Titanic Western Electric Eastland Disaster Ship Ships Wreck Wrecks Shipwreck Shipwrecks Chicago History Great Lakes Lake Michigan Naval Wilmette

...God has given me eleven years grace...

"Ferdinand" Reschke went to the Western Electric company picnic; his wife Bertha decided to stay at home. Ferdinand boarded the Eastland, but his son, Ewald, and Ewald's date, Hattie Hofmeister, could not board the Eastland, so they were standing nearby when the Eastland rolled into the Chicago River. Ferdinand escaped alive, losing just his straw hat. He immediately went out and bought a new hat, and when he arrived home his wife Bertha did not even notice that he was wearing a new hat. The next day, Sunday, the entire family gathered together while Ferdinand showed everyone the picture of the capsized Eastland in the newspaper. He pointed out how he happened to crawl to safety.

Shortly after the disaster and as Ferdinand left the wharf, he let others use his pocketknife. He never thought he would see the pocketknife again, but several years later a man returned the knife to him at work, mentioning that the knife helped to save many lives.

Every year after on the anniversary of the Eastland Disaster, Ferdinand would go to his pastor and give him a special offering to be used for missions. In 1926 when he was on his deathbed, Ferdinand had a feeling that he would die on the anniversary of the Eastland Disaster. On July 23, 1926, the day before the 11th anniversary, Ferdinand said, "Gott hat mir elf jahre frist gegeben, morgan ist es elf jahr." "God has given me eleven years grace. Tomorrow it is eleven years." Ferdinand did not die the next day, but death came on August 20, 1926.

Please direct questions and comments to the Eastland Disaster Historical Society at info@eastlanddisaster.org.

Copyright © 1998-2001 Eastland Disaster Historical Society. All rights reserved.