A pictorial chronicle of the events of July 24, 1915, when the steamship Eastland capsized and sank in the port of Chicago, killing over eight hundred people.

An account of the 1915 capsizing of the steamer Eastland in the Chicago River, an accident that killed more than eight hundred people, details the role of safety measures instituted after the sinking of the Titantic and examines the civil and criminal court proceedings which followed it.

New York Public Library's "100 Best Books for Kids" Kirkus Reviews' "Best Books of 2018" 2019 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award Honoree 2019 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List 2019 Cybils Literary Award Winner A 2019 Cooperative Children's Book Center's Choice Wisconsin Writers Contest 2018 Winner of the Tofte/Wright Children's Literary Award On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland, filled to capacity with 2,500 passengers and crew, capsized in the Chicago River while still moored to the pier. Happy picnic-goers headed for an employee outing across Lake Michigan suddenly found themselves in a struggle for their lives. Trapped belowdecks, crushed by the crowds attempting to escape the rising waters, or hurled into the river from the upper deck of the ship, roughly one-third of the passengers, mostly women and children, perished that day. The Eastland disaster took more passenger lives than the Titanic and stands today as the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes. Capsized! details the events leading up to the fateful day and provides a nail-biting, minute-by-minute account of the ship's capsizing. From the courage of the survivors to the despair of families who lost loved ones, author Patricia Sutton brings to light the stories of ordinary working people enduring the unthinkable. Capsized! also raises critical-thinking questions for young readers: Why do we know so much about the Titanic's sinking yet so little about the Eastland disaster? What causes a tragedy to be forgotten and left out of society's collective memory? And what lessons from this disaster might we be able to apply today?

The untold story of the worst disaster on the Great Lakes in U.S. History. On July 24th, 1915, Chicago commuters were horrified as they watched the SS Eastland, a tourism boat taking passengers across Lake Michigan, flip over while tied to the dock and drown 835 passengers, including 21 entire families. Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie had bought into the ship business in the Midwest, creating a boom market and a demand for ships that were bigger, longer, faster. The pressure-filled and greedy climate that resulted would be directly responsible for the Eastland disaster and others. As dramatic as the disaster was, the subsequent trial was even more so. The public demanded justice. When the immigrant engineer who was being scapegoated for the accident was left out to dry by the ship’s owners, penniless and down-on-his-luck Clarence Darrow decided to take his case. The defense he mounted, which he was too ashamed to even mention in his memoirs, would be even more shocking.

Martha Pfeiffer, age 19, was one of 844 persons who perished when a ship chartered for the Western Electric annual picnic capsized in Chicago in 1915. Martha's surviving family members never recovered from their grief. The Eastland Disaster has been mostly overlooked in recent years.In 1997, Pearl Pospisil, a retired Chicago writer, and third-generation Pfeiffer, composed a family history and delivered it to her niece, Zara Vrabel, in St. Paul, who was completely unfamiliar with its contents. Pearl had one request: "Do something with this."Zara, also a journalist, was cut off from her family and had no interest in genealogy. However, learning of her great-aunt's death on the Eastland Disaster made Zara's heart sink.Zara's life unravels as she becomes entangled in the plot and realizes that she and her great-aunt shared more than blood. After discovering that the accident was preventable, Zara initially seeks redress. And the release of another Titanic movie poured salt on a fresh wound. So why was the Eastland consigned to oblivion while the Titanic got all the glory?Flower in the River interweaves the past and present of four generations of an Eastern-European immigrant family. It suggests that even an unknown trauma can affect a family for generations.

From the day that French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle launched the Griffin in 1679 to the 1975 sinking of the celebrated Edmund Fitzgerald, thousands of commercial ships have sailed on the vast and perilous waters of the Great Lakes. In a harbinger of things to come, on the return leg of its first trip in late summer 1679, the Griffin disappeared and has never been seen again. In the centuries since then, the records show that an alarming number of shipwrecks have occurred on the Great Lakes. If vessels that wrecked but were later repaired and returned to service are included, the number certainly swells into the thousands. Most did not mysteriously vanish like the Griffin. Instead, they suffered the occupational hazards of every lake boat: collisions, groundings, strands, fires, boiler explosions, and capsizes. Many of these disasters took the lives of crews and passengers. The fearsome wrath of the storms that brew over the Great Lakes has challenged and defeated some of the staunchest vessels constructed in the shipyards of port cities along the U.S. and Canadian lakeshores. Here Richard Gebhart tells the tales of some of these ships and their captains and crews, from their launches to their sad demises—or sometimes, their celebrated retirements. This volume is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the maritime history of the Great Lakes.

Lives depend on the truth she uncovers. She can't give up her search. A birthday excursion turns deadly when the SS Eastland capsizes with Olive Pierce and her best friend on board. Hundreds perish during the accident, and it's only when Olive herself barely escapes that she discovers her friend is among the victims. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Olive returns to her work at a Chicago insurance agency and is immersed in the countless investigations related to the accident. But with so many missing, there are few open-and-shut cases, and she tries to balance her grief with the hard work of finding the truth. While someone sabotages her progress, Olive accepts the help of newspaper photographer Erik Magnussen. As they unravel secrets, the truths they discover impact those closest to Olive. How long will the disaster haunt her--and how can she help the others find the peace they deserve? "An incredible story of sacrifice, protection, and redemption, Drawn by the Current is another breath-taking, page-turning winner by one of my all-time favorite authors!"--KIMBERLEY WOODHOUSE=, bestselling and award-winning author of A Deep Divide and Forever Hidden "Captivating! Drawn by the Current explores the human depths of tragedy, loss, and what it means to survive. . . . Jocelyn Green's latest novel in her Windy City Saga triumphs!"--KATE BRESLIN, bestselling author of As Dawn Breaks "Once again, Jocelyn Green takes us on a historical adventure worth neglecting dinner and sleep for. Readers will sink into this story and drown in the pages of Jocelyn Green's epic story-telling talent!"--JAIME JO WRIGHT, multiple award-winning author of The House on Foster Hill and On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor "Drawn by the Current leads readers on an engaging journey of intrigue and romance, perfectly blended with a splash of Chicago history from the early 1900s."--TED WACHHOLZ, Executive Director and Chief Historian, Eastland Disaster Historical Society