1 / 24

Eastland Steamer

Eastland Steamer Danielle Lacko MEP-200-01 March 2, 2001 Topics of Discussion Background What Happened Causes Results of Disaster Background Commissioned in 1903 Occurred July 24, 1915 at 7:30 AM Western Electric Picnic Occurred on the Chicago River (downtown) It was docked

Faraday
Download Presentation

Eastland Steamer

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Eastland Steamer Danielle Lacko MEP-200-01 March 2, 2001

  2. Topics of Discussion • Background • What Happened • Causes • Results of Disaster

  3. Background • Commissioned in 1903 • Occurred July 24, 1915 at 7:30 AM • Western Electric Picnic • Occurred on the Chicago River (downtown) • It was docked

  4. What Happened • 6:40 passengers started boarding • 6:41 ship began to list starboard • 6:48 port ballast 2 and 3 were partially filled • 6:53 ship lists to port- starboard ballast 2 was partially filled • 7:07 water was emptied from port ballast 3 • 7:10 no more passengers allowed on board • 7:10-7:15 listing to port increased to 10-15 degrees

  5. What Happened • 7:16 tried to fill starboard ballast 2 and 3 • 7:18 ship righted itself • 7:20 port list returned- water came on ship- stopped the engines • 7:23 list became worse • 7:27 list reached angle of 25-30 degrees • 7:28 list reached 45 degrees • 7:30 capsized

  6. What it looked like

  7. Causes • Metacentric Height • Ballast System • Management/Human Error

  8. Metacentric Height • WHAT IS IT??? • Measure of stability of a ship in the water • Positive, negative, zero metacentric height

  9. Positive Height -The Ship’s Metacenter is above the center of gravity -Righting arms are created -The ship rights itself

  10. Negative Height -Center of gravity is above the metacenter -Negative righting arms -Ship capsizes

  11. Zero Height -Metacenter and center of gravity at the same point -No righting arms -Stays at incline

  12. Metacentric Height • Original design had a metacentric height of 18 inches • 60ft of length taken away (lower metacentric height) • Another deck added (top-heavy) • Thought it was for freight • Addition of Ellis and Eaves Draft System (speed) and McCreery System of Air-Conditioning (cooling)

  13. Metacentric Height cont. • Sleeping compartments taken out • Concrete added (15-20 tons) • Addition of lifeboats due to sinking of the Titanic (LaFollette’s Seaman’s Act) • There was an easy inclination test to measure and calculate the height- never done

  14. Ballast System • WHAT IS IT??? • Large tanks at the bottom of a ship • Used to stabilize the ship by emptying and filling tanks with water

  15. Ballast System cont. • Eastland had twelve tanks • Water was pulled into pipe • Connected to a manifold • Into desired tank • The tanks were different sizes

  16. Problems with the Ballast System • There were no gages- time was used • Same manifold used for water to leave ballast tanks • Water couldn’t be pumped from tanks on one side to the other • Slow process of opening and closing different tank valves

  17. Errors During the Disaster • 6:48 port ballast 2 and 3 filled- dangerous due to negative height • Free surface effect • Shifted list to port side • 7:07 water emptied from port ballast 3 • Didn’t empty port ballast 2 • Still weight below center of gravity • 7:16 starboard ballast 2 and 3 wouldn’t fill

  18. Management/Human Error • New Chief Engineer in 1915, Joseph Erickson • He was used to working on ships with a long metacentric height • No one discussed addition of lifeboats with him • He was not told that the changes may have cause the metacentric height to be negative with a heavy load • He didn’t know the capacity had been increased • He didn’t know the ship should be handled differently

  19. Results • 841 passengers died- more passengers than died on Titanic (829) • 22 families were wiped out • Worst disaster in terms of loss of life in history of Chicago • Morgue was set up in the Armory because there were so many dead that needed to be identified

  20. What it looked like

  21. Another View

  22. Why people died • People were stuck in the lower decks • They were crushed or drowned

  23. References • American Red Cross. Eastland Disaster Relief. Chicago, Illinois: American Red Cross, 1918. • Bowen, Dana Thomas. Lore of the Lakes. Cleveland, Ohio: Freshwater Press Inc., 1969. • Davis, Lee. Man Made Catastrophes. New York, New York: Facts on File Inc., 1993. • “Engineer’s Report Blames Eastland Disaster on Poor Design, Overloading and Mishandled Ballast.” Engineering Record 21 Aug. 1915: 221-222. • Griggs, John. “Excursion to Death.” American Heritage Feb. 1965: 32-35. • Hilton, George W. Eastland Legacy of the Titanic. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1995. • “Probable/Possible Causes.” Eastland Disaster Historical Society. Home Page. 1998-2001 < http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/causes.htm>.

  24. References • “The Eastland Disaster of 1915” <http://www2.novagate.net/~bonevelle/eastland/background.html> • “The Capsizing of the ‘Eastland’.” Engineering News 29 July. 1915: 225-227. • “Chicago Historical Information.” Chicago Public Library. December 1996 <http://cpl.lib.uic.edu/004chicago/disasters/eastland_photos.html> • “Photos.” Chicago Historical Society. 1998-2001 <http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/postcards.htm>

More Related