then, i do not think that was the norm in the tv of the time. i do not think these guys needed , as morgan said, they did not need that. >> howard k smith was the moderator, who i think was really embarrassed by this. he was moderating, but he disappears or sometimes five or more minutes at a time. today you wouldn't have a moderator not jumping every 30 seconds. i think really, everybody at abc just it back and let the fire burn. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern c-span's q&a. >> each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places. up next in the second of the two-part look at the museum of the american revolution, we see highlights of the artifact collection. >> i am scott stevenson. i'm in charge of the team developing exhibitions and

programs that will be in the new museum in philadelphia. this is about a century old project. we have been working on the project since five years. we expect to open in 2017. we have a place to show up these wonderful and amazing original object from the revolutionary era. for general view, or sometimes looking at 18th-century firearms they tend to look alike that this really speaks to the one power of the ideas that were made the country and particularly the men who served under arms. if you look at these pieces of continental currency, you will notice the designs.

these have been selected under the direction of benjamin franklin from a book of ancient symbology. in the center, it is difficult to see, but there is an image of a beaver chewing a tree. calling on persistence on the part of the beaver. the idea that this is not going to be a conflict that is one overnight. that persistence will be rewarded -- the fee so me and is the continental three dollar bill. it has a great connection to this musket. in the center, there's the image of an eagle attacking a crane which is defending itself with its beak. in an latin, the legend roughly translates as the out come is uncertain. if you look carefully at the lock plate of the flintlock, you will see on the head of the

eagle, it's slightly concealed in the hammer but you will recognize that that same symbol from the continental three dollar bill has been engraved by the gunsmith on the lock of this wonderful american-made musket. and to think about the the a the -- the idea that the outcome is uncertain while you are carrying a weapon like that against one of the most powerful militaries in the world, something that can speak to us today. their pistols here, i brought these out because they relate to a particularly interesting character from the revolution. john peter gabriel muhlenberg was a german-american man born near philadelphia in the town of trapp, pennsylvania.

his father, henry muhlenberg, is still considered to be the founder of the lutheran church in america and the muhlenberg family was a remarkable family that -- many of the sons of henry became very significant a figures in theology and natural sciences, in the military and politics. frederick muhlenberg, the brother of peter, was the first speaker of the house of representatives and in many ways was considered an important figure in the adoption of the bill of rights. peter muhlenberg, like all of his brothers, was ordained as a minister at the beginning of the american revolution. he had gone to london and then ordained in the church of england so that he could then go to virginia in the early 1770's and take up a calling to preach in what is now the shenandoah valley of virginia. he became very caught up in the

revolutionary politics of 1774 1775, 1776 and was involved in raising a regiment of german-speaking settlers in the shenandoah valley. the eighth virginia, or so-called german regiment. he served through 1783 essentially rose to the rank of general. these are the pistols that he carried through the revolution. he actually bequeathed them to his oldest son in his will. he referred to them as his brass barrel pistols he carried in the revolution because his initials were on them on the wrist plate engraved in script. they are not particularly fancy from a period standpoint. they are fairly plain weapons, horse pistols, but a lot of incredible history they could tell if they were able to speak. this pair of volumes are two

surviving volumes from a multi volume set of 18th-century works on livvy's history of rome and these belonged to george mason. dated 1769 and were later sign by his son thompson mason in 1792. they are a london addition and george mason often remembered as the father of the bill of rights. he was very politically active as a member of the house of burgesses in virginia all for the pre-revolutionary struggle and a member of the virginia convention. he was involved in drafting the virginia revolutionary constitution and declaration of rights in 1776. really, a very significant figure. the volume is also significant as evidence of the founders interest in ancient history of routing their political understanding in the history of

rome and the history of republics. they were looking for examples from classical history for their political philosophies, how to organize the new republic an governments, that they hoped would replace -- after the declaration of independence -- the monarchical system that had grown up at that time. these are very rare pieces and there is only a handful of mason's books that have survived. i think we have more than anyone else except the wonderful gunston hall located south of washington, d.c., south of alexandria which is a wonderful preserved historic site that everyone should visit if they are interested in the founding era. it's often difficult to find objects that speak to the presence and the role of african-americans in the war. this is a so-called descriptive

