A quiz question · medium
How many people died when the steamer *SS Eastland* capsized at its Chicago River mooring on 24 July 1915?
The Eastland was top-heavy after a 1915 lifeboat addition (an ironic post-Titanic safety upgrade) and rolled over at its dock with 2,572 Western Electric employees on board for a company picnic. 844 drowned in 20 feet of water at the mooring. More Americans died than the *Lusitania* lost American passengers eleven weeks earlier.
Read the full story →From the story
The Picnic Boat That Tipped Over at the Dock On 24 July 1915 a steamer chartered for a Western Electric company picnic capsized at its Chicago River mooring. 844 people died in twenty feet of water.
Related questions
- Why did the Peshtigo Fire of 1871 — the deadliest in American history — receive almost no national press coverage?
- True or false: Mrs. O'Leary's cow started the Great Chicago Fire by kicking over a lantern.
- When did the AZF fertilizer plant explosion in Toulouse occur?
- Which toxic chemical leaked from the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal on 2-3 December 1984?