Horrendous Negligence: The Sinkings of SS Eastland and MV Sewol
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- History teaches us valuable lessons about how safety and good engineering practices need to be kept up to scratch. Without the systems we've put into place horrible disasters can happen. Honestly, while researching this video I got MAD - the senseless waste of human life in both cases, the ferry Eastland in 1915 and the ferry Sewol almost 100 years later in 2014 is a devastating reminder of why we have strict regulations in place that govern how ships are built and operated.
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The footage filmed by the students onboard the Sewol as it's capsizing isn't for the faint of heart. The kids are laughing and having a good time at first and even making jokes as they start walking along walls but they eventually realize they're doomed and start sending out goodbye videos to their families. It's rough.
Unfortunately, if history has taught us anything, it will happen again. And again. We either don't learn a lesson or ignore it entirely.
We learn a lesson, but the ruling class who put money over lives don't care.
@@cardiffgiant9406It's actually more a lesson not to let schools, governments, and other organizations brainwash your kids into essentially suicidal obedience to authority since the kids staying where they were until it was too late was the result of them obeying the automated broadcasts on the ship's communications system.
If they'd disregarded it when it became apparent what was going on, many of them likely would have survived.
@@thomasackerman5399Razorfist, of all people, did a video on the _Sewol,_ and that's his central thesis for the story. And, yes, he includes footage from some of those videos of the high school kids doing as they were told while the ship capsizes. He never quite came out and said that the kids he showed didn't make it, but that only made the realization hit me all the harder.
Politicians only care when their blood gets spilled, not yours.
@@thomasackerman5399 This is true, BUT I've seen this argument used a lot specifically to undermine asian cultures. Many theses extend this and say "and this is why asians are sheep." The fact of the matter is that if the authority actually WERE following procedure, it would be wiser to listen to it calmly, because there might have been unintended effects of jumping out into the water --> ie getting sucked into the propellers/air vents, blocking others' escape routes, etc. Had ALL the students rioted when they were supposed to be following normal procedures, not a lot of people would've survived. However, these weren't under normal conditions -- in this case, the authority truly was horrible. The problem is you never know if the seemingly-correct option would cause unintended, harmful effects, and these kids didn't have the information needed to make a confident decision.
Always a great day when my friend, Mike Brady, from Oceanliner Designs uploads more top notch content.
Hey! Hes *my* friend. Pal
Indeed he is.. It is... Whatever, both of those lol
Good friend 😊
Your friend?! He’s MY FRIEND! My best-good ship friend! My only friend.
He clearly loves the engineering side to the field, and I appreciate his disdain for those who would defraud or ignore the safety protocols those dedicated engineers have put in place for good reasons.
The Sewol incident is one of the worst ship-related disasters I've ever seen. I have seen so many of the recovered footages from smartphones of the school kids trapped inside. Them being like "This is how it always goes, they tell you to stay put and then run themselves" or watching the water line rising on their window and saying "This is like in Titanic" or being like "I dont want to die, theres still so much anime I want to watch". Being able to see inside and experience it like you were there makes it all so much more real and personal. And of course also all the circumstances around it: The ship crew failed them, the ship company and owners failed them, the rescue crews failed them, the officials failed them and the government failed them.
It is so infuriating that the people really responsible for these disasters were never really punished. The owners ignored the regulations and people died because they wanted to make more money.
I'm more than sure they had "connections," if you know what I mean.
I'm not sure what you mean. The owner of the company the Sewol sailed under died, the captain was given 25 years, and the disaster was a major factor in the impeachment of President Park
@@MomoKawashima5 My apologies, I should have specified it was those involved with the Eastland I was talking about.
The owners might have broken the rules here and there, but the regulation has been changed to be more lax during the previous conservative president Lee Myong-bak's term. That additional superstructure? It would have been illegal before that ammendment to the Korean maritime safety regs. They were emboldened and enabled by the culture.
And Cheonghaejin was answering directly to orders from South Korea's National Intelligence Service-this doesn't even qualify as a conspiracy theory because its just so flimsy and petty-to haul addtional secret cargos and merchandise(hence the overloading) to make profits for intelligence agents retiree society. Sewol was practically owned and managed by them, and the record was made public by our National Assembly.
The victim's families were spied on by police and even military intelligence(this became a huge national scandal and the officer in charge later committed not alive under very suspicious circumstances) to save some government officials careers... and it was just ugly through and through.
As a South Korean who witnessed sewol disaster on a real-time reports on TV, you really did such accurate study of the subject i have to say. President Park and authorities were charged and blamed for their lazy reaction to the rescue of the sewol. Even Whole Korean Coast Guard were dissambled for 2 years for the disaster since they got blamed too much government couldn't keep coast guard anymore. Nowadays, Coast Guard got re-established and doing its work.