list from the communal army -- for a massachusetts regiment in 1782. it was after the conclusion of the most significant fighting it . but still while the armies were waiting for the terms of the peace of paris to be published and the army to be demobilized. on this list, there are at least five african-american soldiers serving in the continental army. by the end of the american revolution, there were perhaps 5000 or more african-americans serving in the continental army. you will see the descriptive list which was away for the regiments to keep track of the men's names, their ages, their size, if they had any kind of trade, were they have been born, their place of residence and a

physical description of them when they have been enlisted for how long. if a soldier deserted, you could advertise for him and they he was this tall and had this complexion or this hair. also, if soldiers demanded that they would get a discharge during the course of the war this was the kind of document that tracked if they enlisted for a certain term or if they had enlisted open-ended before the war. you will see that reflected in this document. an example would be caesar perry. his age is not known but he was five feet nine inches, born in massachusetts in rehobeth. bristol was the county and was listed as having dark hair and dark complexion and enlisted march 1, 1777 and for the war. so it was open-ended. he would not be able to claim

that he could leave early until peace have been declared. another man was joel thuckermug was 37 years old also for massachusetts, in this case bridgwater, in plymouth county. had black hair, black complexion, march of 1779 he had been enlisted. some were prisoners of war and others have been discharged. it is a wonderful document that helps us to establish the presence in service of those whose stories of not always been told in the past fully. this large painting was painted in philadelphia about a century ago by local artist named harrington fitzgerald. it depicts washington's troops crossing the delaware before the battle of trenton. this is an example of one of our

ongoing needs in addition to , raising funds for the museum we are conserving our collection. this is a painting that lived for decades and decades in an unheated outbuilding in a park and suffered through the years. you can see areas of over painting. these are some test patches from the conservatories. once the painting is cleaned and there is some filling in, it will become quite bright instead of looking like a modern washington, d.c. snowstorm, it is kind of yellowish brown it will look like an 18th-century snowstorm. there's actually a second painting behind this one, same size. it is depicting the troops marching into valley forge. we are working to complete the conservation of these painting so they can be put on permanent display in the courtyard of the museum on the second floor as

you enter and exit the core exhibition. the museum will continue the story beyond 1783, the demobilization of the continental army, through the critical period of the critical time of the 1780's and the gathering of the delegates to the continental congress and the founding of the united states constitution. it will then deal a bit with the commemoration and memory of the revolution him of the way that subsequent generations of americans have continued to look back at the founding era as a source of inspiration and source of power to try to get through hard times whether there be challenges from abroad or challenges from within. here are a couple of objects that speak to those later efforts to remember the revolution. perhaps most are medically, the -- most dramatically, this

painted parade banner. this is a painted silk banner that was commissioned by the victuallers to participate in a parade. the marquis de lafayette returns to america on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence to tour the young united states and recall his service as a close associate of general washington through the war of independence. this banner would have been carried on a pole by an assembled group of tradesmen and all of the different trades would have been represented during this parade through philadelphia down market street

and chestnut street, past independence hall. it's a very nice likeness of the marquis. almost certainly, one of the spectators for that parade would have in this man here, jacob lash, who was a local revolutionary war veteran. he lived maybe 10 miles west of philadelphia and had served at least three tours as a militiaman during the american revolution including the time of the philadelphia campaign, the winter that the british were occupying philadelphia and washington's army was in valley forge. this man was serving the area. he had this charcoal drawing done for a member of the family, probably in the 1840's. he died about 1845. also, this descendent of the family eventually came in to the collection about 75 years ago. along with this incredibly rare survivor, this is not a revolutionary uniform but is a

summer coat that was a linen coat from 1810. it was when jacob lash and many other revolutionary war veterans were retiring. there were not many of them because of their physical disabilities that they suffered during their service. they were unable to support themselves and by the time of the war of 1812, there was an increasing movement for congress to try to do something to support these veterans. it was a national embarrassment to see veterans who were begging on the street or unable to support themselves. congress eventually passed the first pension act in 1818 that would put these men on a public assistance in recognition of their service and that was eventually expanded in 1832. the unintended consequence of that pension act was to bring produce a remarkable oral

