After the Titanic sunk, vessels were required to have enough lifeboats to save everyone on board. Having more lifeboats is a good solution, but, as Arthur Bloch once said: “Every solution breeds new problems.” We might say: even the best solutions can breed new problems. On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland was docked on the Chicago River. It was a big ship – 265 ft long, 38 ft wide. Over the years, it had been refitted and retrofitted, adding more weight and changing its center of gravity. The ship became more and more top-heavy. Nevertheless, the new owners of the Eastland decided to increase passenger capacity from 2,000 to 2,500 and add lots of extra lifeboats. This only made it more top-heavy, but, well, more passengers means more money.
That day in July, the ship was filled to capacity. Though the water was calm, at 7:16 am, the ship began rocking against the dock – back and forth. By 7:28, the rocking was so severe that the ship tipped over and crashed into the water, entirely on its side. People did everything they could to save the passengers and crew, but about ⅓ of them died. The additional lifeboats were meant to save lives, but the greed of the people who owned the Eastland transformed something life-giving into something death-dealing. Tragedy, solution, sin, tragedy – we can see this as a pattern in a lot of places in the Bible, too.
References:
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland
–https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/solution-quotes
–https://eastlanddisaster.org/history/timeline