As an American, hearing about that incident beggared belief. Here, at least, we - at least those who have a brain in their head - hold up our Coasties as the greatest of our military heroes. Audie Murphy "only" had to face the wrath of the Third Reich - the Coast Guard regularly picks a fight with _Poseidon_ to steal from his clutches human lives that he's claimed as his own.
Okay, that's being melodramatic a little, but our coasties have a saying - "you have to go out; you don't have to come back." They will sortie to rescue people who are pretty much in the most unimaginably horrible weather.
Leaning that the Korean Coast Guard basically surrounded the ship and sat around playing a game of "no comment" and passing-responsibility and prioritizing avoiding _looking_ incompetent whilst doing _absolutely nothing_ was... Appalling. Horrifying. Especially since the disaster was unfolding in basically the nicest weather and calmest seas imaginable.
It was never the fault of President Park, who thought that rescue personnel was doing its job. It was IT who completely failed in their duty, but the tragedy was UTILIZED BY THE OPPOSITION FOR POLITICAN PURPOSE. Shame on them!
The Sewol will definitely be remembered for the videos sent from the kids to their parents saying goodbye. What a horrific experience for someone whose life hasn’t even begun knowing that it’s gonna end and there’s nothing left you can do.
As a ship operator, you have to understand that even if you follow all of the rules, and even if nobody running your ship makes a serious mistake, things can STILL go horribly wrong. With that knowledge in mind, you should never consider breaking any of the safety regulations.
It'll keep happening until the owners face criminal liability for malice (in the sewol's case) and willful ignorance (in the Eastland's.)
@@sarahsmith840 Which unfortunately will literally never be possible. The rich are untouchable. Rules for thee(us), not for we(them)
People need to stop stepping onto these deathtraps for it to stop.
Unfortunately people still will continue either due to willful ignorance or blind trust in these companies.
I was literally just talking about the Sewol ferry disaster this morning. So sad, such a tremendous waste of human life for greedy profit.
Unfortunately, most people are short sighted. That's why Chernobyl happened, and there was no profit motive there. Quite simply, most people place short term benefit over all else and ignore the risks associated
rotten mangoes did a very detailed narration of the chronological events of SW Sewol... it is extremely heart-rending.
they mentioned the individual students based on what was publicly released, since quite a bit was recorded and sent out. the parents were inconsolable, many rushed to the site to try and dive in to rescue their children. some eventually formed a volunteer diving group to recover the bodies. a few of them died doing the diving. there's also clear evidence that the government was corrupt and incompetent, attempting to silence reporting and refusing help from a nearby US navy ship out of political considerations (i.e. not wanting to look like they "needed" foreign help) which further exacerbated the disaster. the rescue was heavily botched, as was the recovery.
it was an obscene disaster on so many levels. there were a few heroes among the students and ferry staff; but an overwhelming sense of despair due to all the corruption really charcterised the incident. as terrible as mike's description already sounds in this video, it doesn't even come close to how despicably bad it was.
Just the other day, I was abruptly reminded of the story of the Sewol tragedy via my “little sister” (I volunteer with Big Brother Big Sister in the US). She is a teenager now, and she has recently developed an interest in Korean culture and media. We had just started watching the K-drama series “All of us are Dead,” and she kept asking me questions about South Korean culture and how accurate that show was to their teenage experience.
The selfish behavior of the adults in charge featured in that fictional show immediately brought to my mind the horrific reality of the Sewol tragedy. To my mind, the absolute disregard for the youth that the adults had for the teenagers was a STARK reminder of the caption/crew/government’s behavior when it came to protecting the children who ultimately (and needlessly) perished as a result of their negligence. It is nothing short of sickening.
We can only hold out hope that humankind has learned from the kind of historical mistakes that led to such horrors so that they are never, ever repeated in the future.
Same, two or three days ago, I was talking with a friend about the Estonia and MV Sewol came up pf course, he hadn't heard of it, not as known in Europa as the sinking of the Estonia. So I told him the grim tale of the Sewol.
I got to watch the Sewol as it was happening on the news. Took quite some time till the full incompetence at every level was revealed. Coast Gaurd that only grabbed a few people never went into the ship was later disbanded, the captain was one of the first people off of the ship after the announcement telling everyone to stay where they were, Divers who stood around having meetings and eating ramen acting like they were doing something, when the prime minister showed up they acted like they were going to pump air into the ship to slow the sinking. They were restrain parents who showed up quickly and were ready to try and save their kids. Around 250 of the people who died were high school students
The cops at Uvlade Tx followed the same play book. Absolute pathetic and unexcusable action in both situations.
