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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Jul 21, 2015 5:58:17 GMT -5
The 100th anniversary is coming up shortly of the worst loss of lives on inland waters ever. I may be posting more as stuff is found. Oddly these pics just surfaced from the Chicago Tribune archives, and I wonder about pic #5. My grandfather (Herman Stephan) was a young man and one of a handful that had knowledge of acetylene torch cutting of the time. 1915 would have put him around 20-21 years of age. ws graphics.chicagotribune.com/news/local/eastland/ |
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Post by Avenger on Jul 21, 2015 7:33:05 GMT -5
What a horror. Something everybody should have been able to walk away from turned into that. Sad.
Bill, do you have any pics of granddad from the timeframe?
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Post by banned on Jul 21, 2015 7:36:57 GMT -5
I remeber reading about that. Wasn't it caused by people on one side and the engineer filling ballast tanks on the other side then people switching sides as the ship was about to leave?
Brian
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Jul 21, 2015 9:49:24 GMT -5
Pretty much... there was a ballasting issue, and something about the builder deciding that the transfer piping and pumps were spec'd out way to big so he decided to cut that in half. Ended up in a major lawsuit. After the salvage job,following the disaster, the Eastland was salvaged and sold to the United States Navy. After restorations and modifications the Eastland was designated as a gunboat and renamed the USS Wilmette. She was used primarily as a training vessel on the Great Lakes, and was scrapped following World War II. ws www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=eastland+disaster |
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Post by banned on Jul 24, 2015 7:27:46 GMT -5
I have a book on ship disasters and I just re read the Eastland. I bet if that happened today the death toll would be higher. I think back then people took responsibility for they're own well being today many don't they expect the government or someone else to do that for them. When I had the dinner dance boat in NY we rarely were more than 2500' from land but I always thought if the boat were to capsize or sink quickly or catch fire we'd probably lose around half. Not because it wasn't survivable but because the were just to stupid and un interested in they're own preservation. You could see it when they were parking or walking the gang plank to get on half were just idiots.
Brian
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Jul 24, 2015 13:26:05 GMT -5
That in itself brings us back to the culpability of being a captain as well. A fork-up on the part of a crowd lands you in jail. Kinda like those Malaysian ferry sinking's. That also brings us to those stupid cruise ships that hold 5000 and are 15 stories tall. A plugged shitter system would be the least of my worries; Id bring my own inflatable stuff !! ws
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