March 1, 2021
A light rain fell on the morning of July 24, 1915, as the final passengers boarded the Eastland in Chicago, eager to enjoy a Saturday picnic at a park across Lake Michigan. The ship prepared to leave with its 2,573 passengers, and crucially, 11 lifeboats and 37 life rafts. The ship, however, was designed to carry only six lifeboats. An extra 40,000-pound burden of life rafts now hung from its decks because U.S. President Woodrow Wilson recently signed an act requiring more lifeboats on every ship to prevent another disaster akin to the Titanic, where many perished from a lack of them.
And before the Eastland even left the wharf, the lifeboats caused it to list, and then it capsized so quickly that one reporter said it rolled over like “a dead jungle monster shot through the heart.” Eight hundred and forty-four passengers died, a passenger death toll higher than the Titanic’s.