Thank you for mentioning Sewol. We are coming up on the 10th anniversary of this tragedy next month. Never forget those poor kids. :(
It is downright unforgivable when tragedies like these happen and many lives are lost as a result of a company's negligence and greed.
Another outstanding video Mike!
But the shareholders made money. Thats all that matters.
Sometimes I've mused if safety regulations would tighten up shareholders, executives, and politicians were required to always ride on every single voyage or flight of their own ships or aircrafts? I've concluded that on the face of it, sure, it would work, but then the recent Titan tragedy puts paid to that idea.
The behaviour of the South Korean Coastguard os probably one of the worst pieces of non-seamanship ive ever read or heard about.
the American navy ship who had crew and tools just for these occasions and was minutes away from the ship and had gone into full Ambulance ship mode only to be threatened by guns from the Korean coastgaurd if they tried to help out in the rescue.
there were those onboard who argued for ramming the coastguard and assist Sewol, Sadly that was not to be.
South Korean Coastguard chose the same as Jaoanese government did during Japan airlines 123, Governmental honour before the Citizens Lives.
And by letting their Citizens die they showed the world that they had No Honour.
One "little" mistake in the video about the Sewol capsizing is that you mentioned that she was gone "in an hour"
It took a bit longer, with the ship not being actually damaged and full of air, it took her 4~ hours to be submerged. The rescue effort could've gone on for way longer too, as the sea was very calm and the ship sinking very slowly, it was thought that most passengers trapped inside where likely trapped in air pockets and survived well into the next day.
But the Korean government, and the various coast guards that gathered all around the ship, didn't go for any rescue effort. They even refused the help of a US navy ship that was on standby nearby. Most, if not all, of the rescue effort was done by civilian ships and divers who rushed to the scene to help.
The captain, and some of the crew, was safely off the ship first. And that after telling the rest of the passengers to stay in their cabins. It is also thought by experts that if the captain actually ordered the passengers to put on life jackets and go to the bow of the ship, most (if not all) passengers could've been saved.
There were a lot of people to blame for this tragedy: the owners of Sewol who led to the ship being unsafe, the Korean government that was looking to save face before saving lives, the coast guards who didn't attempt rescue and even slowed down civilians who tried to help.. but the cowardice of the Captain and some of the crew looking to save themselves at the cost of hundreds of lives is the worst one to me.
Totally despicable and criminally culpable behavior of all of the 'officials'
Definitely agree that the cowardice of the captain and crewmembers who were the first off the ship is the worst part for me. While the sinking was an inevitable disaster due to owner's fraudulent actions, the loss of hundreds of lives could have been prevented if the captain had not abandoned his post.
And tragically, those passengers who obeyed the order to say in their cabins were doing what theoretically one should do in an emergency, listen to the authority figure. I remember seeing a video on this tragedy elsewhere, and it mentioned that the passengers were assuming the order from the captain was to prevent mass crowds of panic from forming, and would soon be evacuating in smaller groups. By the time they realized such an order would never come, for many it would be too late.
It is a shame that more vigorous attempts to rescue passengers was not done. It sounds like most could have been saved with proper instruction AND persistence in rescue attempts. The officials gave up too early.
@@danielbeck9191Gave up? more like never truly started in the first place.
@@danielbeck9191 i wouldn't call it "giving up". didn't it come out later that president moon was in with organized crime and the shipping company was owned by one of their tax shelters? they lied and broke the law and skirted authority to make money because THAT'S WHAT ORGANIZED CRIME DOES and she knew perfectly well she took dirty campaign money from them, and so an effective investigation would reveal her ties to the mob. she sabotaged all rescue efforts on purpose to avoid the scandal, and killed hundreds of children in the process. death is too good for some people.
I don't know how this channel ended up on my feed. I've never been on an ocean liner or a cruise ship, I have no desire to, nor do I have any desire to learn about it. But for some reason I can't stop watching these! I don't know if it is the presentation or the content but you're doing a good enough job that you sucked somebody in who has no interest in this topic, so you're doing something right!
"The band continued to play music making the passengers think all was well..."lol bro if I'm on a ship that might be sinking and the band continues to play. Im panicking 😂😂😂
I tried watching a documentary about Sewol a few years back but was so appalled by the entire situation that I couldn't finish it, the fact that some people seem to have so little interest in the safety of people truly makes me speechless
The MV Sewol was full of students and it was heartbreaking, but the SS Eastland was full of workers at a company and their entire families, going on a company day out. Entire families were lost. A young boy's corpse was unidentified for a period of time because his entire immediate family had died too.
