"Steven S. Brack" <sbrack@bluemoon.uucp> (05/26/91)
I have read several accts of the Eastland disaster, and there
were a few points raised in them that weren't mentioned in your post.
The Eastland was fitted out to accomodate (at most) 1500
persons. On that day, the load was exceeded by a factor of 2. In
addition, the ship was loaded in violation of her license, with the
great majority of her passengers on the uppermost deck. But, what
sparked the tragedy was a chain of small, but important incidents.
The passengers crowded the pier side of the ship, unpalancing
it so much that the master of the Eastland ordered his chief engineer
to flood the "trim tanks" on the opposite side of the ship. Acting
indepenently, the ship's purser (?) sent his people to ask passengers
to move to the other side of the ship. This caused something of a
panic in the crowd, who moved en masse to the other side of the
Eastland's upper decks. At this point, it is estimated that the
ship's center of gravity moved out of line with it's center of
bouyancy, and she started to heel. At this point, their fate was
sealed. The ship heeled over onto its side, resting on the river
bottom.
When rescuers arrived, they were impeded in cutting into the
side of the Eastland by her master, who feared losing his job if he
let them damage the ship. He (I believe) had to be carried bodily
away by the police.
When I look at the conditions that made the Eastland tragedy
happen, I can't help but to think how much greater the catastrophe
could have been. It is completely possible that the Eastland would
have made it out of the river mouth, but she would almost certainly
have capsized in the lake, with the near-certainty that all would have
died.
The ship's operators were eventually brought up on charges of
criminal negligence (the Eastland's master had previously been
discharged from another company due to senility, and became completely
insane after learning of the tragic loss of life) in overloading the
Eastland.
Steve
PS: Do you have any information on a switchroom fire in Chicago, c. 1920
that claimed many lives due to the design of the building? I
believe that many of the victims were women, and that Bell made an
attempt to "hush it up," but I've only heard rumors about this, and
hence have no real facts.
Steven S. Brack | sbrack%bluemoon@nstar.rn.com
Jacob E. Taylor Honors Tower | sbrack@bluemoon.uucp
The Ohio State University | sbrack@nyx.cs.du.edu
50 Curl Drive. | sbrack@isis.cs.du.edu
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1112 USA | brack@ewf.eng.ohio-state.edu
+1 (011) 614 293 7383 | Steven.S.Brack@osu.edu
[Moderator's Note: Thanks for the addtional information on the
Eastland disaster. I pretty much worked from microfilm copies of the
{Chicago Tribune} in preparing my article ... and there was much, much
more which could have been included had space permitted.
I've not heard of any fire here around 1920, but there was a fire in
the River Grove, IL central office (then a manual exchange) about 1950
which did severe damage but caused no loss of life. In about 1935, a
major fire at the Chicago Union Stockyards came extremely close to
burning down the telephone exchange (then a manual exchange known as
'YARds' and today known as 312-927). All the operators on duty that
day chose to remain at their post until the last minute, to answer
calls from confused and frightened subscribers as well as relay
instructions from fire and police officials to the same subscribers.
In those days of no air conditioning, people worked with the windows
open, and when the smoke became so bad the operators were choking from
it the firemen insisted that they leave for their own safety. The fire
was contained before it reached the phone exhange. PAT]Joe Carlson <carlson@lll-winken.llnl.gov> (05/27/91)
In article <telecom11.396.1@eecs.nwu.edu> you write: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 396, Message 1 of 6 > Who wrote the song a few years ago with lyrics which said (in > discussing old memories) 'those too painful to remember, we simply > choose to forget ...' ? "The way we were" - Barbara Streisand? ..{util20,obdient}!homer!marc Marc Brumlik, Tailored Software, Inc. Wheaton, IL Voice: 708 668 9947 [Moderator's Note: I think you are correct, and thank you. PAT]