July 24, 1915: The Eastland Sinks

July 24, 1915: The SS Eastland sinks in the Chicago River. A total of 844 people are killed, making it the greatest loss of life in a Great Lakes maritime disaster.

The Eastland was launched in 1903, and the Michigan Steamship Company used it for excursions across Lake Michigan, from Chicago, Illinois to South Haven, Michigan. The West Coast of Michigan remains one of the leading resort areas for the Midwest.

But, like the PS General Slocum in New York in the previous 2 decades, before it burned on Long Island Sound in 1904, the Eastland had problems well before its ultimate disaster. Less than 3 months after its launch, it hit a tugboat docked at the Lake Street Bridge in Chicago. Mere days after that, crewmen who hadn't been fed mutinied, and the captain ordered their arrest. Instead, the captain was fired and replaced.

On a voyage the next year, the Eastland nearly capsized with about 3,000 passengers. Its official capacity was reduced to 2,800. It was sold in 1909, and its new owners transferred it to a Lake Erie run, Cleveland to the resort town of Cedar Point, Ohio. But it listed on a 1912 voyage. In 1914, it was sold to the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company, and began service between Chicago and another western Michigan resort town, St. Joseph.

The Western Electric Company chartered 5 steamers -- the Eastland, the Theodore Roosevelt, the Petoskey, the Racine and the Rochester -- to take their employees from their Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, up the Chicago River, and out to Lake Michigan, to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana.

At a time when the American labor movement was really struggling -- the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was only 4 years earlier -- and Sunday was traditionally the only day off, this was a big deal. This was especially true because, like many of the General Slocum and Triangle victims, the people in question were mostly immigrants, in this case from the parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which, after World War I, would be used to form the nation of Czechoslovakia.

In the wake of the sinking of the RMS Titanic 3 years earlier, a federal Seamen's Act had been passed. The big transatlantic ship lost more people than were expected on its tragic maiden voyage because it didn't have enough lifeboats. Eastland was equipped with as many lifeboats as could fit -- and this may have caused the opposite problem: The weight of the lifeboats may have "helped" in the sinking.

At 7:10 AM on July 24, the passengers boarding the ship at its dock, on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark Street and LaSalle Street, had already reached the legal capacity of 2,572. It began to list to port (left, away from the dock). Passengers made the mistake of rushing to that side, and at 7:28, it sank to the bottom of the river, 20 feet below the surface. Half the ship was still above the water line.

The steamship company did nothing to provide relief for the survivors of the victims. Western Electric provided $100,000 worth, about $2.8 million in 2022 money.

Eventually, an urban legend got around that Chicago native comedian Jack Benny was aboard the Eastland, and survived the disaster. It wasn't true: He had never been aboard it. 

A list of the lost was printed in the newspaper. One of those names was George Halas, age 20, a Chicago native, and a football player at the University of Illinois. One of the people who survived the disaster was Ralph Brizzolara, a fraternity brother of Halas', who escaped through a porthole. When he led a delegation of brothers to the Halas home, to give their condolences, they saw he was alive.

Halas would go on to found the team that became the Chicago Bears, and lived until 1983. Brizzolara would work in the team's front office until his death in 1972.

Marion Eichholz, the last known survivor of the Eastland disaster, died on November 24, 2014, at 102, just short of 100 years after.

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July 24, 1915 was a Saturday. In the American League:

* The New York Yankees did not play, because they were scheduled to play the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Out of respect to the victims, the ChiSox postponed that day's game, and the next.

The July 24 game was rescheduled as the 1st half of a doubleheader on August 21. The White Sox won it, 1-0. Ray Caldwell of the Yankees and Jim Scott of the Pale Hose both took shutouts into the 11th inning, before Hall-of-Famer Eddie Collins singled home Eddie Murphy. No, not that Eddie Murphy.

The Yankees won the 2nd half, 3-2. Ray Fisher outpitched Eddie Cicotte, who would later help the White Sox win the 1917 World Series -- and, still later, would help them reach, and then lose, the 1919 World Series.

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics, at League Park in Cleveland. The A's won the opener 4-3, and the nightcap 12-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Navin Field in Detroit, the ballpark that would become Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961. The Detroit Tigers won the 1st game, 2-0. The Washington Senators won the 2nd game, 8-5. In the opener, Jean Dubuc pitched a shutout to beat Walter Johnson. Over both games, Ty Cobb went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Boston Red Sox won the 1st game, 7-3. The St. Louis Browns won the 2nd game, 3-2.

In the National League:

* The New York Giants swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Polo Grounds. They won the 1st game, 4-2, and the 2nd game, 8-4.

* The Brooklyn Robins swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals at Ebbets Field. The once-and-future Dodgers won the 1st game, 6-5 in 10 innings. They won the 2nd game, 9-5.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Fenway Park in Boston, where they were playing until their new Braves Field was ready.

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The Phils won the 1st game, 4-0, as Grover Cleveland Alexander allowed 9 hits, but kept the shutout. They won the 2nd game, 13-1. The Phils went on to win their 1st Pennant that season.

And 1915 was the 2nd and last season of the Federal League:

* The St. Louis Terriers swept a doubleheader from the Brooklyn Tip-Tops, at Handlan's Park in St. Louis. The Terriers won the 1st game, 4-2; and the 2nd game, 3-1.

* A doubleheader was split at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh, where the Pirates played before Forbes Field opened. The Newark Peppers beat the Pittsburgh Rebels in the 1st game, 5-1. The 2nd game was tied 4-4 when it was called due to darkness. 

* The Buffalo Blues beat the Kansas City Packers, 3-2 in 11 innings, at Gordon and Koppel Field in Kansas City.

* And, in respect to the victims of the Eastland disaster, the Chicago Whales postponed their game with the Baltimore Terrapins at Weeghman Park, the ballpark that would become Wrigley Field. A doubleheader was played on July 26. The Whales won the 1st game, 11-3. The Terrapins won the 2nd game, 5-1.