Ship Wrecked—Failed Prosecutions
The Eastland disaster faded from memory not only because of other, more notable shipwrecks at the time—the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania (see the previous Time Stamp post). It also has been largely forgotten because of the delayed and prolonged legal process that never assigned blame or compensated victims’ families.
Investigations after the wrecks of the Titanic and Lusitania were hardly more satisfactory.
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ds.13444/ US Senate inquiry committee convenes.
The US Senate investigation conducted after the sinking of the Titanic ran from April 19 to May 25, 1912, concluding at its end that the British Board of Trade had been lax in regulating steamships overall and hastily inspected the Titanic itself.
The British Board’s own investigation attributed the disaster to the excessive speed of the ship but not the captain who piloted the vessel at those speeds, noting he “was only doing that which other skilled men would have done.” U.S. Senate investigation of the Titanic's sinking
The sinking of the Titanic did result in new safety measures. The first 1913 International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea ruled ships must have enough lifeboat space for every person onboard as well as lifeboat drills. Ironically, the installation of more lifeboats in keeping with the requirement made the Eastland more unstable. https://www.britannica.com/topic/International-Conference-for-Safety-of-Life-at-Sea
German propaganda postcard of Lusitania. The torpedo is incorrectly depicted as hitting the port side of ship. Next to the Kaiserliche Marine ensign is shown Grand Admiral Tirpitz, major proponent of submarine warfare.
The German Government after the loss of the Lusitania claimed the ship had been “armed with guns…and as is well known here, she had large quantities of war material in her cargo.” "Sinking Justified, Says Dr. Dernburg; Lusitania a "War Vessel", Known to be Carrying Contraband, Hence Search Was Not Necessary" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 May 1915. p. 4.
While the Lusitania had been fitted with gun mounts during construction (so she could later be converted into a merchant marine cruiser), guns had not been added or armed. One inspector found no guns or mounts onboard before the ship sailed. And the ammunition on board were cartridges for small weapons that were “non-explosive” in nature, even in bulk. "Sinking Justified, Says Dr. Dernburg; Lusitania a "War Vessel", Known to be Carrying Contraband, Hence Search Was Not Necessary" (PDF). The New York Times.
The German government did bar U-boats from the English Channel and the waters along the west coast of the UK until January, 1917, when it removed all restrictions on U-boat routes.
Survivors and their relatives sued the German government after its defeat in WW I and agreed to an arbiter’s decision on compensation. The government was liable for direct personal injuries and property loss on a case-by-case basis. (https://www.rmslusitania.info/primary-docs/mcc/candlish
Eastland Prosecutions
Criminal cases were brought in the state of Illinois and in the federal circuit court, but only one criminal case was ever prosecuted, and it took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the Eastland had been built by the Michigan Steamship Company.
Immediate Criminal Investigation
Less than a week after the sinking, seven inquiries were launched by officials in Chicago and Cook County, including law enforcement—state and district attorneys and the coroner—commerce and public utilities commissions, steamboat and harbor and wharves inspectors and city council committee members.
A Cook County coroner’s jury impaneled the day after the sinking ruled on July 29 that the ship was unseaworthy because it had not been properly constructed, maintained, or operated and that four top officials of the steamship company as well as its captain and chief engineer should be brought before a Cook County criminal grand jury.
The Cook County grand jury did indict company officials. The jury held that the officers of the firm knew the ship was unstable and still allowed 2500 passengers to board, were negligent in hiring an incompetent engineer, did not have a sufficient number of sailors on board to help in the event of an accident, and failed to properly maintain ballast tanks. The jury also charged the ship’s captain, Harry Pedersen, and chief engineer, Joseph Erickson, with criminal carelessness and negligence.
Further prosecution in the state of Illinois stalled, however, while federal steamboat and marine inspectors participated in a formal board of inquiry. A federal grand jury in September handed down nearly 20 indictments of top members of the steamship company, the ship’s engineer and captain, and the Indiana Transportation Company for criminal carelessness and conspiracy to defraud the federal government by interfering with maritime law. Warrants were issued on September 29 for six of eight of the men who had been indicted federally and for only one of the three original charges—conspiracy to operate an unsafe ship.