The Sewol disaster is even worse, as this actually lead to the resignation and arrest of the South Korean President Park Geun-hye on corruption charges as well, as their interference in the rescue effort prevented US Navy personnel of the USS Bonne Homme Richard and USNS Safeguard, and assistance from the Japanese Coast Guard, leading to unnecessary death.
I watched the video from "The New Yorker" about the Sewol before. Such a sad case. Seeing people/kids try to break the windows from the inside whilst being trapped in a sinking ship. Horror. And so avoidable. And don't get me started about the captain...
I enjoy learning about engineering disasters, but I’ll admit that the Sewol ferry incident is one of the most disturbing I’ve ever come across. It was just a total failure at every single level: the botched modifications, the poor seamanship, the total failure of any sort of evacuation or disaster response, the way the families of the victims were handled… the whole thing was just a cack-handed mess. The casual way in which precious time was wasted with barely a token effort to mount a rescue operation… honestly it’s grotesque.
Wow. I definitely detected some real anger in your narration on this one, and rightfully so. It is ghastly the level of how underpunished/entirely unpunished manslaughter at the hands of a corporation can be.
For another top heavy ship disaster, you can add the Mary Rose.
Henry VIII's flagship, carrying extra soldiers and equipment on the top decks, made a turn with gun ports open, dipped too low on one side, flooded through the open ports and sank on her maiden voyage.
10 August 1628 Swedish king's flagship Wasa sank about a mile on maiden voyage. Top-heavy guns.
Did someone type "we learn" ?
I must admit to growing up in Chicago but never learning about the Eastland disaster until perhaps 10 years ago. It seems to be forgotten history even in the city where it happened. The heroism of myriad bystanders that day did save many lives...boats went out to pull survivors from the river (many of those were women who could not swim and were very hampered by the dress of the day), young men dove in again and again to save others. There even were welders working nearby who immediately hauled their gear over to try to open up holes in her side to rescue people. This was delayed sadly by the captain, who refused to allow holes to be cut in 'his girl'.
The Eastland was refloated and eventually acquired by the Illinois Naval Reserve, where as the USS Wilmette, she served as a training vessel for gunners for many years, not being fully decommissioned until 1945, when she finally went to the scrap heap.
The excellent book "Eastland-Legacy of the Titanic" by Prof. George W. Hilton is the most complete history and analysis of the Eastland.
Especially the fateful decision to add the final complement of lifeboats and rafts, as a result of the Titanic sinking, is thoroughly covered.
It seemed to me that they saw the post-Titanic lifeboat regulation as a leverage to gain more profit through increased capacity (more lifeboats = more passengers), instead of a (rather half-hearted) concern for safety, if there was even any.
@nguyenkien2256 Basically the "more lifeboats/rafts equals more passengers and more passengers equals more revenue" was a fair approximation here but there was more to the situation. The overly simplistic view/regulation that "lifeboats for all" would solve the Titanic problem" and all safety at sea was not realistic. Stricter regulation of ALL factors influencing ship safety was needed but an unintended consequence was also created.
Overlooked to some degree was that the Titanic was a somewhat unique situation. Rare would be a ship so damaged that you would have the time and ability that virtually all souls would have survived but would need to be off loaded. The extra lifeboats that overloaded Eastland, and did not have the requirement her stability be confirmed, were not the end all be all. Consider the Andrea Doria where she had technically plenty of boats, almost all passengers survived the collision and she stayed afloat over 10 hrs but her damage made 1/2 her boats useless and she needed other assistance to save all the survivors.
The ship safety at sea for more complex than simply numbers of boats. Full time wireless service, proper construction and stability standards, strict standards enforcement, reasonable operating methods (the human element) and such are just as important.
@@kennethhanks6712 Thanks for more insight, very interesting to read!
The tragedy of the Sewol doesn't stop with this gross misuse of the ship, but continued with gas lighting by the government about a rescue effort that never really happened and then the recovery of all who had died. Negligence and greed from the owners and corruption from the government.
Great video as always Mike, if anyone wants to know more about the SS Eastland incident, Caitlin Doughty
(formerly known as Ask a Mortician) has a very detailed video of it, just be warned the video has been age restricted.
Of both accidents I have seen videos, espcially the SS Eastland one was heartbreaking. And in both cases, more lives could've been saved if help had not been hindered: in the case of the Eastland, they were prevented from opening the hull, and the captain of the MV Sewol missinformed the coast guard and help arrived hours too late.
no I think the Idiot-In-Charge (I refuse to call such a waste of space the Captain.) deliberately messed up because he didn't care.
