Customer Reviews

The Sinking Of The Eastland: America's Forgotten Tragedy

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On the morning of Saturday, July 15, 1915, the passenger steamer Eastland was filled to capacity with some 2,500 passengers aboard. The passengers were Western Electric employees, heading out for a joyous company picnic on the other side of Lake Michigan from their home in the environs of Chicago, Illinois. As the ship prepared to cast off, it suddenly rolled over, taking some 844 men, women and children to their deaths. This is the story of the Eastland disaster, a horrifying catastrophe by any standard, and the worst disaster in Chicago's history.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating and very informative read. Even more, especially once the narrative got to the disaster itself, I found it very moving. In particular, amongst the pictures there is one of a firefighter holding a dead child, shock and despair written all over his face - as I read the narrative, I kept turning back to that picture.

This is a great story of the disaster and the people who were caught up in it: the victims, the rescuers, the government officials and the businessmen. If you want to read an informative and highly moving account of this disaster, then get this book! I give it my highest recommendations.

I'm going to cheat. I'm going to write one review and use it on three separate books. No doubt I'll offend the review gods at Amazon, but this subject merits it. Even though I live only 4 hours away from Chicago, I had never heard of the Eastland until I was searching for something entirely different and found a Western Electric website mentioning it. This is an utterly incredible story. I promptly ordered "The Sinking of the Eastland." The book goes into a fair amount of detail about the tragedy itself, yet its primary purpose is to describe the people involved and how they were affected. The author never claims to be a technical authority and instead makes reference several times to another book "Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic." I promptly ordered that one as well and while searching for additional information I learned of a third book "The Eastland Disaster (Images of America)." That one was ordered as well. Since you have read this far, you are obviously interested in my opinions and in my opinion, all three are required reading to grasp what happened. "The Eastland Disaster" is primarily a collection of relevant photographs which augment the other two books. Many more photographs of the events surrounding the ship, the sinking and the aftermath. And finally, "Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic" is much more technically oriented including the naval architecture concepts concerning the ship itself. I found this book to be especially good as it attempts to provide as much of a balanced view as possible, including several contemporary naval experts analyzing the court testimony of a leading architect of the day. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Not only that, but it is interesting to learn our concern for American jobs being lost to China is not a new thing. Ninety years ago people were worried about the same thing as a result of new regulations coming from the Titanic sinking. All three books solidly contribute to gaining knowledge about the disaster.

I never got to know my Mother's sister, my Aunt Rose. She drowned
on the Eastland. She was buried on her 18th Birthday. But, by
reading this book I learned about the Eastland and what really
happenend. I really didn't know because my Mom was only 9 at the
time and families didn't discuss "bad" happenings. That's why
this book is so great. It takes you through the boarding and then
the overturning and the rescue. If you have anyone, who was a
passenger on that boat, or even if you don't , this is very
excellent reading. It made me cry at times to think of all those
people just dumped into the water. I thought about my Aunt,
and her final words, "Tom, what about Frannie?" Frannie being
my Mother. Tom was Rose's boyfriend. He tried to save her but
people just clung to him and he couldn't get to her.

Jay Bonansinga has a difficult task in taking a sinking that happened far too quickly for any typical disaster book heroics and turning it into an often gripping pagetuner in The Sinking of the Eastland. 844 lives were lost in 1915 when the Eastland turned suddenly over on its side while sitting at dock. It all happened very quickly and with thousands of people watching. It is still an unbelievable and somewhat inexlicable tragedy. The author stretches the story out with the interesting stories of recovery and the not alwasy as interesting perspective of the funeral directors, one in particular. Still, Bonansinga has a good story in the Eastland and he manages to pull it all together very nicely.

Jay Bonansinga has painted a picture of The Eastland Disaster that pulls the reader right into the boat, the river, and the morgue. Unlike the very dry and overly statistical book that was previously written on this subject, this book introduces you to many of the real people who were on that boat that tragic day. You feel and smell the moment right along with them. You really care about each passenger as a human, not just a reported number or statistic. You mourn with the mothers, widows, widowers and entire families that were devastated by this accident. I was so drawn into the drama because of my caring for the chosen characters. What amazing stories of survival and valore, intense moments of suffering and defeat. The legal aftermath was almost as shocking as the disaster itself. Why were these precious lives disrepected and left for forgotten until now. I was amazed at how little publicity this event has gotten over the decades and I, for one, feel like I have paid my due respects to the victims and their loved ones through Bonansinga's compelling account. Bravo! This is the way non-fiction was meant to be written.

Since one of my relatives died in the disaster, I've grown up hearing about the Eastland, but I've never read much about it. With a novelist's eye for detail and description and a historian's sense of accuracy, Bonansinga captures the times and this sad event in vivid detail. This book is truly moving in its depiction of the victims and survivors and made me take pause and think for the first time what my great-aunt's last moments on earth must have been like.

