SS Eastland The SS " Eastland " was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours . On July 24 , 1915 the ship rolled over while tied to a dock in the Chicago River . A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was to become the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes . Following the disaster , the " Eastland " was salvaged and sold to the United States Navy . After restorations and modifications the " Eastland " was designated as a gunboat and renamed the USS " Wilmette " . She was used primarily as a training vessel on the Great Lakes and was scrapped following World War II . Construction . The ship was commissioned in 1902 by the Michigan Steamship Company and built by the Jenks Ship Building Company . In April 1903 , the ship was named by Mrs . David Reid of South Haven , Michigan . She received a prize of $ 10 and a one - season pass on the ship . The ship was named in May , immediately before its inaugural voyage . History . Early problems . Following its construction the " Eastland " was discovered to have design flaws making it susceptible to listing . The ship was top - heavy along with the center of gravity being too high . This became evident when passengers congregated en masse on the upper decks . In July 1903 , a case of overcrowding caused the " Eastland " to list with water flowing up one of the ship ' s gangplanks . The situation was quickly rectified but this was the first of many incidents . Later in the same month the stern of the ship was damaged when it was backed into the tugboat " George W . Gardner " . In August 1906 another incident of listing occurred which resulted in the filing of complaints against the Chicago - South Haven Line which had purchased the ship earlier that year . Mutiny on the " Eastland " . On August 14 , 1903 , while on a cruise from Chicago to South Haven , Michigan , some of the ship ' s firemen refused to stoke the fire for the ship ' s boiler . They claimed that they had not received their potatoes for a meal . When they refused to return to the fire hole , Captain John Pereue ordered the six men arrested at gun point . Firemen George Lippen and Benjamin Myers , who were not a part of the group of six , stoked the fires until the ship reached harbor . Upon the ship ' s arrival in South Haven , the six men , Glenn Watson , Mike Davern , Frank La Plarte , Edward Fleming , Mike Smith , and William Madden , were taken to the town jail . Shortly after the mutiny Captain Pereue was replaced . The " Eastland " disaster . On July 24 , 1915 , the " Eastland " and two other Great Lakes passenger steamers , the " Theodore Roosevelt " and the " Petoskey " , were chartered to take employees from Western Electric Company ' s Hawthorne Works in Cicero , Illinois , to a picnic in Michigan City , Indiana . This was a major event in the lives of the workers , many of whom could not take holidays . Many of the passengers on the Eastland were Czech immigrants from Cicero , Illinois ; 220 of them perished . In 1915 , the new federal Seamen ' s Act had been passed because of the RMS " Titanic " disaster . This required retrofitting of a complete set of lifeboats on the " Eastland " as on many other passenger vessels . This additional weight , ironically , probably made the " Eastland " more dangerous and it worsened the already severe problem of being top - heavy . Some argued that other Great Lakes ships would suffer from the same problem . Nonetheless , it was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson . The " Eastland " was already so top - heavy that it had special restrictions concerning the number of passengers that could be carried . Prior to that , in June 1914 , the " Eastland " had again changed hands , this time bought by the St . Joseph and Chicago Steamship Company , with Captain Harry Pedersen appointed the ship ' s master . On the fateful morning , passengers began boarding the " Eastland " on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle Street s around 6 : 30 , and by 7 : 10 a . m . , the ship had reached its capacity of 2 , 572 passengers . The ship was packed , with many passengers standing on the open upper decks , and began to list slightly to the port side ( away from the wharf ) . The crew attempted to stabilize the ship by admitting water to its ballast tank s , but to little avail . Sometime in the next 15 minutes , a number of passengers rushed to the port side , and at 7 : 28 , the " Eastland " lurched sharply to port and then rolled completely onto its side , coming to rest on the river bottom , which was only 20 feet below the surface . Many other passengers had already moved below decks on this relatively cool and damp morning to warm up before the departure . Consequently , hundreds were trapped inside by the water and the sudden rollover ; others were crushed by heavy furniture , including pianos , bookcases , and tables . Although the ship was only 20 feet from the wharf , and in spite of the quick response by the crew of a nearby vessel , the " Kenosha " , which came alongside the hull to allow those stranded on the capsized vessel to leap to safety , a total of 844 passengers and four crew members died in the disaster . The bodies of the victims were taken to various temporary morgues set up in the area for identification ; by afternoon , the remaining unidentified bodies were consolidated at the 2nd Regiment Armory , on the site which has since been transformed into Harpo Studios , the sound stage for " The Oprah Winfrey Show " and other productions . One of the makeshift morgues was set up in a building that is now the Excalibur Club , located close to the Chicago Hard Rock Cafe . One of the people who was scheduled to be on the " Eastland " was 20 - year - old George Halas , who was delayed leaving for the dock , and arrived after the ship had capsized . Despite stories to the contrary , there is no reliable evidence that Jack Benny was on board the " Eastland " or scheduled to be on the excursion ; possibly the basis for this report was that the " Eastland " was a training vessel during World War I and Jack Benny received his training on the Great Lakes naval base , where the " Eastland " was stationed . " Eastland " disaster and the media . Writer Jack Woodford witnessed the disaster and gave a first - hand account to the " Herald and Examiner " , a Chicago newspaper . In his autobiography , Woodford writes : Carl Sandburg , then better known as a journalist than a poet , wrote an angry account accusing regulators of turning a blind eye to safety issues . He also claimed that many of the workers were there on company orders for a staged picnic : Sandburg also wrote a poem , " The " Eastland " , " that contrasts the disaster with the mistreatment and poor health of the lower classes at the time . After first listing the quick murderous horrors of the disaster , then surveying the slow murderous horrors of extreme poverty , Sandburg concludes by comparing the two : " I see a dozen " Eastlands " / Every morning on my way to work / And a dozen more going home at night . " It was too harsh for publication in his day , and not published until 1993 . In 2012 , Chicago ' s Lookingglass Theatre produced an original musical about the disaster entitled " Eastland : A New Musical " and written by Andy White . Inquiry and indictments . A grand jury indicted the president and three other officers of the steamship company for manslaughter , and the ship ' s captain and engineer for criminal carelessness , and found that the disaster was caused by " conditions of instability " caused by any or all of overloading of passengers , mishandling of water ballast , or the construction of the ship . Federal extradition hearings were held to compel the six indicted men to come from Michigan to Illinois for trial . During the hearings , principal witness Sidney Jenks , head of the shipbuilding company that built the " Eastland " , testified that its first owners wanted a fast ship to transport fruit , and he designed one capable of making 20 miles per hour and carrying 500 passengers . Defense counsel Clarence Darrow asked whether he had ever worried about the conversion of ship into a passenger steamer with a capacity of 2 , 500 or more passengers . Jenks replied , " I had no way of knowing the quantity of its business after it left our yards . . . No , I did not worry about the " Eastland " . " Jenks testified that there was never an actual stability test of the ship , and stated that after tilting to an angle of 45 degrees at launching , " . . . it righted itself as straight as a church , satisfactorily demonstrating its stability . " The court refused extradition , holding the evidence was too weak , with " barely a scintilla of proof " to establish probable cause to find the six guilty . The court reasoned that the four company officers were not aboard the ship , and that every act charged against the captain and engineer was done in the ordinary course of business , " more consistent with innocence than with guilt . " The court also reasoned that the " Eastland " " was operated for years and carried thousands safely " , and that for this reason no one could say that the accused parties were unjustified in believing the ship seaworthy . Second life as USS " Wilmette " . After the " Eastland " was raised on August 14 , 1915 , she was sold to the Illinois Naval Reserve and recommissioned as USS " Wilmette " stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base . She was converted to a gunboat , renamed " Wilmette " on February 20 , 1918 , and commissioned on September 20 , 1918 with Captain William B . Wells in command . Commissioned late in World War I , " Wilmette " saw no combat service . She trained sailors and engaged in normal upkeep and repairs until placed in ordinary at Chicago on July 9 , 1919 , retaining a 10 - man caretaker crew on board . On June 29 , 1920 the gunboat was returned to full commission , with Captain Edward A . Evers , , in command . On June 7 , 1921 , the " Wilmette " was given the task of sinking " UC - 97 " , a German U - Boat surrendered to the United States after World War I . The guns of the " Wilmette " were manned by Gunner ' s Mate J . O . Sabin , who had fired the first American shell in World War I , and Gunner ' s Mate A . F . Anderson , the man who fired the first American torpedo in the conflict . For the remainder of her 25 - year career , the gunboat served as a training ship for naval reservists in the 9th , 10th , and 11th Naval Districts . She made voyages along the shores of the Great Lakes carrying trainees assigned to her from the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois . " Wilmette " remained in commission , carrying out her reserve training mission until she was placed " out of commission , in service , " on February 15 , 1940 . Given hull designation IX - 29 on February 17 , 1941 , she resumed training duty at Chicago on March 30 , 1942 , preparing armed guard crews for duty manning the guns on armed merchantmen . That assignment continued until the end of World War II in Europe obviated measures to protect transatlantic merchant shipping from German U - boats . During August 1943 the " Wilmette " was given the honor of transporting President Franklin D . Roosevelt , Admiral William D . Leahy , James F . Byrnes and Harry Hopkins on a 10 - day cruise to McGregor and Whitefish Bay to plan war strategies . On April 9 , 1945 , she was returned to full commission for a brief interval . " Wilmette " was decommissioned on November 28 , 1945 , and her name was struck from the Navy list on December 19 , 1945 . In 1946 , the " Wilmette " was offered up for sale . Finding no takers , on October 31 , 1946 , she was sold to the Hyman Michaels Company for scrapping which was completed in 1947 . Memorials . A marker dedicated to the accident was dedicated on June 4 , 1989 . This marker was reported stolen on April 26 , 2000 and a replacement marker was installed and rededicated on July 24 , 2003 . There are plans for a permanent outdoor exhibit with the proposed name " At The River ' s Edge " . This exhibit would be at the exact location of the disaster . The exhibit will include 6 steel frames for a total of 12 panels . The 12 panels will combine text with high - resolution images to tell the story of the disaster .