Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Monkey. For the
Speaker 1: rest of her life, she never forgot the screens. They
Speaker 1: echoed in her head whenever she closed her eyes at night.
Speaker 1: At two, Dorothy Gibson had already made it to the
Speaker 1: silver screen. Life had been full of promise. Now, as
Speaker 1: she sat in lifeboat number seven at two in the morning,
Speaker 1: shivering and nothing more than an evening gown and coat,
Speaker 1: none of that mattered. The men on the ship's deck
Speaker 1: frantically yelled to the oarsmen below, row hard and fast.
Speaker 1: They feared that I see swirling water around the sinking
Speaker 1: ship would pull the lifeboat down with it. The men
Speaker 1: were owned and strained to row faster, but Dorothy couldn't
Speaker 1: take her eyes from the ship. Lifeboat number seven had
Speaker 1: been the last to leave the Titanic. People gathered at
Speaker 1: the railings, some looking for more lifeboats, some just watching
Speaker 1: the ones already in the water slip away. Dorothy didn't
Speaker 1: have to be close enough to see their expressions. Without
Speaker 1: more lifeboats, the remaining passengers knew they were going to die.
Speaker 1: All twenty lifeboats had been deployed just twenty for two thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty eight passengers. Even had they all
Speaker 1: been filled capacity, only about half the passengers could have escaped,
Speaker 1: but many were lowered sooner in panic. Women, children, and
Speaker 1: first class passengers were given priority, but even among them
Speaker 1: there were casualties. Some of the richest people in the
Speaker 1: world had bought a ticket on the Titanics made in voyage,
Speaker 1: yet no amount of money could buy all of them
Speaker 1: a spot off of it. Another survivor, Elizabeth Shoots, recalled
Speaker 1: the cries as well. One of the men in the
Speaker 1: lifeboat yelled, she's gone, lads, row like hell, or we'll
Speaker 1: get the devil of a swell. When they had rowed
Speaker 1: a little further, fear welled up in the women. Except
Speaker 1: for the other lifeboats bobbing on the Sea of Black,
Speaker 1: there were no other ships. No one knew how to
Speaker 1: navigate by the stars. The men's fingers became so cold
Speaker 1: that they could no longer hold onto the oars. Some
Speaker 1: slipped from their hands and disappeared into the dark water below.
Speaker 1: Twenty lifeboats were now adrift in a vast ocean, The
Speaker 1: passengers exposed to freezing temperatures. The ship was huge, over
Speaker 1: a thousand feet through the screaming, The band still played
Speaker 1: while men in tuxedos and women in gowns cried and
Speaker 1: held onto the railings and each other. The musicians would
Speaker 1: later be listed as heroic. They died trying to offer
Speaker 1: some calm, some sense of normalcy to the doomed passengers
Speaker 1: on the deck who had no way off the ship.
Speaker 1: White Star Cruise Lines had planned everything aboard the Titanic.
Speaker 1: The luxuries were second to none. They had provided a gym,
Speaker 1: smoking lounges, reading rooms, and state rooms with their own promenades.
Speaker 1: On the middle deck, passengers could enjoy two diners, a
Speaker 1: swimming pool, Turkish baths, or visit their dogs at the kennels.
Speaker 1: Of course, there was also the ballroom with its grand
Speaker 1: staircase for first class passengers that thought of everything, it seems,
Speaker 1: except enough lifeboats or red flares to signal an emergency.
Speaker 1: That put all the importance on comfort and accommodations instead
Speaker 1: of safety. The cruise line insisted the Titanic was unsinkable
Speaker 1: and any lifeboats at all were merely a precaution. The
Speaker 1: number of people left on the deck that night was
Speaker 1: a fraction of the people still on board employees, along
Speaker 1: with second and third class passengers, were trapped in the
Speaker 1: decks below. Even after the ship had started to say,
Speaker 1: certain passageways in the lower areas remained blocked. People flailed
Speaker 1: in the water, screaming for help from the nearby lifeboats.
Speaker 1: The oarsmen on all but one kept going, afraid that
Speaker 1: the panic victims would capsize them in their frantic attempts
Speaker 1: to climb in. Lifeboat number four returned, pulling five people
Speaker 1: from the freezing water, but sadly, two of them still died.