history archive on the war of independence which is now available online and the original is in the national archives in washington. many of these men would not necessarily have their discharge papers or the record-keeping which have been sporadic during the war. in order to prove their service, these men would go to court in their local communities and they would have to swear an oath and then recount the revolutionary service. they would often bring witnesses if there were any and testify to the veracity of these men. these documents are an incredible oral history archive, the stories that come out, the memories of these veterans of seeing general washington, serving in many of the actions of the revolution, they are really irreplaceable. they are available through the national archives and they make for great reading. you don't even have to leave the house. use that internet.

bringing the story up to the 20th century, i have to introduce the reverend herbert burke who was the founding father of the museum of the american revolution. he was an episcopal minister in the philadelphia area at the turn of the 20th century. he became obsessed with the idea of creating a museum here in the area that would tell the story of the american revolution. it would recall and celebrate washington's efforts to bring the nation into being, its leadership during the revolution. his first act was to purchase from descendents of marshall -- of martha washington, the daughter of robert e lee, one of the campaign tents that washington used through the american revolution. this is the sleeping and office 10th at washington used as his

field headquarters when he was in the field. burke brought the tent to valley forge. he was building what is now known as the washington memorial chapel he placed it on display. he had to raise the princely sum of $5,000 which was no small fee in 1909, to try to purchase this tent. what we have is the actual original visitors log from the washington memorial chapel at valley forge. this is recording all the people who came to visit and pay their couple of nichols in order to see the tent. as you can see, september 8, september 9, lots and lots of folks, 1907, he is raising the money over the course of a couple of years.

i marked a page here because there was a remarkable visitor here. on september 18, 1909, the famous artist howard pyle and his wife ann and his son godfrey visited to see the tent. this is a reproduction of a painting that he had on a couple of years earlier, an illustration from a magazine. he was well-known for the illustration of tyrants and early american history. he is still beloved as the progenitor of the so-called brandywine school of art you can see at the brandywine river museum in pennsylvania and the delaware museum of art in wilmington. he had already imagined washington and his tent a few years earlier for this magazine illustration. this must've been going through his mind. he actually did a little caricature of general washington after visiting the tent.

i enabled assure you a portion of washington's tent. we are doing the final conservation work on the tent to prepare it for display in the museum of the american revolution. michelle and i will carefully reveal part of the wall of general washington's tent. what you are seeing -- this is an image that is showing the way the tent will actually be displayed in a museum. it will be in an object theater . the tent will be in its own climate controlled case not unlike the star-spangled banner at the american museum of history. the tent is composed of a roof and a sidewall that hangs from the roof, not unlike a tent you would rent for a party today. in many ways, it's very contemporary.

what you are seeing laid out here is the linen wall of that tent. this is what was known as a sod cloth, so this is the bottom of the wall that would hang them and that would fall to the inside of the tent to try to keep rain and dirt and critters from coming into the tent very easily. there would have been a line of little iron hooks and eyes along the top of that wall. as you can see, it is raked a little bit or has a rise here because of the end of the tent where the door is located rises up a little bit. one of the interesting things we found in our initial assessment and documentation is that when it was originally constructed, the doors were about six inches lower and that early in the process, they had been cut and additional material was added to raise it up.

when you think about washington being 6'4", he was a tall man for that time so maybe his hat got knocked off one too many times and he sent it back for repairs. there is tremendous information that can come from examining these old objects centuries after they were produced. it is still revealing a lot of secrets as we continue our work. >> the museum of the american revolution will be a national museum dedicated to learning about the revolution. we will present the entire story of the american revolution and really give people a place to go in this nation to discover the miracle of how this country came into being, an incredible experience awaits every visitor walks into this museum. yes, they will see some amazing artifacts, original witnesses to

the american revolution, the men and women who achieved it. and at the same time, they will be experiencing the war and the era in surprising and novel ways. they will be immersive environments with films that will bring the story to life. you will meet the people and get to understand the importance of the revolution. where the drive came from to sustain this country through eight years of warfare, why the ideals of liberty and quality and self-governing or so important, where these values came from that still the finest -- still define us as americans today. >> the museum of the market is expected to open early 2017. you can learn more about the museum, and see and explore their artifacts online atamrev museum.org and you can view this and other artifact programs at www.c-span.org/history.

