Ashes Under Water: the Ss Eastland and the Shipwreck That Shook America 1st edition

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 844 people, including 22 entire families. The accident and its aftermath were in the headlines throughout the summer of 1915. From President Wilson down, the nation mourned. Lesser known, the effort to bring the guilty ship owners to justice was thwarted by, of all people, future star lawyer Clarence Darrow. Darrow defended the only true hero of the ship, engineer Joseph Erickson, whose wealthy bosses laid the blame at his feet. A national tragedy, a courtroom drama, corrupt businessmen and Chicago politics, and a story of the cost of America's industrial might--all in one gripping narrative. 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.