Speaker 1: A survivor on Lifeboat thirteen would later swear it was
Speaker 1: his new lucky number. Around three in the morning, Dorothy
Speaker 1: Elizabeth and the others watched the Titanic slide beneath the
Speaker 1: icy surface, the lights aboard the ship shining eerily from
Speaker 1: below for a brief moment before going out. The cries
Speaker 1: for help stopped, and the waters grew quiet. The Titanic
Speaker 1: and all still aboard. We're gone. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome
Speaker 1: to American Shadows. The us S Eastland had been late
Speaker 1: to the docks for the annual Western Electric Company's Hawthorne
Speaker 1: Works Factory picnic in nineteen fourteen. To ensure it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be late for the nineteen fifteen event, the excursion company
Speaker 1: called for the ship to arrive earlier. The ship hadn't
Speaker 1: been late the previous year because of a lack of
Speaker 1: capacity for speed. Once, the steamer held the nickname the
Speaker 1: speed Queen of the Great Lakes, but lately those who
Speaker 1: knew the Eastland's history quietly called it something else. The
Speaker 1: hood boat. Commissioned in nineteen o three, the Eastland had
Speaker 1: issues right from the start. While at port, the ship
Speaker 1: collided with another boat. Although the steamer suffered minor damage,
Speaker 1: the other boats sank. After repairs, the Eastland went into
Speaker 1: service as a cruise ship in August of nineteen o three.
Speaker 1: The firemen aboard refused to stoke the fire for the
Speaker 1: ship's boilers and retaliate Shan for not being served potatoes
Speaker 1: with their dinner. When the ship reached port, the captain
Speaker 1: had them arrested at gunpoint and charged with mutiny. Not
Speaker 1: long after, the captain was replaced. That maiden year, the
Speaker 1: Eastland was anything but fast. It didn't meet the targeted
Speaker 1: speed it had been designed for twenty two miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Fast steamers were popular and highly sought after in the
Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds as a cruise ship. There were other
Speaker 1: issues the ship's draft, that's the distance between the deepest
Speaker 1: part of the boat and the water line. The Eastland's
Speaker 1: longer draft prevented it from cruising the Black River in
Speaker 1: South Haven, Michigan. In late nineteen o three, the ship
Speaker 1: pulled into Port Huron for modifications to reduce the draft
Speaker 1: and increased speed. Those modifications came at a cost, though
Speaker 1: The changes went against the original design, making the steamer
Speaker 1: heavier and reducing the ship's stability. With the new model occasions, though,
Speaker 1: the Eastland returned to South Haven the following year and
Speaker 1: easily defeated another ship in a race. That impressive victory
Speaker 1: earned the ship the nickname the speed Queen of the
Speaker 1: Great Lakes. Satisfied with the wind and modifications, the owners
Speaker 1: put the Eastland back into service. Problems stemming from the
Speaker 1: modifications showed up later that year. Out on a cruise,
Speaker 1: the ship nearly capsized with three thousand people aboard. To
Speaker 1: keep the modifications but lose some of the weight, the
Speaker 1: owners produced the maximum capacity to two thou hundred passengers
Speaker 1: and removed the cabins. As a precaution in case the
Speaker 1: ship listed in the future, lifeboats were added. It's hard
Speaker 1: for you and me to imagine that ships didn't have
Speaker 1: lifeboats or rafts, especially after the tragedy of the Titanic,
Speaker 1: but changes to existing ships cost money, and that ate
Speaker 1: into profits. The meager reductions in weight didn't stop Eastland
Speaker 1: from listing. It was sold to the Chicago South Haven Line,
Speaker 1: and the ship nearly capsized again, causing formal complaints against
Speaker 1: the company. The ships seemingly cursed history earned it the
Speaker 1: nickname the Hoodoo Boat around this point, and the incidents continued.
Speaker 1: The new owners had some of the ship's stacks removed
Speaker 1: and others shortened, but on July one, the Eastland listed
Speaker 1: twenty five degrees while loading passengers in Cleveland. The company
Speaker 1: sold the problem ship, this time to the St. Joseph
Speaker 1: Chicago Steamship Company, Thinking that lowering the passenger count again
Speaker 1: would be the least time consuming and costly way to
Speaker 1: resolve the ship's issues. The company reduced to the maximum
Speaker 1: load to two thousand, five hundred. The steamer returned to
Speaker 1: Chicago's docks, where it transported passengers between Chicago and Michigan,
Speaker 1: including for the annual Western Electric picnics. Factory employees had
Speaker 1: looked forward to the nineteen fifteen picnic for months. The
Speaker 1: company chartered five boats, including the Eastland, to carry the
Speaker 1: employees and their families across Lake Michigan to Washington Park.