I didn't know I was waiting for you to do the Sewol but I am so glad you did. This comparison is so on the money.
The absolutely egregious behavior during the Sewol sinking extends to the Coast Guard and all the way to the President of S. Korea.
The loss of so many lives at the hands of greedy profiteers is a story repeated throughout the age of industry. That the Sewal was the tomb of so many young, trusting students, their acceptance that they were safe, with the crew telling them to stay put is particularly heart-wrenching. Adults are cynical primarily because of events like these, unlike those lives lost, so young, and so trusting. Innocence lost forever 💔
Thanks for covering this, Mike.
It's funny this got uploaded today, as just earlier I had watched a video about the Eastland that was uploaded on another TH-cam channel only 5 days ago. It was a interview with a retired Great Lakes Veteran Captain and he mentioned something else regarding the loading of passengers onto the Eastland. He states that initially the Captain ordered Erickson - The Chief Engineer - to flood the starboard side ballast tanks in order to put the starboard side lower so it wasn't so hard for people to board the ship; However, it didn't take long for the ship to start listing too much... That's when he started pumping water into the port side tanks instead of pumping out of the starboard side tanks. In doing this, combined with the passengers top side all gathering about, that the weight shift was too much and that's when it swung over and started listing dangerously to port before eventually going over the way it did. Erickson stayed at his post trying his best to get water pumped out when water came up to his chest and eventually forced him to swim out of a porthole IIRC. Erickson 100% got scapegoated in this ordeal. He was 24 years old or so, and had only been operating the Eastland for a month or two and hadn't yet figured out the ships "quirks".
Poor guy
Thank you for the extra information. Unfortunately it is a grim reality that the lowest down the chain of liability end up with most of the blame. Same with aircraft accidents where a pilot is blamed but the root cause may be cost cutting by the executives, by inadequate training, maintenance not up to standard etc. I feel sorry for scapegoats like Erickson, so new to the job and was trying his best in terrifying circumstances.
@@rainscratch Like how Boeing tried to blame pilots in the MCAS crashes of the MAX-8. Rather than poor documentation in retraining on the MCAS system(airlines wanted minimal training time) and to cut costs Boeing only used a single AOA or Angle of Attack sensor.
13:02 Wait, 844 people died on the Eastland but over 1,500 died on Titanic. Was this an oversight that took Titanic's survivor numbers instead?
Purely passenger count. Around 812 passengers on titanic. 688 crew
844 passengers passed away on Eastland. 4 crew members
@@IrishmanGFS Ah gotcha, good to know. The wording for it could've been a bit less ambiguous but the numbers check out.
The sewol tragedy has made me shed more than a few tears over the years. Every so often I re catch up on the tragedy to keep its memory alive.
Love the new intro! 😊
I've watched three different documentaries on the Eastland, but I think this is my favorite--short, succinct, specific, and not sensationalized.
The "Ask a Mortician" video on the Eastland was hit by U-tube community standards for reasons I do not know.
@@CharlesRWard Her video on the Fitzgerald is one of the best videos out there for that incident at least
Another great video from my friend, Mike Bradey, from Oceanliner Designs! What a great idea to compare these two events to show how the rush for profit can truly cause such horrendous events. Not to mention the absolute bungling of the rescue response of the Sewol which probably deserves its own video with such rampant incompetence on every level which definitely contributed to the high death toll
This is an excellent video tying the Eastland disaster to the equally horrifying sinking of the Sewol. I remember hearing the devastating news of the sinking of the Sewol years ago. I am continually haunted to this day of the loss of the students who were reportedly told to go back to the cabins if possible, I would like to meet the family members of all the students that was lost and record their life stories, and dreams of what they wanted to accomplish for this world
Two praises to this video and channel:
I love how note of the ship's horn in the intro fits into the melody preceding it!
I appreciate how you refrained from the call for likes and subscribes, which I assume you did out of respect to the tragic and infuriating story told.
Quality is outstanding. Incredible watching this channel grow
I worked for the American Bureau bureau of Shipping which is a ship classification society and we had classed a ferry in Panama that capsized and killed a lot of people because they had added tons of soil up on the top deck so they could have palm trees & hula girls up there. ABS was not found liable because they had made all these ignorant changes after we had classed it.
An outstanding presentation. Anybody interested in further information about the Sewol might like to check out Brick Immortar’s coldly angry two parter on the same subject.