>> you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to mark the 60th anniversary of the capitol hill newspaper roll call, c-span is featuring the papers reporters, and talk about how rollcall covered some major news events of the past 60 years. >> when rollcall went to press on the june 6 edition on 1968, they didn't yet know what would be the fate of bobby kennedy. they do have been shot, and that he had been rushed to a hospital in los angeles. but they went to press not yet knowing exactly what the outcome would be. and so the "rollcall," staff at the time of the founder actually went ahead with a front-page editorial in which they address the broader issues of the day

regarding violence, particularly as it came related to guns. but more generally -- which was a topic of concern for "rollcall," throughout the 1960's. in those days, the newspaper ran a regular series of editorial features and had an editorial column in each week's edition and one of the topics of concern for a lot of people in washington, both on capitol hill and elsewhere, was the more general violence of the era. and that included the riots that were going on in the city. and so when rfk was shot, he became an obvious time to once again return to that topic. as it was happening, it turned out that the next edition of "rollcall," would not be for another week. they have a situation where they did not actually have an

opportunity to report the news of the funeral itself or of in fact, even bobby kennedy's death in print. when "rollcall," went to print a week after bobby kennedy had been assassinated, "rollcall," was back to his coverage in the way it has covered washington since its inception. admit there were two lead stories on the subject related to this, the death of rfk. one of which was the speculation about whom would be appointed to fill out the unexpired term of his senate seat in new york. and that was a situation where the newspaper correctly speculated that the best candidate on paper was charles caddell, congressman from upstate. viewers will know that he was the father of the current commissioner of the national football league, roger goodell.

he didn't serve very long in the senate, but was the republican governors appointee to fill out the seat after there had been some speculation that the mayor of new york city might have been appointed. the other story that "rollcall," explored goes back to the newspaper's traditional focus on the capitol hill community. in the campus life for those who are around the hill. there were new security concerns, obviously, following the assassination of someone who had been a united states senator. he was running for president but he was at the time united states senator. and so there was both an action taken to introduce legislation designed to make it a federal crime, or to ensure it was a federal crime when a member of congress or an executive branch official was assassinated, and that was not something it would need to be handled at the state level, but the federal

government could indeed step in. the other thing that was a matter of concern was how exactly to contact the folks in the capitol police in the events of a sort of security threat on the hill. and so "rollcall," was focused as we have throughout our history, on police matters and the way that the members of congress can get a hold of law enforcement personnel on the hill. >> with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span2, here on c-span, we complement that coverage by showing you the most relevant congressional hearings and public affairs events. on weekends, c-span3 is the home to american history tv with rogue rams the teller nation story, including six unique series. the civil wars 150th anniversary, visiting battlefield and key events. american artifacts, going to museums and historic sites to discover what artifacts reveal

about america's past. history's bookshelves, with the best of american history writers, the presidency, looking at the policy and legacy of the nation's commanders in chief lectures and history with top college professors delving into america's past, and a new series, real america featuring archival films from the 1930's to the 1970's. c-span3, created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in eesti, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. -- just -- watch as in hd. >> caroline harrison was an economist artistry to go china painting and carried that interest to the white house. establishing its china collection. she was interested in women's issues and helped raise funds for johns hopkins university on the condition that it met women. and she was the first president general of the daughters of the american revolution. until she died in the white house from tuberculosis.

caroline harrison, the sunday night at it if i p.m. eastern on c-span's original series, first ladies, influence and image. examining the public and private lives of the women who fill the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency, for martha washington to michelle obama. sundays at eight effect p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> up next on "american history tv," author michael mccarthy discusses the july 1915 capsizing of the ss eastland in the chicago river. over 800 factory workers died in the tragedy, including 22 entire families. mccarthy examines the faulty ballast system that caused the docked ship to capsize and he talks about the forgotten legacy of the ss eastland. hosted by the new york public library, this program is about 90 minutes. michael: thank you very much. i really appreciate this turnout. i know it is beautiful outside and the tulips are fantastic. thank you for taking the time to come to this presentation.

