Great Lakes – Old Steam Ships

SS Eastland: Chicago’s Forgotten Disaster

This was one of the tragic shipwrecks, and it happened while she was still 20 feet from the dock. That makes it all the more sad. As we will see, the ship should not have been allowed to carry passengers because of a problem she had all along. She had a narrow hull and concrete decks, which made her top-heavy, especially after lifeboats were added after the Titanic disaster. It reminds me of the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland. It was so fast that no one had time to adjust.

The passenger steamer SS Eastland was built in 1903 and spent most of her career carrying immigrants and excursion passengers on the Great Lakes. She was not a large ocean liner, but she could carry thousands of people on short trips. From the beginning, however, the ship developed a reputation for being unstable. Captains and crew members reported that she tended to list from side to side, especially when heavily loaded. Several incidents occurred during her early years where cargo had to be shifted or passengers moved to correct dangerous leans. Imagine that, ok, everyone, shift to the left, we are leaning too far. Don’t worry, we are fine.

The problems became worse after the Titanic disaster in 1912. New safety regulations required ships to carry enough lifeboats for everyone aboard. While the new rules were well-intentioned, the added weight of lifeboats, rafts, and equipment was placed high on the SS Eastland. Since the ship already had stability problems, the extra weight made matters worse. Those lifeboats weighed a little over a ton each. Engineers and inspectors believed the vessel was safe, but concerns about her tendency to lean never completely disappeared.

On July 24, 1915, the Eastland was tied to a dock on the Chicago River. More than 2,500 employees of the Western Electric Company and their families were boarding for a company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. As passengers crowded aboard, the ship began to lean first one way and then the other. Crew members tried to correct the problem by moving people and adjusting ballast tanks, but it was too late. At approximately 7:30 a.m., the ship rolled onto its side while still tied to the dock. The disaster happened so quickly that many passengers were trapped below decks. In the end, 844 people lost their lives, making it one of the deadliest maritime disasters in American history.

What makes the Eastland tragedy especially haunting is that it happened only a few feet from shore. Rescue workers, police officers, and ordinary citizens rushed to help, but many passengers were trapped inside the overturned vessel. Investigations followed, but no single person was ultimately held responsible. Historians still debate whether the disaster was caused by poor design, added lifeboat weight, management decisions, or a combination of factors. Today, the Eastland is remembered as one of Chicago’s greatest tragedies and a reminder that even a ship sitting safely at a dock can become a disaster when stability problems are ignored.

Some of the people who pitched in and helped. George Halas, long before he became the founder of the Chicago Bears, Halas was a young employee of the Western Electric Company. He was supposed to be aboard the Eastland that morning, but arrived late after being assigned another task. Instead of being a victim, he spent the day helping rescue survivors and recover bodies from the river. He later said it was one of the most horrifying things he had ever witnessed.

Captain Harry Pedersen and the crew of the nearby tugboat Kenosham rushed to the scene. They helped pull passengers from the water and cut into parts of the overturned ship to reach trapped survivors. Several tugboat crews from the Chicago River did the same thing. They acted immediately, often without any regard for their own safety. The Chicago Fire Department, police officers, and ordinary citizens also played a major role. Many people were trapped inside rather than thrown into the river. Rescuers used axes, cutting torches, ropes, and ladders to break into the hull. Some worked for hours in dark, flooded compartments searching for survivors. Others performed first aid on the docks as victims were brought ashore.

Tugboat crews, firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, and ordinary Chicago citizens all jumped into action. The ship capsized in only a few minutes, but the rescue effort continued for days. It is one of those moments where you see the worst of a tragedy, but also the best of people.

Some disasters are remembered because people had impossible choices. Others are remembered because people had almost no time to make any choice at all.

Next week, we will be diving into one of the most infamous and complex shipwrecks of all time.

SS Daniel J. Morrell: A Ship Chasing Its Survivor

Imagine you’re on the 60-year-old SS Daniel J. Morrell. It’s dark early morning on the Great Lakes. The wind is blowing nearly 70 mph, the waves are reaching 20 to 25 feet, and your ship is breaking apart beneath your feet. You somehow make it onto a life raft. Cold, soaked, exhausted, and alone in the darkness, you suddenly see lights in the distance. Relief washes over you. A ship is coming to rescue you. You’re going to live!

Then the unthinkable happens.

You realize those lights aren’t on a rescue ship at all. They’re on the bow of the Daniel J. Morrell, the very ship that had just sunk beneath your feet! The ship had broken in two, and the bow was still steaming toward you through the darkness. It sounds like something from a horror movie, but it really happened. That is exactly what the lone survivor experienced.

I’m very wary of these kinds of ships. The Edmund Fitzgerald, the MV Derbyshire, the SS Carl D. Bradley, and the rest of these long and narrow cargo ships. Now, I’m not an engineer or anywhere near it, but they look so unnatural. In calm seas, they are fine, but when a storm comes up, they are punished severely for being so long and narrow, and many have broken in two. They also have many cargo holds, and if they aren’t completely sealed, water can come in and start weighing the ship down. But I must also say, to be fair, that some of those ships have operated for over 60 – 100 years! So, who am I to question?

The SS Daniel J. Morrell was one of the most respected ships on the Great Lakes. Built in 1906, she was considered a modern vessel for her time and spent decades hauling bulk cargo across the lakes. At 603 feet long, she was among the largest ships on the Great Lakes when launched. Crews regarded her as a strong ship, and she earned the nickname The Queen of the Lakes. By the 1960s, however, she was showing her age. Like many older lake freighters, she continued working long after newer ships had appeared.