The victims of the Eastland disaster deserve a digital memory of the event. You did an excellent job providing the details to recreate the capsizing in my mind. Now i want to time travel and see it with my eyes. For me it wouldn't be necessary to see the interior views. Just give us the realtime loading, wobbling and sinking. i want to be one or any number of the onlookers.
Compared to the massive projects You've already done this one is tiny, relatively speaking. May all the victims of mancruel's greed R I P 🙏💜⚡
I’m a teacher in Korea (started working years after this) but it’s still felt. I had recently watched a different video on the Eastland and couldn’t help noticing the similarities so I was surprised to see the direct comparison here.
There's a bit of American football trivia about the Eastland disaster: George Halas, who would become the coach and owner of the Chicago Bears, was supposed to be aboard the Eastland, but was delayed. He came to the dock after the ship had overturned. His close friend Ralph Brizzolara, who would become the Bears' GM, did board the Eastland, together with Brizzolara's brother, and narrowly escaped through the portholes.
One of the first shipwreck compilation books to talk about the Eastland disaster was "Great Shipwrecks of the 20th Century" by Thomas E. Bonsall from the mid 1980s. The author said one of the reasons the death toll was so high was because the company hadn't included children in the passenger count (adults paid, kids were free, and they were counting paid tickets, not physical bodies).
The book brought attention to the disaster again and according to the author, "the Illinois HIstorical Society had never even heard of the wreck, despite the fact that it happened in Chicago and still [in 1986] ranks as the worst single human disaster in Illinois history." (pg 70). This prompted them to put up the memorial plaque at the location.
Edit: corrected author name & included quote from the book. It's out of print, but I found a copy on ebay and snatched it up years ago, since it was my fave nonfiction book as a kid. I guess I was a morbid little turd.
The Sewol disaster is just tragic. Seeing photos of the empty classrooms are just so harrowing.
In my country Sweden we got Vasa (1628) only 1 meter to narrow to float safely.
The king ordered another row of cannons on top.
And that's the problem with letting the amateur naval architect have the final say, just because he was squirted out of the correct set of hips and so they put a crown on his head.
The UK has the similar story of the Mary Rose to tell. Another king's vanity project!
If I may say so, I have seen quite a few videos of you in the last month,
and I can clearly see you are getting better and better at it in many ways. 👏👏👏👏👏👏
Well done sir!
Thanks for another wonderful video! I've heard of the Eastland quite a few times, but you really put into perspective the reasons it didn't survive. Your editing is top-notch! And the soft music you provide is perfect! So many videos have the background music playing so loudly that you can't enjoy the content. Your music is spot on! I'm always excited to see a new upload from you! As Always ~ Thanks again from Susan in Michigan USA ❤
As a Chicagoan, it's always trippy seeing people talk about the Eastland disaster: fantastic video as always Mike!
As much as I love your usual classic content, it's great that you're diversifying the channel to tell other stories like these ones -- ones I'd never actually heard about before. Like always, such a great watch and the new intro? It's SO GOOD!! Keep up the good work, and already can't wait for the next one 🤩
I’ve heard about The Eastland Disaster it’s a really well known disaster here in Chicago. I’ve known about it since I was in school.
MV Sewol was so criminal, it's beyond words. This is probably the 20th video I have seen on the subject, and everytime I feel more and more agony from how horrible the event was.
Great Video, thank you Mike ! The Eastland and Sewol instabilities leading to there sinkings sound a bit like the the Boeing 737 Max desaster to me …
Part time history has a terrific video on the Eastland if you want to learn more about her!
Thank you for covering this my friend
Straight away brings to mind the Bob Dylan song "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues"!! Same attitude towards money over safety!!
brady's the reason i am still interested in maritime history.
Very interesting how you took two similar disasters from history, and compared them. Id love to see more videos like this, and keep up the good work
I'm from Chicago, so I'm a bit familiar with the Eastland Disaster and the Sewol ferry incident was such huge news, but I never put the two together. This is a brilliant look at incompetence, and how money hungry businessmen corrupt politicians are everywhere
I’m a Chicago native and resident. One of my favorite restaurants is located where the disaster happened and it’s left a mark. Every time we dine outside ultimately somebody just spontaneously mentions the Eastland. It like manifests itself. Ironically the site is actually gorgeous there are literally hundreds of wedding photos from that view. But still no matter how festive the occasion someone always mentions the Eastland. It’s a scar that haunts you.
I feel like production/editing quality noticeably improved. Great work as usual, and at this point expected 😄
I always forget how primitive underwater diving was, once upon a time, until I see photos like 17:15.
Thank you Mike for another very worrying video, however, I appreciate the effort required to produce a wonderfully detailed and researched video. It seems that money and profits are far more important than lives. Rightly or wrongly, I am thinking about what’s going on with Boeing these days. All the best from Sydney. Have a good evening.