it is correct. i spent over a dozen years looking into this story, and i had worked at "the wall street journal" for over 20 years and i had never encountered a story of this magnitude or drama. as i began looking into it what i found was that this has to be one of the most deadly, least known shipwrecks in america. and i uncovered a tale that was so horrible and so surprising i could not let it go. in a a lot of ways the story would not let me go, either. so we're in july 1915, almost exactly 100 years ago. a large steamship. think of the flatiron building on its side. that is virtually the exact size

that eastland was. a flatiron building turned on its side quickly capsizes. although it is tied to its dock. it is still tied to the dock and yet, it capsizes. 844 people die. within minutes. 844 people. that is more passengers than died on the titanic, much more famous accident. 22 entire families died on the eastland. mothers, aunts, 22 whole family units gone, wiped out in the chicago river. now, i do not know how many of you are familiar with chicago but the chicago river is wide and it winds straight to the city. so, when the eastland went over, it was right in downtown. there were commuters, trains going by. it was only about 19 feet

from shore. this was not way out in the lake where they had to send rescue boats. you could see in the street, from bridges they were looking down at people drowning, and they couldn't get to them quickly enough. i will explain why leader. -- i'll explain why later. so, what i found was a lost history of a national tragedy. and so, what i uncovered further is a story of tragedy, neglect and mystery. until now, there has been no reasonable inflammation of what -- explanation what happened. why this happened. but my research showed that the 12 year old ship that prosecutors had found a deadly defect in the machinery deep in the hull. the machinery that was supposed to take in and manipulate tons of water. it would bring water in through tanks, 20 and 30 feet long. the water was supposed to be

used to maneuver the ship and stabilize it, but because of inadequate piping and horrible plumbing, the eastland is certain to sink somewhere, sometime. it was just a matter of time. it had to happen. and it almost did previously. once in 1904. and in 1907. by 1915, this is a certainty. this was going to happen. so, it became an obsession for me. the shipwreck. how it happened, why, why people got away with it. and i had along the way some very honorable research methods, and if i have time to go into it, may be less so in pursuit of the story. so, let's -- can we turn the lights down just to take a look at --? ok, fantastic. so, here we are. the eastland is one year old.

it's 1904. the ship is 275 feet long, almost a football field. like i said, this is the flat iron building tipped down for your visual reference. it's beam 38 feet. pretty wide. this would've been a midsize ship. cargo ships reach 500 feet. for passenger ships, this is a pretty good size. it drew the depth of water was 14 feet at its more comfortable. -- most comfortable. 14 feet of water would be optimal. but one thing i want you to note is the square doorways toward the water. look up close they are to the water. those are called gangways. we will talk about why that was

a problem in a bit. this is eastland in south haven, michigan, the initial port. at the time it came out it was painted black and white. i love this picture. i think it was very majestic. it was a beautiful ship. coal fired, obviously. we're seeing that smoke is coal. women in their lovely dresses, ankle length dresses. very stately ship. in the national archives, the chicago regional offices of the national archives, i found the original contract for the ship. it cost $235,000 to build in 1902. and the entire contract for that project was five pages. five typewritten pages for a ship that size. 2 1/2 of those pages, the biggest terms on the entire ship had to do with speed. the owners wanted a very fast

ship. there thought was a fast ship would be marketable. people would get across the chicago to their michigan towns and resorts as quickly as possible, and the eastland would be the ship. they asked the designers to make it as fast as possible. they were very specific about what they wanted. they wanted 19 miles per hour. on the lakes they use miles per hour's not knots. that was absolutely the minimum. they had bonuses if they could go higher than that, up to 22 miles per hour which would have been lightning fast on the water. they were so concerned about speed that they had a walk away clause. if the ship after testing did not go 19 miles an hour, they were able to turn the ship away. they did not have to take it. though they ordered it, that absolutely had to have 19 miles per hour. in other words, fast ship or no ship.

