The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1915-07-27
FIFTY SCORE DROWNED
WHEN BOAT TURNS OVER
Excursion Steamer Turns Turtle
in River.
ALL CHICAGO SHOCKED.
PROJECTED Day Of Joy for Western
Electric Company Employees
Turned to One of Mourning.

y W.
1000 persons lost their lives in the
Chicago river today by the capsizing
OF the excursion steamer Eastland
while warping from it's wharf with
more than 2,4O0 employees of the
Western Electric Company and their
relatives and friends on board.
bound for pleasure trip across
Lake Michigan.
After working ceaselessly all day
and far into the night, the bodies of
S42 victims of the catastrophe, most
OF them women and children, were
collected in temporary morgues and
taken to the Second Regiment arm
ory. When these bodies had been
tagged. Coroner Hoffman, taking
into consideration estimates of bod
les thought to be in the hold of the
steamer. lying on it's side in the river
and in the stream itself, said he be-
lieved the total dead would not ex-
ceed 1000.
The Eastland, said by marine ar
chitects to have been top-heavy and
ballasted in an uncertain manner.
turned over within FIVE minutes after
1t began to list, pouring its gala pas
sengers into the river or imprisoning
them In it's submerged hull.
Every effort was made by thous-
ands of persons on the river wharf
to rescue the drowning men, women
and children, but many went down
almost within grasp of the river
bank. Mothers went to death, while
their children were snatched to
safety. Other children died in the
arms of their parents who finally
were saved. Hundreds of girls.
freed for a day from their tasks of
making telephones and other cleo
trical apparatus in the factory of the
Western Electric Company, dressed
in their smartest white frocks, were
drowned
A pail OF sorrow hung tonight over
the entire West Side of Chicago.
where the majority of the victims
lived.
kolin avenue, a small street near
the factory of the Western Electric
Company, was In universal mourning.
Every house lost from one to all it's
occupants in the disaster. And many
OF the residents of thss street tonight
lay in the morgue or beneath the
steel hull Of the Eastland. over which
searchligsts shot their binding glare.
while hundreds OF men searched for
more bodies.
Efforts to discover the cause of the
accident were begun long before the
work Of rescue was over. Federal
and county grand juries were order
ed. coroner's jury was empaneled
and all Of the officers and crew of the
Eastland were arrested.
w. G. Steele, secretary and treas
urer Of the st. Joseph Chicago
Steamship Company, which owned
the Eastland, built on Lake Erie in
1908. and remodeled later, because
top-heavy, it is said, was arrested to-
night and locked up at a police sta
tion. The steamer was leased by the
Indiana Transportation Company.
whose officers said they were not re-
sponsible for the licensing of the
ship and did not control the crew.
SEARCH AT NIGHT.
Under the glare of search lights
tonight scores of men worked in the
hull OF the vessel to remove the bod
les. The steamer lay on the bottom
of the river, one side protruding like
monument to the hundreds it had
drowned as it turned over.
The cause of the capsizing had not
been determined tonight, but federal
and state officers were conducting
Investigations to determine whether
the ship was topheavy from faulty
designing. was improperly ballasted
or was poorly handled in leaving the
wharf.
Marine architects asserted that
the Eastland was faulty in design;
that the top deck had been removed
because of the tendency of the ship
to list, and also pointed out the possi- |
bility that the ship had been un-