On July 24th 1915 the steamer S.S. Eastland capsized in the harbor of Chicago. More than 800 people perished in an accident that could have been easily prevented. You see, after the catastrophic collision of the Titanic with an iceberg, a new law was passed stating that all passenger boats were required to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers. Understandable and certainly issued with the best intentions, but it proved to be fatal for the S.S. Eastland.
This steamer’s design wasn’t optimal to begin with, and with the added weight of the extra lifeboats it became top heavy. It capsized while tied to the dock. There was no time to hand out life vests or use the lifeboats and 844 people died, including many women and children.
It’s a horrific example of measures taken with the best intentions, but gone horribly wrong. And it’s not the only example of negative unintended consequences.
Take the law for instance that required cyclists to wear a helmet in Australia in the early nineties. Yes, the number of cycling related head injuries was greatly reduced, but there was another huge unintended consequence: the number of cyclists was reduced as well. People didn’t want to wear the helmet and so they stopped cycling.
What we do in our youth ministry may have the best intentions, but that doesn’t man it can have some big negative unintended consequences. And these consequences can even outweigh what we were trying to regulate in the first place. It’s important to see if the rule and what you’re trying to prevent with it, is indeed more important than the unintended consequences and effects.
Can you think of an example in your youth ministry where the consequences of a rule were worse than if you hadn’t done anything in the first place?
The S.S. Eastland lying on its side in the Chicago harbor: an example of best intentions having horrific results.
That’s crazy. I’d never heard the story of SS Eastland. So sad that over 800 perished because of a new rule.
I can’t think of anything offhand but I do know that we’ve had issues because of new rules. Apparently noting too bad as I can’t recall a specific incident.
I’ve studied history, so I have an almost endless knowledge of absolutely useless facts
No seriously, came across this topic a few weeks ago and it struck me how best intentions can have such averse effects. In our youth ministry they’ll probably be less dramatic than the loss of 800 lives, but it’s good to think about the negative consequences of new rules, even on a small scale. Glad to hear you can’t think of anything though!
More passengers died in the Eastland disaster than in the Titanic. The death toll in the latter was only high due to the number of staff aboard.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. I’d never heard of the Eastland till a couple of months ago and was quite surprised to read about it. 844 deaths is quite a lot, but the Titanic is far better known of course…Who knows, maybe they’ll make a movie about the Eastland one day