@@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!
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.
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.
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"
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 ‼️😊
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.
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.
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.
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
@@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.
Fun Fact: one of the people who was supposed to be on the Eastland was Chicago Bears owner and NFL Co-Founder George Halas. The reason he wasn't on the ship was that according to Virginia McCaskey "Halas was obsessed with gaining enough weight to play football at Illinois, so his brother took extra time to weigh him that morning".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. :(
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.
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.)
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
"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."
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.
"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: 👁👄👁
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 RUclips channel 👌
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s astonishing that a ship that was involved in such a major accident, and had been known for years to be of a faulty design, was later used at all, let alone to take a sitting U.S. President on a cruise.
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. 👍👍
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The irony is that, for the most part, one doesn't need to "know how to swim" in order to stay afloat, with just a slight amount of paddling of one's arms and legs. The main reason why people who "can't swim" drown is that they get panicked and in desperation start trashing around in a manner that just submerges them under the water. Panic also induces them to breathe water in, both underwater and on the surface (because their erratic panicky movements slosh the water around, making it splash onto their face and thus mouth). Very often staying calm and doing only slow paddling movements would keep them afloat, but instead they just panic because they know they "can't swim".
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.
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!
That final number of dead shook me. How can over 800 people die on a ship in a landlocked state of the US, and it's barely remembered here? It feels so disrespectful to not have learned about this until now.
I had to climb on my roof with my husband yesterday to reattach a piece of metal siding, and the only thing I could think was "I hope I don't end up on a RUclips documentary." 😂
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.
The cost-cutting appears to be at the design-stage, especially in its conversion from a freighter with few passengers to a ship being used primarily for pleasure-trips, when more weight was added up top & less weight was carried below the water-line!
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.
I've heard the building that Oprah Winfrey would later use as the studio for her show was used as a temporary morgue after the disaster. That famous space was once filled with drowned corpses.
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
The Titanic was for long term occupation so needed much more ‘living’ and storage space. Think of it as the Eastland was like an everyday bus shuttling people from one place to another and the Titanic was like a floating hotel.
So many souls lost - I cannot begin to imagine the horror felt by those in such a hopeless situation. And of course, compensation was sub-par - shocking…
Shipwrecks scare the shit out of me. I know you’ve already looked at the Yarmouth Castle, but you should check out the similarly named Morro Castle disaster from 1934- that’s a weird one.
My great-great-grandfather worked for Western Electric. The whole family was supposed to be on the Eastland that day, but were late arriving to the docks. They missed the boat. My family only learned of this when my great-grandmother was on her deathbed telling stories about her childhood. I don't think my grandfather (her son) even knew the story. It's amazing to think how much would be different if they had not been late that morning. Thank you for the video.
Think the difference in recognition is less due to class and more due to the Titanic being more "international" and the fact that it was isolated in an ocean with way less ships coming to help. Not to mention many of the first deaths on the Titanic were those who were poorer and working in bad conditions in the lower compartments.
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.
This is interesting cause this disaster wasn't caused by any kind of corner-cutting moves that cause many disasters of this nature. It was just unfortunate.
The cost-cutting appears to be at the design-stage, especially in its conversion from a freighter with few passengers to a ship being used primarily for pleasure-trips, when more weight was added up top & less weight was carried below the water-line!
No, it's another case of corner-cutting. Starting from the design and ending at the amount of people allowed onto the boat. The owners were driven by greed to create a sea-faring death trap. Ships just don't roll over on their own.
@@sailoroverdrive1434 Everything you said is not wrong, but has nothing to do with cutting corners. What you said amounts to stupidity. How is overloading a ship cutting corners? It isn't. It's stupid. Flawed design could possibly but there's no proof here. You are correct on the greed part. But there's only stupidity on your points, not corner cutting.
Kristian, I must say you've done in again. Another fascinating world class video about an awful tragedy about which seemingly no one has ever heard. I was born in Illinois and lived in the suburbs for about 24 years...I have never heard of this one.
Amazing. I've been to Chicago so many times and I've even been on tours there (I live nearby) and I had never heard of this incident until today. Thank you for yet again educating me on some local history.
“And to make conditions on board, more comftable for passengers…” Veteran viewers of this channel: *UH OH!* 😳 Whenever shit is made more comfortable, something safety-related gets sacrificed 😂
I look forward to your documentaries each week. I love that you get right into it and give a thorough assessment of what happened. I would love if you did the Whatcom Falls Park, City of Bellingham, Washington Disaster.