I remember learning about the Sewol tragedy and it genuinely made me sick to my stomach. The fact those poor kids were left to die while cowards who called themselves crew and captain were some of the first people off the ship left me speechless. Nevermind the fact that the ship's owners knew she was dangerous unbalanced and openly defied it. It was the fact that the Coast guard, politicians and news media were reporting that all passengers were saved while parents were DESPERATELY trying to rescue their sons and daughters themselves. Majority of the 171 survivors were saved by civilians while the Coast guard just sat their eating ramen and circlejerking each other. They even denied US Marines who were willing to assist in the rescue efforts.
Overall that tragedy made me lose so much hope for humanity just for sheer greed of people over human lives.
Many of those kids would've lived if they'd disobeyed what they were told on the speakers. An object lesson in brainwashing people into being complete authoritarians who don't question anything, even when it's clearly going against all common sense.
I'm not sure who blurred out the dead bodies in all the photos, but I appreciate the show of respect. Even if you just made the choice to use blurred rather than unedited photos it's still an admirable sign of respect.
Excellent vid! If I might also suggest a pair of videos by Brick Immortar. He covers the Sewol incident in very good detail.
You've said that you tend to focus more on the technical than the human side of things, but the habit you've made of covering things with such class and taste is very well suited to the human side nonetheless.
Absolutely enjoy your content alot. You have one of those very soothing voices that keeps you listening all the way through
I was only 7 years old when the Sewol disaster happened, it shook me to see on the tv. Even today, nearly ten years later, I still resent her owners for what they did. May all those innocent people rest in peace
i hope you could also look about MV donia paz... asias titanic... on december 20 , 1987... she was loaded twice her passenger capacity and during the night on the way from samar to manila, she collided with MT vector an oil tanker , among the 4500 passengers in account only 20+ survive
I absolutely adore how often the people in charge resolve to order passengers/workers to stay where they are in a potentially serious situation instead of quickly but calmly executing an evacuation, or getting people to someplace safer, instead opting to keep them in the dark as long as possible or half-arsing emergency proceedures.The Sewol, the Costa Concordia, the South Tower at the World Trade Center... I'm sorry, but if I ever hear someone tell me to stay put when something is obviously wrong and the people in charge aren't doing anything about it, I'm grabbing any accompanying friends and family and I'm exiting the premises or heading to my muster station. To do otherwise would be to ignore history.
The chief engineer for the Eastland fell into a deep depression after the disaster. Blaming himself responsible for the disaster, the courts and company also putting the blame at his feet just added to his conscience. Pictures of him just 4 years after the incident shows him disheveled and sickly. His death soon afterwards was blamed, in no small part, to the ramifications that he had suffered from the Eastland's aftermath. Part Time Explorer has made a very nice hour long video on just the Eastland disaster alone. Well worth the watch.
As said from the failed Titanic 2 2012 movie
"Look's like history is repeating itself"
ive been waiting for a video on the sewol, worth the wait (edit: first)
Thank you for not saying "FiRsT"
Brick Immortar has a 2 part video on the Sewol as well. It's a tough subject.
@@Megabob777 I’m not THAT egotistical
LAST!!
Even Eastland wasn't the first time this kind of thing had happened. HMS Royal George sank, at anchor at Spithead on the 29th August 1782 due to a horrible combination of things:
She was over-complement with 'wives and sweethearts' adding to the usual ship's complement.
She was heeled over to one side for careening (have her bottom scrubbed of barnacles etc)
She had her lower-deck gunports open for ventilation, with the guns run out to provide more room on the gundecks
She was taking in stores from a lighter alongside, on the starboard side, which was the lower side thanks to the careening
A gust of wind blew up, causing her to heel further over so that the lower gunports went below the waterline and thanks to all the above, there was no saving her and she went to the bottom, taking with her upwards of eight hundred people (some estimates it was as many as 1200) including the Admiral.
I know this isn't your era, but I thought you might find it interesting. And as we know, Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
there is one thing you critically miss when you narrated the sinking of the Sewol
while it is completely true that the responsability of the sinking goes to the company and crew there is another factor that is the main reason of why so many people died in the ship
the unwillingess of the blue house to assist and help the passengers trapped inside.
the reason why the Sewol is far more scandalours than the eastland is because the ship didn't sink immediatelly, but instead it slowly sank, and even when the rescue comed it was so badly organised that it caused the rescuers boarding the leaning ship and absolutely doing nothing to assist people. there are many footages of girls trying to break glass with stones seen from the outside by rescuers which where counting sheeps, that is the most regurgitating thing of the MV Sewol
i ain't have english mother tounge and I hope I wrote it correctly
THIS WAS AMAZING (AS USUAL)!!!! YOU NEED TO DO A DOCUMENTARY ON THE MIGHTY FITZ!!!! The Legend Lives On from the Chippewa on down...
