Full Transcript for Immediate Ink, Enduring Impact - Eastland's Dual Narrative

and characteristic. 00:03:28.657 --> 00:03:32.306 But this much more may be said. 00:03:32.306 --> 00:03:45.194 The daily news is organized upon a system that responds automatically to all requirements, from the smallest to the greatest and most insistent. 00:03:45.194 --> 00:03:51.407 It covered the Eastland story wonderfully and without unusual effort. 00:03:52.368 --> 00:04:03.570 The photograph mentioned appeared in the first city edition Saturday morning, promptly upon the release moment by which all afternoon papers are governed. 00:04:03.570 --> 00:04:07.376 It occupied the first half of page three. 00:04:07.376 --> 00:04:20.185 It was an enlargement of a four by five snapshot taken by Clyde Brown who was crossing south on Clark Street Bridge when the ship was turning. 00:04:20.185 --> 00:04:25.954 In 20 minutes he had reached the office and was back on the scene with his camera. 00:04:25.954 --> 00:04:40.720 In another 15 minutes the picture was in process and it was finished and in the forms and the presses were running in plenty time to have gone upon the streets a few minutes after 9. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:49.761 When 9.45 was reached and all the papers were released, it was the only picture carried by any of them. 00:04:49.761 --> 00:04:56.721 Brown was leaving the scene when the photographers for the other afternoon papers began to arrive. 00:04:56.721 --> 00:04:59.824 It was a picture best, and a big one. 00:05:03.930 --> 00:05:06.391 That's the end of that very short article. 00:05:06.391 --> 00:05:16.310 But Clyde Brown, remember his name because he's about to come up in another article that was written 47 years afterward. 00:05:16.310 --> 00:05:19.843 This article is from the Bradenton Herald. 00:05:19.843 --> 00:05:27.675 The date is Wednesday, may 14th 1962, and Bradenton is in Florida. 00:05:27.675 --> 00:05:34.112 The newsprint is faded and difficult to read and I've tried to restore it as best I can. 00:05:34.112 --> 00:05:38.764 But bear with as I try to get through because it's so fascinating. 00:05:45.610 --> 00:05:51.495 Headline 812 died when boat capsized in Chicago River. 00:05:51.495 --> 00:06:02.165 Three local men saw Eastland tragedy Fourth 1915. 00:06:02.165 --> 00:06:19.427 Chicago, illinois suffered its worst disaster when 812 people died in 17 minutes after the top-heavy Eastland excursion boat capsized in the Chicago River. 00:06:19.427 --> 00:06:33.519 Three men now living in Bradenton, john Swanson, john Bacon and Harry Borns, were there that day and witnessed the tragedy. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:40.733 The following account is based on their eyewitness stories and background research. 00:06:40.733 --> 00:06:45.771 The article was written by Kent Shetling Herald staff writer. 00:06:55.901 --> 00:07:37.093 Walking across the Wells Street Bridge over the Chicago River one cloudy July morning in 1915, one cloudy July morning in 1915, john Swanson, former newspaperman now living at 5320 13th Avenue Drive West,

became horrified as more than 1,000 happy excursionists aboard crossed the multiple decks to the other side of the steamship to watch the passing lumber boat. 00:07:37.093 --> 00:08:04.632 Seconds later, swanson, watching in horror as the 269-foot-long Eastland plunged over on its side into the river, frightful screams of panic and terror rented the air, while fear-struck witnesses stood agog on the dock on the bridges and streets above watching helplessly. 00:08:04.632 --> 00:08:28.100 The trance was momentary, splashed Over A few moments after the huge Eastland splashed over on its side to lay like a gigantic beached whale, hundreds upon hundreds of people scrambled down to the dock on both sides of the river. 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:36.043 Empty chicken coops from nearby Water Street Market were flung into the river to the struggling survivors. 00:08:36.043 --> 00:08:43.363 From both sides of the river people hurled ladders, ropes and anything that would float. 00:08:43.363 --> 00:08:51.081 Men of the anchor lines, warehouses threw merchandise from the ship's skull, kill Soon. 00:08:51.260 --> 00:09:04.068 Frightful sirens resounded through the canyon-like downtown streets of Chicago's Loop as fire engines from scattered stations raced to converge on the riverfront dock. 00:09:04.068 --> 00:09:05.431 Stations raced to converge on the riverfront dock. 00:09:05.431 --> 00:09:34.746 Amidst the maelstrom of ladders, boxes, ropes and chicken coops thrown into the river to shrieking survivors were pitiful little lunch baskets, handbags, clothing and other debris also floating aimlessly on the river from the floundering steamship Bobbing Heads. 