I used to go to the place on the river where it sank and take photos and I caught some of my eeriest footage ever here. I used to come and sit here with my friends in my birthday during my early 20’s. It always fascinated me that so many people could die in such shallow water. Thanks for covering!
Liked this the day of its release, and watching it now that I have time. I'm happy and proud on Fascinating Horror's behalf to see this video broke 250k views within three days! (This is a particularly horrific incident, and has given me yet another healthy dose of caution toward human crushes) I'm glad to see how far this channel has come since I first stumbled across it, and wish him all the best in future! I also want to say thank you for bringing awareness to all these relatively unknown disasters and keeping the memory of the victims and the heroes of each one alive. No one deserves to become a footnote buried away to save some company/corporation/business or rich person's reputation and money from taking the hit they damn well deserve for often willfully ignoring and skirting laws and cutting corners that resulted in the money they saved being replaced by the cost of priceless human lives.
I've heard other accounts but none mentioned the concrete floor being added. And that cross section drawing is nightmare fuel. What a horrible way to die.
Wow I’m a lifelong Chicagoan with what I consider to be better than most people’s historical knowledge of like, major events in our city’s history (simply because I grew up here, and therefore all the local history I learned was about Chicago in public school, which fostered a continuing academic interest into college and beyond), and yet I have never learned of this insane tragedy. Holy smokes.
i only learned because i worked at river roast and happened to read the memorial of it across the street lol. i was shocked such a big disaster isn’t widely known
I highly recommend if you want to get more information on this going to this video: ruclips.net/video/UCHt2MOVCbg/видео.html&ab_channel=AskaMortician She does a great job going through the families view on this and how it was forgotten.
Lindsay Currie wrote a middle school novel called “Scritch Scratch” that takes place in present day Chicago. The Eastland disaster plays a significant part in the story. The book is very worth reading.
If 1500 people died on the Titanic, and 844 died on the Eastland... how can you say more died on the Eastland? Not a math genius, but its half the number of deaths of the Titanic. 🤷🏻♀️
@Andrew Shanks replied to this above and said: "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."
"More *passenger* lives were lost in this tragedy than the Titanic". A huge chunk of Titanic deaths were crew members, which brings the total deaths higher, but just counting passenger deaths on the Titanic, were lower in comparison to the Eastland.
@@matthewmiles3677 look at the monument, it says passengers and CREW made of the 844. I cant find anywhere where it gives a detailed number of crew death. Passenger death toll on the Titanic was ~817. If just 30 crew member died and factor in to the 844, Titanic would have more passenger deaths. Reports list ~200 crew, for a typical voyage. 2/3 would have been below deck. 🤷🏻♀️
@@Blitnock look at the monument, it says passengers and CREW made of the 844. I cant find anywhere where it gives a detailed number of crew death. Passenger death toll on the Titanic was ~817. If just 30 crew member died and factor in to the 844, Titanic would have more passenger deaths. Reports list ~200 crew, for a typical voyage. 2/3 would have been below deck. 🤷🏻♀️
A couple of ship incidents that you may want to research: The HMS Bulwark and HMS Irene both of which exploded in separate incidents on the River Medway, in south-east England causing much loss of life.
I’m a subscriber and just recently heard of this disaster. Everything I read about it, I mentally heard your voice. I searched your channel and of course you’d already covered it. I feel bad I don’t remember, but I’m glad to come back and watch again. ❤
I watched a documentary on this years ago. Some of the stories were pretty incredible. One was a teenage girl who was considered a star swimmer (quite a feat for a girl in those days) she saved herself and i think her sister but lost her parents. Apparently she would never swim again... and her mother was said to have been heard to state there were "too many on board, too much weight" about half an hour before it capsized. There was also a young man who had to be arrested to stop him swimming in to save people as authorities were afraid he'd die himself from exhaustion. One of the most heart breaking things was rescuers stating it was traumatising to hear the banging of those inside that they couldnt reach, but was so much worse when the banging stopped as they knew it meant those people had died. It horrible that this was allowed to happen, considering it could have been prevented if people adding the extra weight had thought about what they were doing (especially those that decided to build a concrete floor up high...)
I love this channel. The presentation of facts without any sensationalism is quite rare. You do an incredible job!
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!
@@skylined5534 Right!? Even though the channel is about disasters, a guilty part of me is always like, more please!
@@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!
