues full of the unfortunate who had died available online thru the Eastland Disaster Historical Society

[@Mochrie99]

What an absolutely horrifying tragedy. Thanks for sharing this story, I'd never heard of this event before.

[@biscaya08]

So happy this video came just in time for my lunch break. Keep up the great work! Awesome storytelling, background music and content.

[@mozthe1]

Thank you for always adding subtitles to your videos, I really appreciate being able to read what's being said otherwise I mishear things often.

[@stevemac6707]

Another fantastic video, amazingly well presented in your usual factual yet sympathetic manner. Total respect for you and this channel.

[@eddiehernandez8817]

bro ur channel is literally the best at covering these topics without being insensitive or exaggerated, u should do the hillsborough disaster too

[@brainsareus]

This was so fast and unexpected; it's also part of the reason why there is no great lore around this tragedy.

[@doreendaykin6693]

Gratitude for sharing this horrific incident, I had never heard of it.

[@earlt.7573]

No doubt adding a heavy concrete deck to the upper structure was a BAD idea. Huge amount of weight for a ship not designed for that. I don't think I'd have wanted to spend much time below decks after the ship had been raised and reused, had to be unnerving to know so many people died in those compartments, spooky as hell.

[@rachaelbeaver7285]

My Tuesday just got better!! My husband and I absolutely love your videos! Keep up the fantastic work!!

[@AldanFerrox]

Very nice work, as always. Makes you think about what would've happened if the ship had capsized in the middle of the river. Also, you totally should do a video about the General Slocum disaster.

[@als3022]

I have been waiting for h to do that one too

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

Thank you for helping this from being forgotten. I've never heard of it. It's important to remember both for those lost and those that came after.

[@madmattdigs9518]

I was born and raised in Chicago. I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s crazy how many people died in this disaster. The first time I heard the number of dead I thought surely that’s a mistake. There weren’t that many… but unfortunately there were.

[@zombiasnow1565]

Superb narrative of this tragic event. Thank you so much I adore this channel!

[@MossyTomb]

So astounding they just went ahead and kept using the ship for another 32 years. 1915 person: "It's still a good ship, so what if it was full of deceased passengers caused by it's capsize" 2021 person: "This ship must be obliterated!"

[@suomenpresidentti]

Well, you example have a plethera of motorbikes, that the rider has crashed, died and the bike is repared and sold to the next one.

[@garrick3727]

Do you think they told FDR when he went for that cruise? "The President is currently enjoying a drink in the Massive Pile of Dead Bodies Lounge."

[@Blatsen]

I’m a lifelong Illinoisan from Central and Southern Illinois and had never heard of the Eastland Disaster before this video. Since I’m a history buff and am interested in disasters I’m surprised that such an important event in my own state evaded my detection until now. I find it incredible that such a poorly designed ship with such a bad tendency to list was designed, built, and operated. It’s not as if ships were a new concept when the Eastland was built in 1902. Ships have been around since time immemorial. By the time the Eastland was designed, built, and operated, it was already well known how to make a ship that didn’t list and wasn’t prone to capsizing. When it was discovered that the Eastland had a tendency to list, it should have either been scrapped or substantially remodeled to eliminate the threat of listing or capsizing. Instead, relatively minor changes were made to make it less top heavy. Those changes were then negated by later changes that made it more top heavy. It’s both ironic and absurd that the boat was so top heavy that the presence of life boats actually made it more unsafe by adding additional weight to the top of the ship.

[@christosgeorgiafentis4825]

I've lived in Chicago all my life, and I never knew there was a disaster that killed that many people the Chicago river. Edit: I think the video made a mistake at 9:37 The Titanic killed 1500 people, the Eastland killed 844 people. So it killed over half as many people.

[@kittiespitties3800]

Puzzling over that too... its not even close. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@andrewshanks7053]

The video specified passenger casualties, presumably separate from crew. The Wikipedia article on the titanic en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Titanic has a table of casualties from the board of trade that shows 696 crew lost out of 1514 people, meaning 818 passengers were lost.

[@rezhaadriantanuharja3389]

Who cares? Peasants are a dime a dozen anyway! - big corporations

[@QT5656]

Eastland lost 844 passengers and 4 crew Titanic lost 818 passengers and 696 crew

[@christosgeorgiafentis4825]

@@QT5656 Oh, that would make more sense.

[@kittymama6317]

There couldn't be a better narrator for these stories. Excellent channel!