Chief Steward Albert Wycoff watches his dishes fall out of their rack in the dining area. The piano on the promenade deck slides across to the port side, almost crushing two women. Bradfield's Orchestra stops playing in the middle of a bar. The refrigerator behind the bar crashes over with a loud noise, alerting all passengers that the disaster is imminent. One or two women are pinned beneath the refrigerator.
Water pours in through the aft port gangway and the portholes on the main deck.
Passengers on the main deck panic and rush to the staircases leading up to the 'tween deck, which proves to be the worst single death trap for those passengers in the hull . Erickson sends his younger brother, Peter, to see if the ship's fender strake was hanging on the wharf. Peter is unable to make his way through the mass of frantic passengers. Panic ensues throughout the Eastland . Captain Pedersen realizes that the situation is hopeless.