Thank God for Gordon Lightfoot! If he hadn't written the song the "Big Fitz" would be just another forgotten Great Lakes shipwreck, and there've been plenty over the centuries. But something about the "Fitz" grabbed him and the rest was history.
Caitlin Douchtys video on the ss Eastland and Rotten Mangos video on Sewol were very thorough and deeply heart breaking. Would recommend ❤ Rest in peace those who were killed :(
My favorite saying is "those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it" great video my friend.
MV Sewol - Besides the technical aspects of the ship, There was also unbelievable political wrangling of command and control and distortion of facts reported to the media/news when reports came of her sinking at sea. There was confusion and misinformation in communications which led to rescue delays. Many that died (A lot were young students) on the MV Sewol were looking out portholes as those outside were helpless as to how to get them out while the ship sank.
Hey ! It’s our friend Mike Brady !
Always nice to see him!
The Sewol incident was a tragedy that created a shared pain. Media first reported everyone was rescued. President lied and we were relieved, when the students were smashing the steel doors with broken nails and bleeding fists, writing the last words to their parents. I still remember the moment when the correct news came on the tv, and everyone stopped whatever they were doing and just stared. We were enraged and it fueled us to impeach the president, which we're proud to have done. We're never wise enough to forecast manmade disasters. All we can do is not to let it be forgetten in vain.
There's nuance to the saying that regulations are written in blood. They're written only when the people are stirred to act upon it, else nothing happens. The good people of Korea were *furious* to the point of causing large scale governmental change and the abdication of the prime minister.
If you want to effect change in society you need to organize. You need to build community ties and resources. This is known. Perhaps overlooked is the need to rest. People who are tired and overworked can't fight back, which is why we don't have a 4 hour work day yet; more hours doing busywork means no one is left with the massive amount of energy required to do something about one's lot in life. Look four years ago to the beginning of the pandemic and see how large protests were when people were out of work. In America, the copaganda capitol of the world, cities were seriously discussing police abolition. That's the revolutionary power of a good night's sleep. To quote another, people are their best when they get good rest.
I dare say, this lesson should have been learned and remembered in 1628 when Vasa rolled over after sailing 1400 yards from her mooring for her maiden voyage for the loss of 30 people. She is was the early poster child of what happens when you build a ship top heavy with insufficient draught to counter.
The Sewol Ferry tragedy is still fresh in my mind, after reading about it 10 years ago. The entertainment industry went on a stand-still, and the tragedy is one of many reasons why the then-president Park Geun-hye got impeached.
Being born and raised in Chicago, the Eastland is a known story. There are plaques on the riverfront that commemorate the tragedy. Thank you for covering this story because so few people actually know about the Eastland disaster.
Happy Monday, everyone! Great start to the week, with new content.
Excellent work on the Eastland Mike; an exceptional handling of the various substantial influences that led to this man-made tragedy. The best take I have seen presented so far - well done Sir.
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," yes, Mr. Brady? Excellent video!
I grew up in Cicero, Illinois, home to many of those Western Electric workers and their families. I met people who were on the _SS Eastland_ as well as some who witnessed it. A chilling incident, and one that lived in recollections to at least the 1970s in my experience.
When it comes to commercial corruption, nothing surprises me. Anything for an extra dollar. Obscene. But nothing ever changes. Thank you for the video. Feeling quite emotional after seeing it.
Great video Mike. Can you do something about old Aircraft Carriers?
These stories make me glad I live in Montana. There are not any bodies of water large enough to handle ships of these sizes.
Great video. This puts a very tragic shadow on how the top gear amphibious car overturned for the same reason.
Great to see the Eastland get recognition. It’s the deadliest disaster on the Great Lakes and is rarely mentioned due to the nature of it and how it occurred.
Great doc. There is a plaque in Chicago at the Eastland site. The Chicago Tribune stated 22 entire families were wiped out. Corporate greed wins again...
I know a lot about the Eastland growing up around Chicago. I can't imagine....
I remembered this from AskaMortician when she covered this.
Great video, Mike!
Part-Time Exploere's video documentary on the Eastland disaster is extraordinary.
Highly recommend looking at it following this one, of course
Hands down the best Eastland presentation I've ever seen. I had no idea how clear and widely known its stability issues were.. for years. Stunning