00:09:34.746 --> 00:09:52.133 The river became dotted with the bobbing heads of survivors shouting and waving their arms, while scores more frantically thrashed in the water in frenzied efforts to reach safety or their loved ones in the water. 00:09:52.133 --> 00:10:05.932 Streetcars and traffic came to a stop as surrounding streets and river bridges were literally choked by thousands of people pressing toward the tragic scene. 00:10:07.054 --> 00:10:31.462 An ad layout man for the Chicago Daily News at the time, swanson, was mindful of the importance of a newsbeat, so he ran from the bridge and the confused catastrophe scene to his newspaper office four blocks south on Madison Avenue, bursting breathlessly into the city newsroom. 00:10:31.462 --> 00:10:39.041 Minutes later Swanson shouted the startling news that the Eastland just keeled over in the river. 00:10:39.041 --> 00:10:54.605 The cynical newsman looked up with wonder, some disbelief and a few with a smile, as though this was another crank announcement, a joke. 00:10:54.605 --> 00:11:10.283 Everybody thought I was joking and a few even laughed, swanson recalls Then one of the telephones rang and someone was calling in to report the Eastland had turned over in the river. 00:11:10.283 --> 00:11:16.254 The city editor I can't remember his name now jumped

into action. 00:11:16.254 --> 00:11:26.235 Clyde Brown, the news ace photographer, then just happened to be in the city room with all of his equipment. 00:11:26.235 --> 00:11:29.700 He was sent right out to take pictures. 00:11:29.700 --> 00:11:47.072 As I recall Swanson continued, brown did a wonderful job and we were the first newspaper on the street that night with pictures of the tragedy night with pictures of the tragedy. 00:11:47.072 --> 00:12:10.845 Another Bradenton resident was there that July 24, 1915, and saw the Eastland disaster. 00:12:10.845 --> 00:12:22.240 He is John Bacon, now a part-time linotype operator for the Herald, who lives at 911 43rd Street West On streetcar. 00:12:22.260 --> 00:12:23.306 Yes, I remember when the Eastland went down very well. 00:12:23.306 --> 00:12:24.409 I was on a streetcar going to work that morning. 00:12:24.409 --> 00:12:34.471 When the streetcar got on the Clark Street Bridge the fellow sitting next to me nudged me and said look at the Eastland, it's leaning way over. 00:12:34.471 --> 00:12:39.682 Sure enough, the Eastland was listing pretty bad In fact. 00:12:39.682 --> 00:12:46.095 I remember remarking at the time I didn't see how it could keep from falling over. 00:12:46.196 --> 00:12:52.813 Bacon recalled, by the time I reached Madison Avenue we could hear the sirens blowing. 00:12:52.813 --> 00:12:59.765 I got off the streetcar and asked someone who was running up the street what was wrong. 00:12:59.765 --> 00:13:04.270 He told me the Eastland had just turned over in the river. 00:13:04.270 --> 00:13:17.888 Well, I ran up toward the river with everyone else, I remember, because I was late to work that morning I had kind of a funny feeling in my stomach and I guess everyone felt the same way. 00:13:18.148 --> 00:13:24.484 Bacon continued Horrible sight. 00:13:24.484 --> 00:13:28.975 When I got up to the river, it was a horrible sight. 00:13:28.975 --> 00:13:35.077 The river was littered with debris and hundreds of people from the boat. 00:13:35.077 --> 00:13:40.977 I remember looking over across the river at the Reed Murdoch and Company warehouse. 00:13:40.977 --> 00:13:47.837 They had opened the doors and scores of bodies were being lined up on the floor. 00:13:47.837 --> 00:13:51.134 You might call it a mass morgue. 00:13:51.134 --> 00:14:04.086 A third Bradenton resident, harry Bournes, 3320 Riverview Boulevard, also saw the Eastland going down. 00:14:04.086 --> 00:14:12.025 He was on a loop-bound elevated train crossing the Well Street Bridge above the river at the time of the disaster. 00:14:12.025 --> 00:14:25.296 I remember it well, it was down at the old Water Street Market and I can recall the people on the dock throwing out those large chicken coops to people in the water. 00:14:25.296 --> 00:14:27.158 Borns relates. 00:14:27.158 --> 00:14:28.687 Borns relates. 00:14:28.687 --> 00:14:36.846 Rare Welder. 00:14:36.846 --> 00:14:48.134 One of my good friends by the name of Steve Berry with the Chicago Police Department was one of the few welders at that time because it was a new thing in those days. 00:14:48.815 --> 00:14:59.538 He was called out to cut a hole in the side of the steel hull ship above the water to rescue the hundreds of people trapped in the side compartments. 