On November 29, 1966, the Morrell was caught in a powerful storm on Lake Huron. During the night, the ship began to experience severe stress from the waves. Then the unthinkable happened. The vessel broke in two. The bow section separated from the stern and continued moving through the darkness. The crew had almost no warning. Men scrambled to launch life rafts and lifeboats into freezing conditions that offered little chance of survival.

Only one man survived, crewman Dennis Hale. After escaping onto a life raft, he spent hours exposed to the cold while watching one of the strangest and most disturbing sights imaginable. In the darkness, he saw what appeared to be a ship approaching. For a moment, he thought rescue had arrived. Then he realized the terrible truth. The vessel moving toward him was not a rescue ship at all. It was the bow section of the Daniel J. Morrell, still floating and moving on its own after breaking away from the rest of the ship. Few survivors in maritime history have experienced a more haunting moment.

By the time rescuers arrived, Hale was the only member of the 29-man crew left alive. Investigators later determined that age, metal fatigue, and the tremendous forces of the storm had contributed to the breakup. The disaster shocked Great Lakes shipping and raised concerns about the condition of older freighters still in service. It also foreshadowed later losses such as the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. The image most people remember, however, is not the investigation or the wreck itself. It is Dennis Hale alone on a raft in the darkness, believing help was finally coming, only to discover he was looking at the broken remains of his own ship steaming toward him.

Reader halffastcyclingclub added this in a comment. Years later, Dennis Hale wrote about more than just his physical survival. While alone on the raft, he said he saw dead shipmates and was visited by a stranger who warned him not to eat the ice from his coat because it would lower his body temperature even further. Shortly after his rescue, Hale told a priest about these experiences but was discouraged from speaking about them again. For years he largely kept that part of the story to himself. Hale later said that finally talking openly about what happened aboard the Daniel J. Morrell, and the survivor guilt that followed him, became an important part of his healing. He eventually told the full story in his autobiography, Shipwrecked: Reflections of the Sole Survivor.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald: The Mighty Fitz

I think some of the best stories come from the Great Lakes, both good and bad. Looking back, I’m so glad that Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about this cargo freighter. Tragedies should get recognized, and hopefully, lessons will be learned from them. I learned about it at 9 years old with the song. Without that, I probably never would have known about her. Because of the song, she is remembered along with the Lusitania and Titanic. But, unfortunately, she will not be the last cargo freighter we will see. The Great Lakes have taken many of them before and after.

She was a steamship. The SS means “Steam Ship” or “Screw Steamer.” The word “Screw” means the propellers; that is what they were called. In fact, the steamships had warnings on the back of their ships, like below; the Titanic had one as well. They did this so tugboats and others would not follow too close and be sucked into their propellers. For those who think steamships were only in the 1800s and early 1900s, there are some still in operation today.

She was launched in 1958 and quickly became one of the most famous ships on the Great Lakes. At 729 feet long, she was the largest ship on the lakes at the time and carried taconite iron ore from Minnesota to steel mills around the lower lakes. Her crews respected her. She had a reputation as a dependable ship and often set cargo records. For years, she worked without major incident and became something of a celebrity among Great Lakes sailors and ship watchers. Her nickname was The Mighty Fitz. She was huge, a little over two American football fields long.

That changed on November 10, 1975. The Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, loaded with ore pellets and headed toward Detroit. She was sailing with the freighter SS Arthur M. Anderson when both ships encountered one of the worst storms ever recorded on Lake Superior. Winds reached hurricane force, and waves climbed to enormous heights. During the evening, the ship reported damage and problems taking on water. Then, at about 7:10 p.m., she suddenly disappeared from radar. No distress call was sent. All 29 crew members were lost.

The exact cause of the sinking is still debated. Some believe the ship struck a shoal and suffered fatal damage. Others think huge waves overwhelmed her, or that structural problems weakened the hull. Investigations have never produced a single answer that everyone agrees upon. The wreck was discovered on November 14, 1975, resting in two large sections on the bottom of Lake Superior, about 530 feet down. Over the years, she became more than a shipwreck story. She became a symbol of the dangers faced by Great Lakes sailors. It is estimated that 6,000 to 10,0000 shipwrecks are in the Great Lakes, with over 30,000 souls lost. That figure is staggering to me.

After the wreck was found, divers eventually recovered the Fitzgerald’s bronze bell. In 1995, a memorial service was held where the original bell was replaced on the wreck with a replica. During the ceremony, the names of all 29 crew members were read aloud, and the bell was rung once for each man. It wasn’t about the ship anymore. It was about making sure the crew would never be forgotten.

The tragedy might have remained known mainly around the Great Lakes if not for Gordon Lightfoot. While he was reading a magazine article about the sinking, Lightfoot was struck by how little attention the crew seemed to receive outside the region. He felt the men deserved to be remembered as people, not just as part of a disaster. In 1976, he wrote and recorded the song, and it became one of his biggest hits and introduced millions of listeners to the story. Even today, many people first learn about Fitzgerald, like I did, through Lightfoot’s song. That helped ensure that the crew and their ship would never be forgotten.

When the Fitzgerald failed to arrive at Whitefish Bay, wives and children were simply waiting for their husbands and fathers to come home from another routine trip. Most Great Lakes voyages ended without incident. These were the twenty-nine men who sailed aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald on her final voyage. More than fifty years later, they’re still remembered by their families, friends, and everyone who believes their story should never be forgotten. The 29 crew members who lost their life companion page.