The Federal Case
The principal allegation made by the prosecution revolved around the seaworthiness of the Eastland. US District Attorney Charles Clyne argued that the ship was top-heavy and likely to list or capsize if passengers moved or the sea or wind changed suddenly yet the officers of the company conspired to allow it to sail and the captain and chief engineer were not competent enough to sail her. (Hilton: Eastland Legacy of the Titanic)
The defense attorney for Capt. Pedersen pushed for dismissal of the case because of an overall lack of evidence of an actual crime. The attorney for engineer Joseph Erickson discounted the prosecution’s claims of unseaworthiness and incompetence and pointed to an unusual cause of the accident: Clarence Darrow argued that the ship foundered and capsized because it had been resting on a hidden underwater obstruction, such as pilings and bricks and concrete that remained after the collapse of a nearby building years before. However, the ability of a freighter to anchor at the same spot along the Chicago River wharf with no difficulty later refuted that argument. (Hilton: Eastland Legacy of the Titanic)
The presiding judge decided the defendants were not guilty on February 18, 1916, because there was no evidence of conspiracy—defendants were not colluding to cover up knowledge about the seaworthiness of the vessel. He did not rule, however, on whether the ship was seaworthy in the first place or whether an underwater obstruction played a part. (Hilton: Eastland Legacy of the Titanic)
Also unresolved were indictments brought against the captain and engineer in the state of Illinois. The indictments were held in abeyance while the federal case was prosecuted and never were reinstated afterward. (Hilton: Eastland Legacy of the Titanic)
Civil Cases
Civil lawsuits brought on behalf of the victims and their families took 24 years to wend their way through the judicial system, and in the end plaintiffs received little or nothing. Precedence was given to claims filed on behalf of the salvage company that had towed the vessel away from the accident site and the coal company that supplied fuel. https://eastlanddisaster.org/
The Trial That Never Was
On the 100th anniversary of the Eastland disaster, a mock criminal trial was sponsored by the Eastland Disaster Organization. Leaders of the legal community, including Judge Anne Burke and high-profile attorney Dan Webb (defense attorney for Fox news in the Dominion voting systems defamation case) participated in the trial at the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago.
Three men were charged with involuntary manslaughter: the president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer of the steamship company, and the facts from 1915 were viewed through the prism of 2015 law. https://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/archives/2015/06/19/eastland-disaster-06-19-15
The prosecutor argued that the defendants were negligent because they had not tested the ship after lifeboats had been added in response to the sinking of the Titanic and pointed to a letter written in 1913 by a naval architect that warned the Eastland was at risk of a “serious accident.”
Defense attorney Webb called the letter hearsay and based his defense on the fact that the US government itself had considered the ship to be seaworthy and safe.
Five of six members of the audience who served as jurors in the mock trial voted not guilty. The majority of the audience at large voted not guilty (58 percent), a few voted guilty (29 percent) and 13 percent believed some but not all of the defendants should have been found guilty.
https://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/archives/2015/06/19/eastland-disaster-06-19-15
Fate of the Eastland
The ship was raised from the Chicago River in August, 1915. Two years later it was sold to the US Navy, converted into a gunboat, and took the name USS Wilmette. It did not engage in combat during WW I and was later used as a navy training vessel. It was decommissioned in 1945 and sold for scrap in 1946. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sources
^ "Sinking Justified, Says Dr. Dernburg; Lusitania a "War Vessel", Known to be Carrying Contraband, Hence Search Was Not Necessary" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 May 1915. p. 4. Justification of the sinking of the liner Lusitania by German submarines as a man of war was advanced today by Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, former German Colonial Secretary and regarded as the Kaiser's official mouthpiece in the United States. Dr. Dernburg gave out a statement at the Hollenden Hotel following his arrival in Cleveland to address the City Club at noon on Germany's attitude in the present war
^ Halsey, Francis Whiting (1919). The Literary Digest History of the World War. Funk & Wagnalls. p. 255.
George W. Hilton: Eastland Legacy of the Titanic, Stanford University Press, 1995.
https://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/archives/2015/06/19/eastland-disaster-06-19-15
. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
. https://eastlanddisaster.org/
(https://www.rmslusitania.info/primary-docs/mcc/candlish
U.S. Senate investigation of the Titanic's sinking
https://www.britannica.com/topic/International-Conference-for-Safety-of-Life-at-Sea