00:14:59.538 --> 00:15:07.134 Then one of those unbelievable tragedies occurred during the frenzied rescue efforts. 00:15:07.134 --> 00:15:21.038 As Barry began to cut a hole in the hull with an acyltine torch, the Eastlands Captain Peterson burst forth and literally tried to throw Barry off the ship. 00:15:21.038 --> 00:15:26.514 Despite the shrieking and pounding of survivors underneath the sinking hull. 00:15:26.514 --> 00:15:33.985 Swanson recalls the sinking hull. 00:15:33.985 --> 00:15:39.312 Swanson recalls Captain Peterson grabbed Barry and shouted he didn't want anybody damaging his ship. 00:15:39.312 --> 00:15:42.898 Short Struggle the struggle was short-lived. 00:15:42.898 --> 00:15:56.712 Scores of firemen and nearby policemen came to Barry's aid and threw Captain Peterson overboard so the police welder could finish cutting the hole on the ship's side. 00:15:56.712 --> 00:16:03.972 If they hadn't gotten that hole open, hundreds more would have died of suffocation or drowning. 00:16:03.972 --> 00:16:05.937 Swanson points out. 00:16:05.937 --> 00:16:13.585 As a result, points out. 00:16:13.585 --> 00:16:14.768 As a result, captain Peterson was later sent to prison. 00:16:14.768 --> 00:16:24.610 Bacon recalls Thus, in only 17 minutes from the time the Eastland capsized, chicago suffered its worst tragedy in terms of human lives. 00:16:25.611 --> 00:16:32.325 When the count of the dead was made officially, it was found that 812 people had perished. 00:16:32.325 --> 00:16:42.820 This was 500 more than died in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and shockingly less time and space. 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:54.506 The Iroquois Theater. 00:16:54.506 --> 00:17:08.458 The Eastland tragedy eclipsed the terrible Iroquois Theater fire of December 30, 1902, in which 602 persons died in that horrible conflagration. 00:17:08.458 --> 00:17:22.465 One of the most remarkable things about the Eastland catastrophe was the fact that every one of those 812 bodies were identified, with the lone exception of a young girl. 00:17:22.465 --> 00:17:29.214 Bacon remembers they found every person after dragging the river for two days. 00:17:29.214 --> 00:17:33.840 Afterward, everybody was identified except this young girl. 00:17:33.840 --> 00:17:36.287 So you know what they did. 00:17:36.287 --> 00:17:40.857 The city of Chicago gave this unknown little girl a mass funeral. 00:17:40.857 --> 00:17:44.796 It was the only way the city had of demonstrating its sorrow. 00:17:45.585 --> 00:17:49.195 What caused the Eastland to capsize and who was to blame? 00:17:49.195 --> 00:17:57.424 What caused the Eastland to capsize and who was to blame? 00:17:57.424 --> 00:18:03.145 Inept handling.

00:18:03.145 --> 00:18:16.912 Following the post-disaster investigation and inquest, the major share of the blame was laid to the inept handling by inexperienced hands manipulating the water ballast tanks, as the Eastland's third engineer frankly testified at the inquest. 00:18:16.912 --> 00:18:20.479 I knew little of the mechanism of the boat. 00:18:20.479 --> 00:18:24.329 However, there was a more inherent cause. 00:18:24.329 --> 00:18:31.460 According to Swanson, the ship itself was improperly designed, being too top-heavy. 00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:44.009 I recall that on its maiden voyage from Michigan City, indiana, where it was built, they ran into rough water on Lake Michigan and the Eastland almost capsized. 00:18:44.009 --> 00:18:54.738 Then Never Made Money, never made money. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:59.501 Following the disaster, the Eastland became property of the government. 00:18:59.501 --> 00:19:06.490 Swanson recalls that it never made money for its owners. 00:19:06.490 --> 00:19:09.118 As an excursion boat, the government patched the Eastland's hull and raised it. 00:19:09.118 --> 00:19:10.707 The government patched the Eastlands Hall and raised it. 00:19:10.707 --> 00:19:20.381 The by then infamous Eastland was rechristened the USS Wilmette and put into service as a naval training ship. 00:19:20.381 --> 00:19:28.960 In 1946, with bridges raised as if in farewell, the Wilmette was towed up the Chicago River and scrapped. 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:35.038 The ship outlived its predicted span by three years. 00:19:45.244 --> 00:19:50.708 There's also a sidebar in this particular article that I want to read to you. 00:19:50.708 --> 00:19:56.779 It's about John Swanson and his career as a newspaper reporter. 