@@skylined5534 like, this is what went wrong, this is why, this is how things have improved(maybe). Regulations are written in blood. ;)
@@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!
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.
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.
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"
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 ‼️😊
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.
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.
Best show ever, imo. Really shaped who I am today.
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.
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
Sounds like Chicago's cursed
@@hauntedcliffside Gosh! Makes you wonder what’s next??
@@jenniferpayne6101 thats just the cherry on top, sugar. there's more ice cream to the caramel tuesday.
@@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.
Fun Fact: one of the people who was supposed to be on the Eastland was Chicago Bears owner and NFL Co-Founder George Halas. The reason he wasn't on the ship was that according to Virginia McCaskey "Halas was obsessed with gaining enough weight to play football at Illinois, so his brother took extra time to weigh him that morning".
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.
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.
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.
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.
Erie is the 4th largest...Or second smallest after Ontario.
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. :(
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.
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.)
Good for them!
Pissed off Chicago construction workers would definitely be a force to be reckoned with.
@@TrappedinSLC Definitely!
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
"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."
Thank you! I'm a Chicago native and yet I'd never heard about the Eastland disaster.
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.
I was definitely not prepared for that high of a death toll ….Holy heII. 🥺💔
"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: 👁👄👁
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 RUclips channel 👌
They are edgelords.
Relatives of the ship's owners
Perhaps they are not voting on the video, but the accident. It’s hard to “like” the fact that 800 plus people died….
@@peecee1384 I actually never thought of it that way, good point peecee
@@peecee1384 depends who the 800 were.
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.
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.
Email him, he responds
Oh shit I remember that, almost forgot about that. :O
Oh man I live in the area, and that was god awful. I can’t believe that dirtbag got off the way he did.
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.
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.
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.
Same
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.
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.
It’s astonishing that a ship that was involved in such a major accident, and had been known for years to be of a faulty design, was later used at all, let alone to take a sitting U.S. President on a cruise.
A cruise that was a working meeting with top military commanders in wartime. That's a lot of trust.
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. 👍👍
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.
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!
It's so top heavy looking.
@@nickyblue4866 I know right?!
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!
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.
One of the most underrated RUclips channels, and I only found it two weeks ago!
Yep. It's seriously worth your time to go back over his back catalogue.
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.
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.
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
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.
I absolutely love how you remind us humans of our previous failings so that we do not repeat them again! 😊
The irony is that, for the most part, one doesn't need to "know how to swim" in order to stay afloat, with just a slight amount of paddling of one's arms and legs. The main reason why people who "can't swim" drown is that they get panicked and in desperation start trashing around in a manner that just submerges them under the water. Panic also induces them to breathe water in, both underwater and on the surface (because their erratic panicky movements slosh the water around, making it splash onto their face and thus mouth). Very often staying calm and doing only slow paddling movements would keep them afloat, but instead they just panic because they know they "can't swim".
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!
She just released a video saying her video on this disaster was dinged by RUclips
@@zachariasvega5698 i saw it too! Ffs youtube is a fucking joke.
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.
You were on that boat 106 years ago? 🤨
@@Tuning_Spork Yes
So happy this video came just in time for my lunch break. Keep up the great work! Awesome storytelling, background music and content.
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.
Another fantastic video, amazingly well presented in your usual factual yet sympathetic manner. Total respect for you and this channel.
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!
That final number of dead shook me. How can over 800 people die on a ship in a landlocked state of the US, and it's barely remembered here?
It feels so disrespectful to not have learned about this until now.
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.
I had to climb on my roof with my husband yesterday to reattach a piece of metal siding, and the only thing I could think was "I hope I don't end up on a RUclips documentary." 😂
so happy that people are finally covering this disaster- it’s truly tragic how it’s been overlooked for so long.
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.
I have been waiting for h to do that one too
That's wild that there were more casualties than on the Titanic, but seemingly noone outside ofvChicago ever heard of it.
Great example if normalcy bias. Everyone assumes the situation is under control when what they should be doing is getting off the ship.
What an absolutely horrifying tragedy. Thanks for sharing this story, I'd never heard of this event before.
The cost-cutting appears to be at the design-stage, especially in its conversion from a freighter with few passengers to a ship being used primarily for pleasure-trips, when more weight was added up top & less weight was carried below the water-line!
Has been forgotten. That’s now a thing of the past thanks to you digging it up and giving it the recognition it deserves.
Ngl, that ship does not look fun nor safe.