Speaker 1: For most of the workers, the picnic was a highly
Speaker 1: anticipated event. The majority of the employees were check immigrants
Speaker 1: who worked six days a week and weren't given holidays off.
Speaker 1: They've been looking forward to the much needed time away
Speaker 1: from work. Over seven thousand tickets were sold for the event.
Speaker 1: To the workers, summer just wouldn't be summer without that picnic.
Speaker 1: The park had roller coasters, a merry go round, games
Speaker 1: and treats for the kids. There was also a bowling alley,
Speaker 1: dancing pavilion, the beach at Ballpark, and plenty of picnic areas.
Speaker 1: Tickets were a dollar for adults or seventy cents if
Speaker 1: purchased in advance. Boarding began early that July at six
Speaker 1: thirty am. Families gathered at Chicago's Wharf near Clark Street Bridge.
Speaker 1: The morning was cool and damp, though they held hope
Speaker 1: that the weather would improve. From the size of the crowd,
Speaker 1: it looked like the event had drawn more families than
Speaker 1: the previous year, so many employees brought their families that
Speaker 1: traffic to the docks was backed up for miles. While
Speaker 1: the ship's history might have been common knowledge on the docks,
Speaker 1: the people of Western Electric Company were completely unaware of
Speaker 1: the danger. No one bothered to tell Western Electric about
Speaker 1: the Eastland's issues either. The inspectors and harbor master felt
Speaker 1: that the addition of the lifeboats made the ship safe enough.
Speaker 1: They didn't account for the weight of the lifeboats required
Speaker 1: as part of the Seamen's Act. The Act had been
Speaker 1: passed earlier that year in the wake of the Titanic
Speaker 1: disaster and a number of other pressures. A federal law
Speaker 1: required that all ships such as the Eastland be retrofitted
Speaker 1: with lifeboats to account for at least of the passengers.
Speaker 1: Happy sided families lined up to board. Many of them
Speaker 1: had gotten up bright and early to be one of
Speaker 1: the first in line. They wanted the best seats. Federal
Speaker 1: inspectors stood by as boarding began, much to the dismay
Speaker 1: of those on the dock, and the weather didn't get
Speaker 1: any better When it began to drizzle. People hurried aboard
Speaker 1: At about fifty passengers a minute, causing the ship to rock.
Speaker 1: Those who boarded first quickly moved below deck to stay
Speaker 1: out of the rain. Deck hands hauled up the gangplank
Speaker 1: of forcing a factory employee who had been running late
Speaker 1: won e w slad key to make a running leap
Speaker 1: from the dock. Once aboard, he studied himself and joined
Speaker 1: his coworkers. The band played ragtime for anyone who wanted
Speaker 1: to dance. Deck passengers leaned against the railing to call
Speaker 1: out to friends and co workers still on the dock
Speaker 1: and awaiting passage on the next ship. With all the
Speaker 1: boarding dancing and people leaning against the rail, the harbor
Speaker 1: master noticed the ship list a little too much toward
Speaker 1: the port, and some passengers noticed too, but didn't think
Speaker 1: much of it. Now that everyone had boarded, the Eastland
Speaker 1: seemed to right itself and putting the harbormaster, inspectors, and
Speaker 1: passengers at ease. But then moments later, with the number
Speaker 1: of people moving from one side of the ship to
Speaker 1: the other, the Eastland began to rock once more. At
Speaker 1: first the passengers thought it was a joke. Others thought
Speaker 1: that simply hit a series of waves that would subside
Speaker 1: with more rocking. More people shifted around. The more people shifted,
Speaker 1: the more the ship rocked. By seven twenty three that morning,
Speaker 1: the ship listed so far towards the docks that water
Speaker 1: poured in through the open gangways and into the engine room.
Speaker 1: The experienced crew knew what was happening and made their
Speaker 1: escape up the ladder onto the main deck. With the
Speaker 1: amount of water pouring in and the way the Eastland
Speaker 1: was listing, they had no intention of staying below deck
Speaker 1: while the ship capsized. Five minutes there, the Eastland rolled
Speaker 1: to a forty five degree angle. The ragtime music stopped
Speaker 1: abruptly when the piano barreled across the promenade deck and
Speaker 1: smashed into the port side wall, barely missing two passengers.
