1915 Chicago Shipwreck - A rare footage of one of Chicago's great disasters has resurfaced almost a century after 844 people were killed in an unusual boat accident.
According to reports, the incident happened on July 24, 1915, while the SS Eastland, which was docked around 20ft in the Chicago River, capsized. About 2,500 travelers were aboard at the time of the tragedy.
The passenger luxury ship was hired by a Western Electric company to transport employees from its factory in Cicero, Illinois, to a party in Michigan City, Indiana. The company reportedly had about 10,000 employees at the time.
A University of Illinois graduate student Jeffery Nichols, discovered the rare footage of the 1915 Chicago shipwreck while going through World War 1 clips.
"It was a 'Holy cow' moment. I was shocked. I was surprised," Nichols said of his discovery.
The two discovered footage are black and white and show survivors of the wreck in blankets, being attended to by rescuers. While the second clip show the rescuers trying to pull the capsized vessel off the river.
According to the Eastland Disaster Historical Society, the clips of the tragedy captures the incident like never before. Adding that since the incident happened this is the first time the footage has been unearthed.
"The film footage discovered by Mr. Jeff Nichols is the single most important discovery from research over the past 100 years for those who are interested in the history of the Eastland Disaster," said Ted Wachholz, Executive Director and Chief Historian of EDHS.
"Over the past 16 years, EDHS has pursued numerous leads, driven hundreds of miles, sent emails, and made phone call all while responding to reports of possible film footage of the Eastland Disaster. All of these pervious leads have ended without any results."
However, Nichols shared his discovery of the real Eastland Disaster on social media. Historians are happy with his unselfish act of uploading the two clips on Facebook.
"Mr. Nichols was gracious enough to share his discovery on our Facebook page, which was a very unselfish act. All of us at EDHS and many more who follow us have gotten chills upon viewing this incredible footage, and we know that thousands more will experience the same," Wachholz said.
After the disaster, the Eastland, which was unveiled in 1903, sunk, but it was later retrieved and sold to the U.S. Navy, who repaired it and changed its name to the USS Wilmette.
The Navy designed the vessel as a gunboat and used it for training on the Great Lakes. This was shunned after the end of World War II.
