On July 24, 1915, 844 people (472 women, 290 children, and 82 men) died in the Chicago River, in 20 feet of water, just yards from shore. This disaster still boggles my mind every time I think about it. When I worked in the Loop I used to walk by the memorial every day and wonder how it could have happened. I’ve even read the very thorough The Sinking of the Eastland and still don’t understand how such a thing could have happened.
so most people survived, that being at the dock anyway. I think this has more of a “collapsed building” feel than a classical disaster at sea. “Et in Arcadia ego”.
MsWhatsit -My guess would be that the men would be more likely to give up the inside seats to the women in children before the ferry departed. So they were outside and escaped more easily. Also, the women would’ve been wearing several layers of clothes, with long skirts around their legs, dragging them down. And women and small children of the time were less likely to know how to swim. Most women, even at the beach, would just go in to their knees due the the heavy bathing costume of the day.
Heavy waterlogged clothing, and not knowing how to swim. Remember, swimming as a fun thing is relatively recent, back then most women waded and dabbled toes … and if you are either out shopping or with kids you may be burdened down as well, and heaven forbid you strip off any heavy waterlogged clothing, you might expose a body part.
My grandmother, who was born in 1900, told me she had memories of the disaster. They brought some of the drowned ashore at a pier in the South Bronx near where she lived, and she witnessed it. I’m sure it would have made a powerful impression on a four-year-old girl.
The Eastland was raised and renamed the Wilmette.
It was used as a training ship at Great Lakes during World War 1, and, in 1921, was part of a crew that towed and sunk the captured German U-boat USS Ex-UC97 20 miles off of Winnetka, in 250 feet of water.
From The Captain’s Shipwreck Book of South-West Lake Michigan by Dale Bennett
I thought you might be whooshing me…I still don’t get “raisin the Sultana”, though. Dad was there in WWII and said you guys had a…different…sense of humor.