My Tuesday just got better!! My husband and I absolutely love your videos! Keep up the fantastic work!!
Absolutely love these videos, theyre so interesting and handled so well. Would love to see one on the Empress of Ireland
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.
I've heard the building that Oprah Winfrey would later use as the studio for her show was used as a temporary morgue after the disaster. That famous space was once filled with drowned corpses.
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
More deaths then the titanic?
While being a fraction of the size?
How lightly loaded was the freaking titanic?
The Titanic was for long term occupation so needed much more ‘living’ and storage space. Think of it as the Eastland was like an everyday bus shuttling people from one place to another and the Titanic was like a floating hotel.
Superb narrative of this tragic event.
Thank you so much
I adore this channel!
So many souls lost - I cannot begin to imagine the horror felt by those in such a hopeless situation. And of course, compensation was sub-par - shocking…
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.
Shipwrecks scare the shit out of me. I know you’ve already looked at the Yarmouth Castle, but you should check out the similarly named Morro Castle disaster from 1934- that’s a weird one.
My great-great-grandfather worked for Western Electric. The whole family was supposed to be on the Eastland that day, but were late arriving to the docks. They missed the boat. My family only learned of this when my great-grandmother was on her deathbed telling stories about her childhood. I don't think my grandfather (her son) even knew the story. It's amazing to think how much would be different if they had not been late that morning. Thank you for the video.
Think the difference in recognition is less due to class and more due to the Titanic being more "international" and the fact that it was isolated in an ocean with way less ships coming to help.
Not to mention many of the first deaths on the Titanic were those who were poorer and working in bad conditions in the lower compartments.
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.
This is interesting cause this disaster wasn't caused by any kind of corner-cutting moves that cause many disasters of this nature. It was just unfortunate.
Perhaps not cost cutting and more like "How much more profit can we squeeze out of it?"
The cost-cutting appears to be at the design-stage, especially in its conversion from a freighter with few passengers to a ship being used primarily for pleasure-trips, when more weight was added up top & less weight was carried below the water-line!
No, it's another case of corner-cutting. Starting from the design and ending at the amount of people allowed onto the boat. The owners were driven by greed to create a sea-faring death trap. Ships just don't roll over on their own.
@@sailoroverdrive1434 Everything you said is not wrong, but has nothing to do with cutting corners. What you said amounts to stupidity. How is overloading a ship cutting corners? It isn't. It's stupid. Flawed design could possibly but there's no proof here. You are correct on the greed part. But there's only stupidity on your points, not corner cutting.
Gratitude for sharing this horrific incident, I had never heard of it.
Truly terrifying to be below deck. God, imagine. Crushed and drowning...
bro ur channel is literally the best at covering these topics without being insensitive or exaggerated, u should do the hillsborough disaster too
Gonna be honest, theres nothing better than watching horror documentaries while sick with the flu at 5:22 AM.
Hope you feel better soon!
@@meredithc2755 Thank you!
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.
“Boys, you are being assigned to a good ship. She’s only killed nearly half her passengers once.”
Kristian, I must say you've done in again. Another fascinating world class video about an awful tragedy about which seemingly no one has ever heard. I was born in Illinois and lived in the suburbs for about 24 years...I have never heard of this one.
Ship disasters seem to hold a special meaning to me. Once again well done.
Amazing. I've been to Chicago so many times and I've even been on tours there (I live nearby) and I had never heard of this incident until today. Thank you for yet again educating me on some local history.
“And to make conditions on board, more comftable for passengers…”
Veteran viewers of this channel:
*UH OH!* 😳
Whenever shit is made more comfortable, something safety-related gets sacrificed 😂
I look forward to your documentaries each week. I love that you get right into it and give a thorough assessment of what happened. I would love if you did the Whatcom Falls Park, City of Bellingham, Washington Disaster.
Just curious: were the events of this disaster the inspiration for "The Poseidon Adventure"?
No. That was inspired by the author being on the Queen Mary when it nearly capsized
I used to go to the place on the river where it sank and take photos and I caught some of my eeriest footage ever here. I used to come and sit here with my friends in my birthday during my early 20’s. It always fascinated me that so many people could die in such shallow water. Thanks for covering!
Pinning it on a dead guy. NICE!
