Role of Professional Divers in the Eastland Disaster

[KathyV]

Over 100 years ago in 1915, more than 800 people died in the Chicago River as they were preparing to head out into Lake Michigan on their way to a company picnic. Whole families were killed and many more people died on the Eastland than died in the Chicago Fire.

Professional divers played a prominent role in rescue and recovery efforts on the Eastland, see the link and pictures below.

In the group picture below, the 3rd diver from the left is unidentified. If anyone knows who he is, please contact: Eastland Disaster Historical Society

Eastland Disaster - Organized Response - Professional Divers

 

[Marie13]

Thanks for the pics, Kathy! A lot of people locally don't even know the Great Lakes worst maritime disaster happened on our doorstep, with the now-former Oprah studios (Harpo Productions, in the old armory building) serving as the makeshift morgue.

 

[Akimbo]

There's a lot about the Great Lakes in Diving With & Without Armor by J. B. Green published in 1859. This is the cover of Lee Selisky's reprint.

It is a bit of a difficult read because of the language used in that era. It is similar to reading letters from the US Civil War, but in print rather than cursive. Mr. Green began diving in the great lakes with no equipment at all recovering lost items and progressed into salvage, all holding his breath. He later built his own deep sea rig, apparently with virtually no knowledge of Augustus Siebe's equipment. It reads like he heard vague descriptions of the Siebe gear and improvised from there... it's been several years since I read it so I could be a little off.

It is an amazing read and the poor guy ended up badly disabled by repeated DCS, which he knew nothing about. He wrote this book to make a living. Life was really tough back then. Well worth reading.

 

[Marie13]

Sounds great. If someone is used to reading Dickens and Austen, then they'll have no issue with this book, I'd expect.

 

[Birddog1911]

I never heard about this; thanks for posting it!

 

[USMC CPL.]

Thanks for the pics, Kathy! A lot of people locally don't even know the Great Lakes worst maritime disaster happened on our doorstep, with the now-former Oprah studios (Harpo Productions, in the old armory building) serving as the makeshift morgue.

Can you recommend any good books on this incident??

 

[Marie13]

Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals has a good part on the Eastland.

 

[USMC CPL.]

Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals has a good part on the Eastland.

Ok thanks. Love lake m. I grew up on her southern shore in Indiana. Always loved the inland freshwater seas. Thanks for the info.

 

[KathyV]

Can you recommend any good books on this incident??

If you search Amazon for "Eastland Disaster" it brings up several books on the subject.

 

[KathyV]

There are profiles of some of the Eastland Divers available online:

http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/news/remembering-the-heroes-charles-gunderson

http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/news/remembering-the-heroes-captain-dan-donovan

http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/news/quot-remembering-the-heroes-quot-iver-johnsen