Speaker 1: Others weren't as lucky. Refrigerators slid across, pinning two women.
Speaker 1: Those who couldn't manage to hold onto the railing were
Speaker 1: pitched overboard. Water poured into the portholes and the deck below,
Speaker 1: where families had gone to get out of the rain.
Speaker 1: Passengers panicked. They scrambled to reach the stairs and staying
Speaker 1: below would be a death trap, But pushing and shoving
Speaker 1: to the limited access points to the upper deck proved
Speaker 1: to be just that anyway. Another large piece of furniture
Speaker 1: crashed into the stairs, demolishing them, leaving those below without
Speaker 1: a way to escape. As water flooded the ship, families
Speaker 1: screaming on the Eastland were echoed by those watching in
Speaker 1: horror on the dock. One survivor later recalled thinking that
Speaker 1: he and the others resembled children fall down a hill.
Speaker 1: People rolled and slid across the deck as lunchboxes, furniture,
Speaker 1: and everything else not nailed down slid across too. Chairs
Speaker 1: and other debris crashed into passengers, sending people tumbling and
Speaker 1: knocking those standing at the railings loose at The Eastland
Speaker 1: flipped onto its side in twenty feet of murky water.
Speaker 1: People were flung off the deck like they had been squatted.
Speaker 1: Many couldn't swim. The ship, unfortunately, was still tethered to
Speaker 1: the dock. For a moment, passengers dotted the river's surface.
Speaker 1: No one had had time to get to a life preserver,
Speaker 1: much less a life boat. A slat key who had
Speaker 1: made the stunning leap onto the ship managed to climb
Speaker 1: over the starboard railing and walked across the hull and
Speaker 1: onto the dock. Without so much as getting his shoes wet.
Speaker 1: The captain had no intention of staying aboard and abandoned
Speaker 1: the ship, leaving passengers and crew to fend for themselves.
Speaker 1: Parents who could swim struggled to keep their children and
Speaker 1: infants afloat or from being swept away. Coworkers who had
Speaker 1: shown up at the dock for the next boat tossed
Speaker 1: crates and boards into the water and the hopes that
Speaker 1: drowning people could use them as flotation devices. The effort
Speaker 1: did more harm than good when the objects knocked some
Speaker 1: of them unconscious. More screams erupted from inside the ship
Speaker 1: as the decks below took on more water. One man
Speaker 1: on shore had been contemplating suicide, but on that day
Speaker 1: he jumped into the water to rescue people. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the only hero. Helen Reppa, a nurse at Western Electric,
Speaker 1: didn't exactly have the day off. Still, the idea of
Speaker 1: working outside on a park rather than inside at a
Speaker 1: factory appealed to her. Her ship was due at the
Speaker 1: dock after the Eastland and Helen couldn't wait to get there,
Speaker 1: But the trolley car she road was stuck in traffic
Speaker 1: at Lake Street, as she thought about the festivities and
Speaker 1: the day ahead, screams erupted the direction of the docks,
Speaker 1: loud enough to hear several blocks away and over the traffic.
Speaker 1: The screaming was like nothing she had ever heard before,
Speaker 1: even in her own worst nightmares. Something horrible had happened
Speaker 1: to the docks, and all Helen knew was that somehow
Speaker 1: she had to get there and help. A mounted policeman
Speaker 1: galloped past the trolley, stopping in the intersection, not that
Speaker 1: he needed to, but he signaled for all traffic to stop.
Speaker 1: Excursion boat capsized. He shouted look out for the ambulance.
Speaker 1: Helen ran to the front of the trolley. The driver
Speaker 1: tried to stop her, but she leaped off, and while
Speaker 1: the policeman cleared the intersection, she convinced the ambulance driver
Speaker 1: he might need an extra nurse. With their way clear,
Speaker 1: Helen and the ambulance crew sped off toward the docks,
Speaker 1: but when she arrived, dock workers were using blowtorches on
Speaker 1: the Eastland's hull in an attempt to free those trapped
Speaker 1: below deck. The people stumbled around in shock, others lay motionless,
Speaker 1: bleeding on the ground, and the dock in the water.
Speaker 1: Passengers continued to scream and grab for anything they could,
Speaker 1: a small floating raft, bits of wood. Some grabbed other passengers,
Speaker 1: effectively drowning their coworkers and themselves in their panic to survive.