Liked this the day of its release, and watching it now that I have time. I'm happy and proud on Fascinating Horror's behalf to see this video broke 250k views within three days! (This is a particularly horrific incident, and has given me yet another healthy dose of caution toward human crushes)
I'm glad to see how far this channel has come since I first stumbled across it, and wish him all the best in future! I also want to say thank you for bringing awareness to all these relatively unknown disasters and keeping the memory of the victims and the heroes of each one alive.
No one deserves to become a footnote buried away to save some company/corporation/business or rich person's reputation and money from taking the hit they damn well deserve for often willfully ignoring and skirting laws and cutting corners that resulted in the money they saved being replaced by the cost of priceless human lives.
The proportions of older boats like this look way off. They look like they shouldn't float
This one didn’t.
@@thefonzkiss good point haha!
I've heard other accounts but none mentioned the concrete floor being added. And that cross section drawing is nightmare fuel. What a horrible way to die.
Wow I’m a lifelong Chicagoan with what I consider to be better than most people’s historical knowledge of like, major events in our city’s history (simply because I grew up here, and therefore all the local history I learned was about Chicago in public school, which fostered a continuing academic interest into college and beyond), and yet I have never learned of this insane tragedy. Holy smokes.
i only learned because i worked at river roast and happened to read the memorial of it across the street lol. i was shocked such a big disaster isn’t widely known
I knew about it because my father was employed at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works plant.
There couldn't be a better narrator for these stories. Excellent channel!
ahh perfect timing i just ran out of videos to watch
Oh wow. So many lives lost in surprised I've never heard of this. Thank you for giving this tragedy the recognition it deserves
I highly recommend if you want to get more information on this going to this video: ruclips.net/video/UCHt2MOVCbg/видео.html&ab_channel=AskaMortician She does a great job going through the families view on this and how it was forgotten.
Lindsay Currie wrote a middle school novel called “Scritch Scratch” that takes place in present day Chicago. The Eastland disaster plays a significant part in the story. The book is very worth reading.
If 1500 people died on the Titanic, and 844 died on the Eastland... how can you say more died on the Eastland? Not a math genius, but its half the number of deaths of the Titanic. 🤷🏻♀️
He's talking about passenger deaths only. The 1500 deaths on the Titanic includes crew deaths which make up a significant portion of that number.
@Andrew Shanks replied to this above and said: "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."
"More *passenger* lives were lost in this tragedy than the Titanic".
A huge chunk of Titanic deaths were crew members, which brings the total deaths higher, but just counting passenger deaths on the Titanic, were lower in comparison to the Eastland.
@@matthewmiles3677 look at the monument, it says passengers and CREW made of the 844. I cant find anywhere where it gives a detailed number of crew death. Passenger death toll on the Titanic was ~817. If just 30 crew member died and factor in to the 844, Titanic would have more passenger deaths. Reports list ~200 crew, for a typical voyage. 2/3 would have been below deck. 🤷🏻♀️
@@Blitnock look at the monument, it says passengers and CREW made of the 844. I cant find anywhere where it gives a detailed number of crew death. Passenger death toll on the Titanic was ~817. If just 30 crew member died and factor in to the 844, Titanic would have more passenger deaths. Reports list ~200 crew, for a typical voyage. 2/3 would have been below deck. 🤷🏻♀️
A couple of ship incidents that you may want to research: The HMS Bulwark and HMS Irene both of which exploded in separate incidents on the River Medway, in south-east England causing much loss of life.
I’m a subscriber and just recently heard of this disaster. Everything I read about it, I mentally heard your voice. I searched your channel and of course you’d already covered it. I feel bad I don’t remember, but I’m glad to come back and watch again. ❤
Another outstanding video, and another narration of an event that happened in my city, Chicago... Good stuff, Fascinating Horror, my favorite channel
I watched a documentary on this years ago.
Some of the stories were pretty incredible.
One was a teenage girl who was considered a star swimmer (quite a feat for a girl in those days) she saved herself and i think her sister but lost her parents. Apparently she would never swim again... and her mother was said to have been heard to state there were "too many on board, too much weight" about half an hour before it capsized.
There was also a young man who had to be arrested to stop him swimming in to save people as authorities were afraid he'd die himself from exhaustion.
One of the most heart breaking things was rescuers stating it was traumatising to hear the banging of those inside that they couldnt reach, but was so much worse when the banging stopped as they knew it meant those people had died.
It horrible that this was allowed to happen, considering it could have been prevented if people adding the extra weight had thought about what they were doing (especially those that decided to build a concrete floor up high...)
I commend you for telling these stories in ten minutes time. I wish more mini-documentaries were available.