Chicago’s Most Famous Shipwrecks

eATLAS has a pair of free Adventures in proximity to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Our Women in Design architecture tour starts at the Riverwalk and explores seven places that were designed by or inspired by women. The Many Lives of Navy Pier takes you to six locations that shows how the popular attraction has evolved since opening in 1916.

By Dave Lifton (@daveeatschicago)

These days, Chicago’s two main waterways—Lake Michigan and the Chicago River—become the focal point of activity in the city during the summers thanks to the beaches, boat tours, and other attractions. However, both were important to establishing Chicago as a port in its formative years, and they’ve seen their share of disasters.

The most infamous took place on the morning of July 24^th, 1915. The Western Electric Company had planned for the Eastland and four other steamships to take employees and their families to its annual picnic at Washington Park across the lake in Michigan City, Ind. Passengers began boarding on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle Streets at 6:30AM, quickly reaching its capacity of 2,572. The ship began to list (tilt) to one side due to the number of passengers on the open deck away from the dock. Attempts to right the ship were only temporarily successful and, at 7:28AM, the Eastland capsized before it set sail.

A total of 844 people were killed, making it the deadliest shipwreck in the Great Lakes system. A plaque commemorating the tragedy was installed in 2000 at the foot of the LaSalle St. Bridge. Long-lost footage of the rescue effort was unearthed by Jeff Nichols (@backwards_river) in 2015.

Prior to the Eastland overturning, the worst accident on the river happened on Nov. 8^th, 1860 in roughly the same spot. The Globe was idling as its cargo was being unloaded when the boiler exploded, destroying the middle of its hull. Debris flew everywhere and damaged nearby ships and buildings, including the Chicago Board of Trade. Fifteen people, including crew, stevedores, and three passers-by, were killed in the blast.

Two months before the Globe’s explosion, nearly 400 passengers aboard a 252-foot sidewheel ship called the Lady Elgin was headed back to Milwaukee during a storm after spending the day in Chicago. At 2:30AM, the ship was hit by the Augusta, a lumber schooner, just off the shore of what is now Highland Park. Within 30 minutes, the Lady Elgin sank, and approximately 300 people drowned in Lake Michigan. The remains of the ship remained undiscovered until 1989, when a private salvor named Harry Zych found it.

Another early shipwreck was the Wings of the Wind, which was carrying 240 tons of coal in the pre-dawn hours of May 12^th, 1866. The schooner was six miles northeast of the mouth of the Chicago River when it was struck by the H.P. Baldwin, another lumber carrier. Fortunately, the crew was able to get to the lifeboat and be saved by the Baldwin. An attempt to raise the ship was unsuccessful, although its cargo was rescued, and it was discovered by divers in 1987.

Arguably the most famous shipwreck on Lake Michigan near Chicago is the Silver Spray. On July 15^th, 1914, the steamboat was en route to Hyde Park to take 200 University of Chicago students to the steel mills in Gary, Ind. But as it neared the dock, the ship crashed into some rocks at Morgan Shoal near the 49^th St. Beach. The captain and crew refused to abandon the ship until three days later. Later that day, the waves destroyed the ship and sank it. To this day, the Silver Spray’s boiler sticks out above the water 600 feet from the shore, and even has its own listing on Google Maps.

Divers can find the remains of the Wells Burt three miles off Evanston. The schooner was transporting coal from Buffalo to Chicago when, on May 20^th, 1883, it was trapped in a massive storm overturned, and sank. The captain and his crew of 10 all perished. The wreckage was discovered—completely intact—in 1988.

Lastly, a shipwreck helped name one of Chicago’s busiest neighborhoods. In 1886, George Wellington Streeter’s boat, the Reutan, ran aground on a sandbar offshore near Superior St. Streeter stayed in place and, as the area around his boat was filled in by garbage and sand, claimed sovereignty over the newly created land. He called it the “District of Lake Michigan,” and it became a home for prostitutes and vagrants. Until his death in 1921, Streeter fought—sometimes with gunfire—against the police and nearby landowners who kept trying to evict him. Despite his transgressions, the neighborhood east of the Magnificent Mile from the river to the lake is known today as ‘Streeterville’.