Research Catalog

Ashes under water : the SS Eastland and the shipwreck that shook America

Title: Ashes under water : the SS Eastland and the shipwreck that shook America / Michael McCarthy.
Author: McCarthy, Michael, 1962-
Publication: Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, [2014]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/Text	Use in library	G530.E18 M44 2014	Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 301 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Ashes Under Water is the riveting untold story of the 1915 sinking of the SS Eastland, a Lake Michigan excursion boat, which rolled over while tied to its dock, within feet of one the busiest intersections in Chicago's famed Loop District. Horrified morning commuters watched it all unfold. The final death toll would not come for weeks but would be 835 people, including 21 entire families. The trial would make national headlines and cause public outrage; the effort to bring the guilty ship owners to justice was thwarted by future star lawyer Clarence Darrow. Darrow defended the only true hero of the ship, engineer Joseph Erickson, whose wealthy bosses laid all the blame at his feet. A national disaster and tragedy, a courtroom drama, corrupt businessmen and Chicago politics, and a story of the cost of America's industrial might all in one gripping story. Author Michael McCarthy takes the reader back one hundred years to the one of the most shocking accidents in American history. But the aftermath and cover-up just may have been even worse."--
"The untold story of the worst disaster on the Great Lakes in U.S. History"--

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prologue : Steamer, sailor, lawyer -- Part 1. Ahead strong -- Worshipful master -- "He could attend to the rest himself" -- "Steady as a church" -- The flower ship -- Stuck on the bar -- Faints, curses, and screams -- River afire -- Distant voices -- "A little heaven afloat" -- Dragon breath -- Too late, the Messenger -- A lingering hat -- April Fool's day -- Swallowing the anchor -- A thousand balloons -- Sleeping on a volcano -- Judgment Day -- "I can't do anything like that" -- The bargain -- Playing with fire -- A sickly daughter -- "A Mr. Hull is on the line" -- "Goodbye, everybody" -- Broken propellers -- "To be nearer home" -- May Day -- A spy aboard -- Part 2. What is honest never sinks -- July 24, 1915 -- Gone -- A luncheon -- The human frog -- "Who has little Martha?" -- The confession -- No. 396 -- "The angel" -- Muzzling Erickson -- "You were lucky in Cleveland" -- The charges -- Fifteen typed pages -- Part 3. Trial and error -- Running from the law -- A toy boat -- "I'm trying to forget" -- The shady side -- A vanishing gash -- A vanishing river -- Fool killer-- Bubbles -- Another toy boat -- The Captain trips up -- The Captain tears up -- A litany of no -- "It seemed like a century" -- "The rich stay in hotels" -- A wrong Irreparable -- The missing angel -- Striking back -- The diving detective -- A moment of honor -- A miscalculation -- At sea -- A secret singing -- "An impossible crime" -- Epilogue : That day, that sorrow.

ISBN

9780762793280
0762793287

LCCN

2014027543

OCLC

ocn870987240
1007750100
on1007750100
SCSB-9012030

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library