Speaker 1: Rescuers on the docks pulled victims from the water. Some
Speaker 1: looked seriously injured. Sizing up the situation, Helen chose to
Speaker 1: work on those who were unconscious. First word of the
Speaker 1: disaster spread factory workers. Family members gathered around the docks,
Speaker 1: hoping to catch a glimpse of a loved one who
Speaker 1: might have survived. Some stood all day, clutching each other
Speaker 1: and sobbing, hoping they're missing family had somehow made it.
Speaker 1: Some staggered around frantically calling for their children, husband or wife.
Speaker 1: There weren't enough cars to transport the victims, so Helen
Speaker 1: hurried to the closest intersection and asked motorists for help.
Speaker 1: American Express and a fleet of their trucks as well.
Speaker 1: Injured and critical survivors were transported to Memorial Hospital, though
Speaker 1: it was ill equipped to handle so many patients at once.
Speaker 1: She noted that only two nurses were on duty and
Speaker 1: that they didn't have enough blankets. She asked to make
Speaker 1: a phone call and contacted the department store Marshall Fielding Company,
Speaker 1: which sent over five hundred blankets. By eight am, efforts
Speaker 1: switched from rescue to recovery. Out of the two thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred passengers plus crew, eight hundred and forty four
Speaker 1: people were dead. The ship and the waters had grown quiet,
Speaker 1: but for Helen Reppa, the screaming would never stop. When
Speaker 1: she returned from the hospital, she found navigating through the
Speaker 1: thick crowd almost impossible. Though there were no survivors left,
Speaker 1: she stayed helping and transport bodies to a nearby warehouse.
Speaker 1: A lone figure aimlessly wandered the alleyway. He muttered, over
Speaker 1: and over, I lost them, I lost them all. He
Speaker 1: told Helen that his wife and three children had drowned.
Speaker 1: She comforted him for a moment before leaving to help
Speaker 1: move more bodies. Divers recovered those trapped below deck, mostly
Speaker 1: women and children who had sought shelter from the rain.
Speaker 1: The water had been so frigid their bodies were stiff
Speaker 1: and cold. Priests arrived to offer last rites, but finding
Speaker 1: no survivors, left the city workers skimmed the waters with
Speaker 1: nets to collect bodies that had floated away. The warehouse
Speaker 1: couldn't hold all the dead. The military set up the
Speaker 1: second Regiment Armory as a makeshift more and laid out
Speaker 1: the deceased in neat rows, five bodies long. Around four pm,
Speaker 1: Helen went home, away from the crowds and chaos. For
Speaker 1: a while, she stared at her clothes, her white uniform
Speaker 1: in shoes where blood stained and caked with mud. At
Speaker 1: the armory, the process for identifying the dead began at midnight.
Speaker 1: Thousands had gathered outside. Not all of them were anxious
Speaker 1: family members, though, a large part of the crowd where
Speaker 1: bystanders come to gawk at the bodies to get a
Speaker 1: closer look at the disaster for themselves, and as despicable
Speaker 1: as it may seem, others who waited in line where
Speaker 1: thieves looking to pocket the dead's personal belongings inside, lay
Speaker 1: fifty eight infants and young children, two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: eight teenagers, and five hundred and fifty seven adults. A
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five women went home widows. Two of
Speaker 1: those women were pregnant. Eighty four men became widowers that day.
Speaker 1: Twenty two entire families were killed reporters painted the scene
Speaker 1: in all its gruesomeness. Headlines of the disaster and its
Speaker 1: graphic details were splashed across newspapers across the country. Enterprising
Speaker 1: boat captains charged fifteen cents a person to view the
Speaker 1: wreckage up close. But with every story about a disaster
Speaker 1: comes a story about a survivor, someone who was supposed
Speaker 1: to be there but wasn't. And when it comes to
Speaker 1: the Eastland, we have a man named George Easy. George
Speaker 1: was late that morning. In fact, he didn't realize until
Speaker 1: the next day that his name was still on the
Speaker 1: manifest and because of that the newspapers had reported him dead.
Speaker 1: He went immediately to his parents house to reassure them
Speaker 1: that he was safe. They were in for the happiest
Speaker 1: sort of shock, and it was a stroke of luck
Speaker 1: that paid off for many people in Chicago in the
Speaker 1: years to come. Rather than ending up is just one
Speaker 1: more name on a tragic list, George would go on
Speaker 1: to coach one of the city's legendary teams, the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: His name was George Halla. It took fifty two grave
Speaker 1: diggers working twelve hour days to prepare for the funerals.
