23-May-16 – 21-year-old Thomas Chakinis had fled starvation in Greece in 1911 and immigrated to Chicago, where he married, raised four children, and operated two restaurants. On the morning of July 24, 1915, he boarded the SS Eastland. Tom survived, and in his mid-80s still vividly recalled the tragedy, gesturing and lapsing into Greek every time he told his story.

It was a Saturday, 7:30 in the morning. Nearly 2,000 Western Electric Hawthorne plant employees and their families boarded the steamer…bound for a day-long company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. As they waited for the boat to leave, they sang and nibbled at their picnic lunches.

He remembers sitting in a chair on the top deck with his friend, Ted Hallas, who pointed to the life preservers above them and said, “Grab onto these in case of an accident.” Tom thought little of the comment. He had sailed from Greece a few years before with no mishap.

When the ship capsized, “the poor people who were sitting on the other side of the boat slid, like vrooosh,“ Tom recalls, making a downhill motion with his hand. Tom could not swim, so he slid toward the staircase leading to the lower deck and lunged for the railing. He saw hundreds of bodies on the lower deck below him.

“I was lucky all the people were under me,“ he said. “I remember I was standing on somebody’s shoulder so I didn’t drown.“

Tom was later pulled onto the dock by a fireman. His friend, Ted, was not as fortunate. He was swept away as soon as the Eastland capsized.

Most survivors returned to work immediately after the disaster, says Thomas. “The people that survived didn’t want to hear anything more about it. You tried to forget.“

But Tom never forgot. Years later, he forbade his children from going near the water. He never boarded a boat again.