Three years after the sinking of the Titanic, in 1915, another maritime disaster of tragic proportions occurred, the rolling over of the SS Eastland while it was docked in the Chicago River. The excursion ship, which had a reputation for a poor ballast system and dangerous listing, was being filled with thousands of passengers on their way to a picnic and beach day. The ship would eventually list so severely that it would snaps its moorings and capsize into the river. 845 people would perish in the accident (actually more passengers than the Titanic).
The largely untold story of the Eastland is thoughtfully covered in this Ask a Mortician episode. As Caitlin Doughty points out, even though it was a disaster of Titanic proportions, one of the reasons it's largely unremembered by popular history is that, unlike the Titanic, there were no famous people onboard, no fancy ship or iceberg, just a boatload of working stiffs in search of a little weekend R&R.
Sadly, on top of the tragedy of the Eastland, Caitlin herself suffered a shock when YouTube robots deemed the documentary in violation of the site's community standards. They didn't remove it, they just sunk it on the site (we can't embed it here). Caitlin tells the exasperating tale below.
Please take the link, watch this excellent doc, and share.