Speaker 1: The Bohemian National Cemetery alone had a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: graves dug On July, Chicago became the city of Funerals.
Speaker 1: Seven hundred Eastland victims were to be buried on the
Speaker 1: same day. Among them was the entire Sindelar family. The
Speaker 1: couple perished along with all five of their children, ranging
Speaker 1: in ages from three to fifteen. All seven white caskets
Speaker 1: arrived at the cemetery stacked in the back of a
Speaker 1: Ford Model T. Marshall Field and Company provided thirty nine trucks.
Speaker 1: Due to the shortage of hearses for the remainder of
Speaker 1: the victims, Identification or other funeral plans were underway all
Speaker 1: except for one small boy, known simply as Number three
Speaker 1: s this some with the armory couldn't bear to call
Speaker 1: him by a number, so they referred to him as
Speaker 1: Little Feller. It seemed the boy would go to his
Speaker 1: grave without anyone to claim him. He was taken to
Speaker 1: a funeral home where two children recognized him. Now he
Speaker 1: had a name, Willie Navatni, just seven years old. He
Speaker 1: had remained unclaimed because it had taken his grandmother time
Speaker 1: to recognize Willie's parents and nine year old sister united
Speaker 1: in death. The family was laid to rest on July one.
Speaker 1: Chicagoans who had heard of Little Willie's plight attended the service.
Speaker 1: The procession stretched for more than a mile while families
Speaker 1: attended funerals. Cook County asserted jurisdiction over the inquiries. A
Speaker 1: one attorney told reporters that the United States Steamboat Inspection
Speaker 1: Service was responsible. Though the city was quick to investigate,
Speaker 1: litigation over the disaster wasn't concluded for another twenty four years.
Speaker 1: The cruise lines president and three officers were indicted for manslaughter.
Speaker 1: The captain and chief engineer were also indicted on charges
Speaker 1: of criminal carelessness. When the case finally went to court,
Speaker 1: the defense attorneys pointed out that the Eastland had successfully
Speaker 1: carried passengers for years without incident. The jury found no
Speaker 1: justifiable reason to hold the six men responsible, and all
Speaker 1: charges were dropped. After the disaster, the Eastland was dredged
Speaker 1: from the water, repaired, and renamed the Willamette. The newly
Speaker 1: renamed ship served as a naval vessel, where it remained
Speaker 1: stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Base. In August of
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, the Willamette transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Speaker 1: during a ten day excursion to Whitefish Bay, where he
Speaker 1: took part in discussing war strategies. The ship was decommissioned
Speaker 1: in ninety five and offered for sale, but even after
Speaker 1: renaming and renovation, the ship couldn't shake its reputation. After
Speaker 1: nine months and no taker, the ship was sold for scrap.
Speaker 1: There's more to this story. Stick around after this brief
Speaker 1: sponsor break to hear all about it. Henry Tewkesbury just
Speaker 1: wanted some sleep. He spent the evening of February entertaining
Speaker 1: a crowd in Windsor, Vermont, with a lecture on the
Speaker 1: Battle of Gettysburg. It seemed the crowd enjoyed the details,
Speaker 1: every gory one. His knowledge of the subject was extensive.
Speaker 1: The money he earned supplemented his income as a lawyer. Nicely,
Speaker 1: A close friend of his, who had firsthand knowledge of
Speaker 1: the war, attended lecture. Smith's servant had fought at Gettysburg
Speaker 1: as a teenager. After the lecture, he walked with Henry
Speaker 1: to the train station. The two were heading north to
Speaker 1: White River Junction. There they would part ways. Henry planned
Speaker 1: to spend the night before returning home and Smith would
Speaker 1: board the Montreal Express to start his shift as the conductor.
Speaker 1: Sleep would elude Henry, though the White River Junction House
Speaker 1: didn't have any rooms that night, forcing Henry to walk
Speaker 1: back to the station in the bitter cold. Exhausted, Henry
Speaker 1: had no choice but to catch the Montreal Express back
Speaker 1: to Randolph, Vermont. The train had started its route in Boston,
Speaker 1: and Henry found it crowded with passengers headed to Montreal's
Speaker 1: Winter Carnival. After an hour and a half delay, the
Speaker 1: train was finally on its way. When Smith collected the tickets,
Speaker 1: he found his friend asleep, slumped over in his seat.