here we are at cleveland 1909. i like this photo because it gives a nice sense of scale. notice all the grown-ups are wearing hats, men and women. little girl and the center -- you see her with a bow, big bow here. couple men here reading their newspapers. the ship this day carry 3000 people. 3000 is an important number as we will see very soon. this is the eastland at its home port in south haven. the lighthouse to the right, i am sorry, to the left -- is the pier head in south haven. we will discuss in a little bit this channel. the black river these two ships are leaving out.

the one of the distance is the eastland. the one close in, the larger one, is the ship that is called the city of southaven. one of the reasons that speed was so important to the eastland owners is because they intended to race the other ship. this was a popular thing. they would race from south haven to chicago. then they'd race back. they would do however times best. it was big bragging rights. they had silly rituals. they would put brooms on the ship of the winner. one of the things that, one of the marketing maneuvers, one of the things they used was ship races. and the federal steamboat inspectors hated this because they were worried about safety. virtually that the eastland is -- at that position where the

eastland is, not a half mile away from the shore, july 18 1904, a little after 6:00 in the evening, there are 2, 270 people on the ship. the side may begin seesawing in the water. it turns one way and hangs that way diagonally. people are sliding down screaming. women and men are grabbing life preservers and putting them on. one of the postal inspectors yells captain, turn back. think of the women and children. the crew's response? they took a fire hose and squirted the people. it forced them to go down and stop objecting. and on they went to chicago. they did straighten it out but the ship almost capsized outside south haven in 1904. it has been written up in the newspapers of the time. now, we cut to july 24, 1915.

this is from the national archives the official customs card of the attendance takers on the ship. these are the people the federal government was in charge of counting passengers on ship so that ship owners to not overcrowd them. this would be a concern. you have too many passengers on a ship, so the government is making the count. at 7:30 a.m., july 24, 2500 passengers. clark street bridge in chicago and so forth. captain harry peterson in command of the ship. the number two officer, the second most powerful man on the ship, is chief engineer joseph ericsson. pay attention to that name. chief engineer joseph erickson in charge of the engine room.

there are 2500 passengers on the ship. less than the 3000 we saw before. not the full capacity for the ship. most of them are factory employees. many of them are immigrants. they are working for the same company. there is a company picnic that western electric. they make telephones. they were the only company in the entire country making telephones. 1915. and they all got a day off to go on this picnic. i'm going to read you from my account just how the setup was here. "captain peterson flicked the ashes from his cigar. he had just finished breakfast. the captain expected a foggy day and began to study his charts. he wanted to acquaint himself with the course to michigan city. in indiana, not a usual

destination for the eastland. peterson had just passed ericsson who was hurrying to the mess room. they had a full day in front of them. the busy summer season was half over. it was a saturday. and the eastland set off the dock near the clark street bridge, not their usual one on the chicago river. they were about to board 2500 western electric workers on holiday. they would meet probably at 7:30 on a two hour cruise to their picnic grounds 40 miles away in michigan city. the eastland needed to leave on time. after michigan city, had to get up to st. joseph's, another michigan town, to pick up another load of passengers and return to chicago. then back to michigan city to ferry the western electric picnickers back to chicago. some 400 miles of nearly back-to-back trips in the next day and a half."

erickson, our engineer, sipped his coffee unaware that the eastland would not make any of those ports. within three hours he would be thrown into a jail cell with his watch stopped at 7:33, the exact moment he nearly drowned. so, after that, i begin to describe what happened at the dock in july 1915 with the eastland, and it does a very similar capsizing which i will detail, but understand that the ship is turning to one side and slowly turning to the other, very slowly. but clearly not in control. by 7:27, it was tipping an alarming 25 degrees. the engineers were flustered. why wasn't the water ballast correcting this? what the hell?