I have long been a fan of great Chicago writers and great Chicago stories. While still in college, I discovered the immortal Nelson Algren, and James T. Farrell and James M. Cain and Studs Terkel, and recently found another good Chicago yarn in Devil in The White City. Jay Bonansinga holds up his end of the legacy quite well. A novelist of considerable talent and originality (The Killer's Game, Oblivion, The Sleep Police), Bonansinga seems to have all the skills. In Oblivion, he hooks us from Word One: "I'm twenty-nine years old, and I'm less than two years out of seminary school, and I'm watching my life piss away before my eyes." In the Killer's Game, while painting a vivid portrait of an almost supernaturally gifted assassin, he shows us the hollowness and moral bankruptcy of a predatory life. Here, in Eastland, Bonansinga does indeed open our eyes to America's Forgotten Tragedy. On a perfect day with perfect expectations of food and friends and dancing, more than 800 people suddenly loose their lives under the most horrific circumstances. The difference between average writers and wonderful writers is that the latter see the big picture. Bonansinga sees a tragedy waiting to happen, a callous commercial interest that will do anything to mask the warning signs, squeeze a few extra nickels out of the general purse, with the tension mounting and the tragedy approaching so that the Eastland's owners are practically picking the pockets of the walking dead. Then you see the cowardly passengers, hearty young men in their tailored finery, trampling women and children to save their scrawny lives. And ordinary citizens, with no interest in the outcome other than a deep rooted sense of morality and community, rushing to the disaster and risking their lives to pull hysterical victims from the water. And where would a tragedy be without politicians and spin doctors, rushing to the site to put the best face on the tragedy, promising vigorous investigations and sweeping change and the harshest of fates for the perpetrators? Eastland is horrifying, sickening, eye-opening and engrossing. Chalk up another wonderful effort for another blue-collar wordsmith from Chicago: in the end, Eastland is a ripping good yarn that paints a marvelous portrait of an event that virtually none of us would have grapsed without the impassioned effort of Jay Bonansinga. James Dalessandro, author, Bohemian Heart, Citizen Jane, 1906

This disaster is little known, even in Chicago. Since I live in the West Suburbs, it is interesting to read this story about the disaster that killed 844 people. Even the death rate is suspect, since some claim it was more, and some less. The Chicago Fire and the Iroquous Theater Fire claimed less than this disaster. Yet, Chicago people remember the fire and forget about the Eastland.
The author does a service in putting a human spin on this tragic event. Hundreds of people died in this disaster. These were hard working immigrants and their families who were hoping for a pleasureable cruise. The author limits his story to the human aspect of the disaster. As Bonansinga would say, another book has investigated that aspect and his story is about the human beings that were affected. There were a few memorable experiences about this book. The fireman carrying a dead child from the boat. A whole family wiped out because of the disaster. A small boy nicknamed little feller dead.
This is a good book about a little known disaster. A must read for someone from Chicago.

Just three years after the Titanic sank, another disaster involving a pleasure craft occurred - but only a few people remember it. The Eastland was a busy charter pleasure craft that once was a queen of Lake Michigan. But on July 24, 1915, nearly 2,000 Western Electric employees boarded her for their annual company picnic. They expected a fun-filled, care-free day of adventure on the lake. But, tragically, despite the best efforts of inspectors to have the ship's fatal flaws addressed, nearly 900 people died when the Eastland overturned-within sight of her dock in the Chicago River. Bonansinga's heartbreaking and detailed account of this forgotten event is a must read for anyone with a love of history-and the truth.
This fascinating nonfiction work delves into the disaster from every angle, including the frantic attempts by authorities to make the ship safer, the tragic day when so many lost their lives so needlessly, and (in this reviewer's opinion), the even-more horrifying chain of events in which the ship's owners, insurers, and Chicago's elite did their best to bury what really happened.
It's a powerful read, one that will leave you shaking your head at just how a few powerful people can impact the lives of the powerless. I've read this four times now, have given copies as gifts, and it my favorite work by a favorite author. Bonansinga may be better known for his wonderfully crafted thriller titles (Frozen, Twisted, The Killer's Game , and more). But it is this tale, one crafted from a tragic, embarrassing, and preventable event in America's history that is ultimately the most disturbing of his impressive canon.
(And now, every time I watch the shiny spectacle that is The Oprah Show, I cannot escape the knowledge that her studio once was called into service as the temporary morgue for the Eastland's victims. I wish Oprah would do a show on the Eastland (and invite the author in to tell his tale). It's a dark day in Chicago's history, but one that deserves its moment in the intensity of her supernova light.)
READ THIS BOOK - and share it with your friends. The memories of the people who perished no needlessly cry out in despair that their lives - and deaths - were so effectively shrouded from our collective memory. Bonansinga rights that wrong, and this book will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

Well written, and powerfully intense, I read about entire families being taken by this disaster, I learned of the divers who sent rescue teams at first into the chilly waters... that later became recovery teams instead. I read of every day public hero's who dove in time and again to save people (and succeeded!) and I read of scoundrels who picked the pockets of the 800+ bodies lined up on the streets waiting to be identified.

For most of the book, I wept.

Jay Bonansinga writes a story that is at once heart wrenching and painful - he reveals mistakes that could have been avoided, and a captain that abandoned his ship. And while all this may be perceived as a hard HARD read... it is an important one. And you know what? Life is hard. All stories can not end sugary sweet and leaving you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

I for one am glad I spent time this past week with The Eastlander and its occupants. I now have a new mark on my heart... it is ship shaped.