00:19:56.779 --> 00:20:06.843 Headline Swanson worked in Chicago with famed newsmen. 00:20:06.843 --> 00:20:30.738 John Swanson worked on the Chicago Daily News from 1910 to 1931, spanning what has been described as Chicago's golden era of newspaper journalists, such noted writers as Carl Sandburg and Ben Hecht worked on the news at this time and Swanson knew them well. 00:20:30.738 --> 00:20:42.443 In addition, sherwood Anderson and the late Charles MacArthur, husband of Helen Hayes, were Chicago newspaper writers Swanson came in contact with at that time. 00:20:42.443 --> 00:20:54.943 Swanson says that Sandberg began his research and writing on Abraham Lincoln 20 years before his famous series on the Prairie Years and War Years was published. 00:20:54.943 --> 00:21:14.637 Hecht left Chicago to become a successful movie scenario writer and author, and I also need to mention that my Aunt, pearl Cerny, also worked for the Chicago Daily News and she came a little bit after John Swanson was working there. 00:21:15.579 --> 00:21:36.672 I hope you enjoyed listening to these accounts, both the ones that were written in the Scoop about the Daily News in 1915 and the Bradenton Journal interview, even though there are some discrepancies with the

memories of some of these people in terms of numbers of people who died. 00:21:36.672 --> 00:21:47.973 As well as I don't think there was an unknown little girl, I think they might be referring to an unnamed, unidentified little boy who didn't remain unidentified for a while. 00:21:47.973 --> 00:21:55.415 They just called him Little Fellow or Little Feller, and he was identified eventually, so this may be who he was referring to. 00:21:55.415 --> 00:22:01.791 That aside, it is fascinating again to hear the stories of these folks. 00:22:01.791 --> 00:22:19.265 None of these names, by the way, neither Swanson, nor Bourns nor Bacon are mentioned in any of the literature or the history of the Eastland disaster online, at least as far as I can tell. 00:22:19.265 --> 00:22:27.503 This may be the first mention of these three men in many, many years, and that's not a criticism. 00:22:27.503 --> 00:22:30.237 It's just that there's so much and it's all over the place. 00:22:30.778 --> 00:22:37.318 And the resource I always look to is George Hilton's book, because, number one, he was an academic. 00:22:37.318 --> 00:22:42.616 Number two, it's thoroughly researched, thoroughly annotated, thoroughly source-cited. 00:22:42.616 --> 00:22:50.324 But even George couldn't get everything, because the Eastland disaster and its tentacles, it's pretty expansive. 00:22:50.324 --> 00:22:54.214 If anybody could have gotten all that history it would have been George. 00:22:54.214 --> 00:22:58.838 But George was alive during the time where the internet was just becoming a thing. 00:22:58.838 --> 00:23:03.900 Had he had access to what we have access to now, he'd be all over this that I know. 00:23:03.900 --> 00:23:11.759 No other book has come close to doing what he has done and my work on this podcast. 00:23:12.701 --> 00:23:24.141 I cannot consider most of it as exhaustive research because I work so quickly from week to week, because I'm trying to fill in all these stories with all of these people and it's a delight to do that. 00:23:24.141 --> 00:23:41.243 However, these are just sketches, and after I'm done with a particular podcast episode, and as time goes by and as I find more information out about these people or about a certain situation, I update my website. 00:23:41.243 --> 00:23:43.057 That's as much as I can do. 00:23:43.057 --> 00:23:46.681 At least there's a record of what's happened with this history. 00:23:46.681 --> 00:23:55.384 So how's that for time travel and another group of people who were part of the Eastland disaster? 00:23:56.069 --> 00:24:00.161 And next week I have another untold story for you. 00:24:00.161 --> 00:24:07.990 Well, actually a series of untold stories, and I don't think they've seen the light of day since they were first published. 00:24:07.990 --> 00:24:14.477 So it'll be fun to share this information with you and see what you think about all of this. 00:24:14.477 --> 00:24:25.666 Hey, that's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. 00:24:25.666 --> 00:24:39.861 Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes, and for more information, please go to my website, that's wwwflowerintherivercom. 00:24:39.861 --> 00:24:51.554 I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money and that's my running joke. 00:24:51.554 --> 00:25:03.076 But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. 00:25:03.076 --> 00:25:04.560 Goodbye for now.