growing desperate, ericsson dispatched his engineer to order the passengers on the top deck to the starboard side hoping the shifting crowd would help straighten of the ship. the harbormaster had been watching the seesaw performance for half an hour and wasn't alarmed until just that moment. then mcdonald, a man and a nearby tugboat, saw something he had never seen in all his 31 years. six men on the top deck of the eastland dashed to the top side railing. they decided to make a break and left overboard, grabbing a hold of one of the manila ropes lashed from the bow to the dock. they began crossing the line called a howser, handover hand suspended above the river. inside the tilting ship, the mandolin players and violinists struggle to play and began to

dig their heels into the floor to keep from slipping. the eastland leaned further. in the engine room, a chute used to discharge ashes dipped under water. the river began to gush in. some of the smokers and oilers hightailed it up ladders and fled. on the tugboat, mcdonald was alarmed to see water starting to gush into open gangways. the square doorways used to load cargo and passengers. before he could even shout a warning, one of the bow lines, pulling and pulling on a massive stake, lifted the piling out of the dock. then the second dock line snapped. "get off! "get off! the boat is turning over!" shouted a vegetable cart owner.

struck now by the danger captain peterson yelled to a crew member, "open the doors. take people off." a refrigerator tipped over on a lower deck and bottles crashed. dishes slipped from their shelves and smashed. people sitting in chairs on the top deck do not have time to rise and began flying into the air, still seated. a dozen passengers try to lead toward the dock but hit the steel hull and careened into the river. children tumbled with grown-ups down the top deck, sprawling and a mess of milk bottles, lunch baskets, and ship ropes. the last line holding the eastland to the docks had burst like a cracked whip. the six men hanging from it , trying to escape, ricochet backwards, arms and legs sprawling, flying back to the air, back towards the doomed ship.

the river -- all twisting of arms. hundreds of men and women shrieked as panama hats, and parasols, and picnic ask its -- baskets and baby carriages bobbed about like corks. men clawed at women. tearing dresses. then soul after soul disappeared into the murky, fearfully cold river. ship bells clang the alarms, was last rate. a tall man in an uncle sam costume flailed in the water. then it rained garbage. workers at warehouse companies along the river threw crates and all things wooden into the water but most were swept away by the current. from the deck of the roosevelt

the crew tossed 50 life preservers for those who were pleading in the water. the cries were horrible with men and women clinging to wreckage and life preservers, and chairs. a young woman was struggling to keep afloat by clutching one of the musician's violins. so, as i say, to demonstrate what the ship was doing, it's sitting at its dock like this. it begins to tip this way. toward the starboard side. passengers are boarding on the side. and so, it is a little uncomfortable. they have to climb a little bit to get on to the ship, but they are doing ok. and using a stabilizing system in the base, the hull, they straighten it up. i will talk more about how to do this in a moment. they straighten the ship up. it begins to turn the other direction toward the port, away from the dock.

the engineers work the water ballast system in the hull. they straighten it up. it then begins to turn to port. and finally, it just goes over. seesawing motion, very strange. very hard to describe. and no one had a sense the ship was going to lose control because it tilted. they fixed it. it tilted. they fixed it. it was a movement that left them off guard as to how bad the situation was going to be. let's look at the scene of -- it looks like. so, we can see here, the white ship toward the right is the eastland. ok? it's turned over and other ships are coming to rescue. note the man standing on the propeller.

he's basically grabbed on to something, a propeller, and he is hanging on there waiting to be rescued. when the ship seemed to be getting out of control, the chief engineer, who is quite astute and had great presence of mind, turned the engines off. turned the propellers off. he was concerned if it tipped, they would be running -- and that man would be chopped up. and people will be pulled into those propellers. some very fine presence of mind inside the engine room. here's another angle on the shipwreck. again, many rescue vehicles are coming in. look at the long line of people on the side there who appeared to be just walking around,

right? what happened was because the ship turned port side, to the left, if you were on the starboard side, you basically were hanging on and you were above the water. you were still above the water. so if they held onto the railing, they'd be fine. some of these people never even got wet. the problem was for the people who died in the accident, they were in decks below and they got trapped. the river very quickly came inside the hull of the ship and drowned people very quickly. could not get out. they simply could not get out. what happened -- this seems to be an unchaotic scene. it was immensely chaotic. this was 35 minutes after it happened. for 15 minutes, they are pulling people out to people are drowning. and a lot of children got lost in the chaos.