Speaker 1: He woke him and kidded Henry about the change in plans.
Speaker 1: Neither man realized this would be their last conversation. Henry
Speaker 1: fell fast asleep again, but the train swaying side to
Speaker 1: side woke him. As the train approached a bridge near
Speaker 1: West Hartford. Ten minutes later, we had a feeling something
Speaker 1: was wrong. Then the train lurched and Henry felt a jolt.
Speaker 1: Having been in two train accidents before, Henry knew a
Speaker 1: couple of things that the wheels were running on the
Speaker 1: ties and the train was about to derail. He jumped
Speaker 1: up and pulled the cord that would signal the brakeman
Speaker 1: of the issue. Elsewhere in the car, smith also realized
Speaker 1: the problem and pulled the cord to The brakeman looked
Speaker 1: out the window to his horror, the train was jumping
Speaker 1: the tracks as they approached the bridge, and a forty
Speaker 1: foot dropped to the river below. Instead of breaking, he
Speaker 1: leapt from the train into the snow drifts. The rear
Speaker 1: sleeper car left the tracks and plummeted into the river,
Speaker 1: taking several cars with it. The connection between one of
Speaker 1: the cars broke, which spared the rest. The falling cars
Speaker 1: crashed into the frozen river, breaking the ice. Other cars
Speaker 1: piled on top of it, crushing most of those inside
Speaker 1: in seconds. The oil lamps burst into flames, igniting the
Speaker 1: wooden cars draperies in upholstery. A fortunate engineer who survived
Speaker 1: in one of the disconnected cars, found the brakeman in
Speaker 1: the snow bank. Seeing as he wasn't hurt, the engineer
Speaker 1: ordered the brakeman to go and get help. It took
Speaker 1: him a while. He walked to a nearby farm and
Speaker 1: borrowed a horse to ride to White River Junction. Help
Speaker 1: wouldn't arrive for forty five minutes. Henry, still alive and
Speaker 1: pinned between two seats, frantically tried to free himself as
Speaker 1: the fire raged toward him. An elderly couple also pinned,
Speaker 1: cried and hugged each other as the flames engulfed them.
Speaker 1: Fearing the worst, Henry pulled his coat over his eyes
Speaker 1: so he wouldn't see the fireball reach him. Then he
Speaker 1: felt two men trying to pull him free. They almost
Speaker 1: gave up, but Henry's plea convinced them to keep trying.
Speaker 1: As the fire neared, the men pulled once more, freeing him,
Speaker 1: though breaking one of his legs in the process. They
Speaker 1: dragged him to safety near one of the bridge's stone supports.
Speaker 1: Then they went back for other survivors. Smith crawled toward them,
Speaker 1: totally engulfed in flames. Rescuers threw snow on top of
Speaker 1: him to douse the fire and managed to get him
Speaker 1: out of the car just in time. Help finally arrived,
Speaker 1: and Henry Smith and a few of the other survivors
Speaker 1: were taken to the nearby farmhouse. Smith died from his
Speaker 1: severe burns. Rescuers went back to the wreckage to find
Speaker 1: that the bridge had collapsed, sending debris on top of
Speaker 1: the now burned out cars. There would be no more survivors.
Speaker 1: For two days, rescuers searched the area. Most victims found
Speaker 1: had been burned beyond recognition. Others had slipped through the
Speaker 1: broken ice and into the river. To this day, there
Speaker 1: isn't an accurate number of victims of the eighty nine
Speaker 1: passengers and crew, it's believed that as many as sixty perished.
Speaker 1: An investigation into the disaster stair uncovered a defective rail
Speaker 1: and some of the survivors sued the railway, and one
Speaker 1: new legislation established safety measures. Gas lamps were replaced by
Speaker 1: electric lights and national safety checks enforced. Over the next
Speaker 1: several years, railroad accidents dropped sharply, not due to the
Speaker 1: lawsuits or money the railway companies paid out, though it
Speaker 1: had more to do with the past that haunted them.
Speaker 1: As with the Titanic and Eastland, it took something irreplaceable
Speaker 1: and for some unforgettable lives. American Shadows is hosted by
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched
Speaker 1: by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor
Speaker 1: Young with executive producers Aaron Mackey, Alex Williams, and Matt
Speaker 1: fred Rick. To learn more about the show, visit griman
Speaker 1: mild dot com. From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. H