111 years later, S.S. Eastland disaster victims remembered
<p>Holding a black-and-white photo of his great aunt, Scott Long leaned over the Chicago Riverwalk railing and scattered a handful of flowers into the river, honoring a life the S.S. Eastland disaster claimed 111 years ago Friday.</p><p>Long, 62, took a photograph of the portrait of his great aunt, Mabel Deichmann, held against the backdrop of the river where she died on July 24, 1915.</p><p>Deichmann was 21 when the Eastland, a passenger steamship, rolled onto its side while docked along the Chicago River, killing 844 people.
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<p>Holding a black-and-white photo of his great aunt, Scott Long leaned over the Chicago Riverwalk railing and scattered a handful of flowers into the river, honoring a life the S.S. Eastland disaster claimed 111 years ago Friday.</p><p>Long, 62, took a photograph of the portrait of his great aunt, Mabel Deichmann, held against the backdrop of the river where she died on July 24, 1915.</p><p>Deichmann was 21 when the Eastland, a passenger steamship, rolled onto its side while docked along the Chicago River, killing 844 people. It remains Chicago’s deadliest single-day disaster.</p><p>The <a class="Link" href="https://eastlanddisaster.org/" target="_blank" >Eastland Disaster Historical Society</a> marked the 111th anniversary Friday with a ceremony along the Riverwalk between La Salle and Clark.</p><p>Long’s family has carried the story through generations.</p><p>“My grandfather, my grandmother, her sister and my uncle were on the Eastland,” Long said.</p><p>More than 2,500 passengers, most of them Western Electric factory workers and their families, boarded the Eastland on an overcast Saturday morning for the company’s annual picnic.</p><p>Minutes after boarding, before the ship ever left the dock, the overloaded, top-heavy Eastland tipped over. Many passengers were trapped below the deck as the water flowed in, prompting a frantic rescue by first responders and bystanders.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-7b0000" name="image-7b0000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d78c8c7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/512x287+0+17/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F88%2F5a%2F667691744c9ebd17e195ed534452%2Feastland-archive.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ccc1337/2147483647/strip/true/crop/512x287+0+17/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F88%2F5a%2F667691744c9ebd17e195ed534452%2Feastland-archive.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c42e218/2147483647/strip/true/crop/512x287+0+17/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F88%2F5a%2F667691744c9ebd17e195ed534452%2Feastland-archive.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="The steamer Eastland lies capsized in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c42e218/2147483647/strip/true/crop/512x287+0+17/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F88%2F5a%2F667691744c9ebd17e195ed534452%2Feastland-archive.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c1949f5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/512x287+0+17/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F88%2F5a%2F667691744c9ebd17e195ed534452%2Feastland-archive.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275" data-src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c42e218/2147483647/strip/true/crop/512x287+0+17/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F88%2F5a%2F667691744c9ebd17e195ed534452%2Feastland-archive.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" > </picture> <div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>The steamer Eastland lies capsized in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915.
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- <p>Holding a black-and-white photo of his great aunt, Scott Long leaned over the Chicago Riverwalk railing and scattered a handful of flowers into the river, honoring a life the S.S. Eastland disaster claimed 111 years ago Friday.</p><p>Long, 62, took a photograph of the portrait of his great aunt, Mabel Deichmann, held against the backdrop of the river where she died on July 24, 1915.</p><p>Deichmann was 21 when the Eastland, a passenger steamship, rolled onto its side while docked along the Chicago River, killing 844 people.
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111 years later, S.S. Eastland disaster victims remembered
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