one little girl, martha, her parents survived the wreck and it could not find her. they took on a newspaper story in the chicago tribune the next story and it sounded like a flyer for a lost kitty. "who has little martha?" they had a picture of her. they were trying to reconnect with their girl who they were in the chaos separated from. there were thousands of people lining the docks. filling and around here. the sheer chaos of bodies being pulled out children being lost , separated from parents, was enormous. the building across from here -- to the upper left side, is an old warehouse that was quickly pressed into service as a temporary morgue. they began pulling bodies out. they put a number tag on a toe. and carried of them over there and started laying all of these bodies out because the sheer number of bodies they had to contend with was overwhelming.

this is probably one of the more iconic images of the wreck. this is a hard-bitten fireman, chicago fireman holding a young child, drowned, pulled out of the wreck. the policeman is behind looking on. when i look at his eyes, i feel like he sort of, he has the terror of the day in his eyes. there are mentally -- many grisly pictures from this shipwreck. i do not intend to show you them. i did not include them in my book. there is no reason to shy away from some of the horror. i can certainly show you some that are pretty hard to look at, but i tried to be selective because i am looking at once

that captured the devastation, the drama and were artistic and not necessarily sensational or voyeuristic. this child perished on the ship. little girl. one of the ways they removed bodies from the ship was divers would go in, take a rope around her shoulder, and it was dark and wet. and they often would kick with their feet to find what they could find. when they kicked something that felt like a body, they would feel for arms and wrap a lasso around and signaled to pull up and men would pull up and someone would emerge from a hole in the ship. this particular one was this girl.

i like the tenderness of the firemen and the police removing the lasso. they are trying to keep her from falling over. this photo was one that inspired me a lot as i worked on the story. there were a lot of times over 10 years that you go, is this worth it? and over and over i would look at this photo and say this little girl deserves a full telling of what happened. so, she kept me going. there's an eerie symmetry in the sinking. the chicago river at this point is 19 feet deep. i mentioned the beam is 38 feet, which is exactly the center. so, the ship is bisected down the center when it capsized. it filled up, drop, and just

stopped. it is on the bottom of the chicago river. had it been in deeper water, the entire ship would have sunk. had it been 300 feet out on lake michigan, it would have dropped to the bottom and there would be no way to raise it. it stopped right where it was. you can see the warehouse behind there. it is very close. it is sitting right in the city. and they're lucky, all those people walking on the side of the ship, many of them would have died if the ship had not stopped and hit the bottom. this was a huge story nationally. in 1915, we did not have radio news. it was all newspapers. here is "the new york times" the day after the eastland sinks. we cannot make out the story. i want to demonstrate the prominence of coverage.

everything marked the rectangle to the right is all eastland stories. at the time they had a wrong count, 1700. but this is very, medic of what -- emblematic of what the coverage was like all over the country. every newspaper looked like this. in fact, the coverage continued all summer long as they found more bodies. as they began charging officers and looking for answers. the story was huge. it was something that a generation of people knew. when they heard the eastland, it was a thing that struck terror in their hearts all over the country. here's the ship being raised a month later. we are in august and it is in good shape. it tipped and sank. they were able to raise it and get it back up.

when they did, one of the bodies missed was in the wreckage. it was a 44-year-old man who made $12 a week at the factory and left a widow and eight orphans. they never knew where he was until they raised the ship. 844 people is a lot to take in. how could this happen? how? i can show you a reason. this is a reproduction of a photograph that was published in the "chicago tribune." there was a grand stairwell in the eastland. connected the middlesex of the -- middle decks of the ship.

after this photo was taken after they raised the ship and the photographer showed what they found. what we have to imagine is that stairwell, when the accident happens, it turned 90 degrees. we are now turned. here you are. i am on the ship and i need to get out here, right? do i do this? how do i've maneuver the stairwell? people are trying to get up and out. everyone bunches up. everyone blocks it. no one can get out. this becomes a chokepoint, impossible for anyone to escape. they found, when they recovered most of the bodies at the stairwell and what they found is they could tell by injuries that people had torn away the wooden walls with their hands, trying