Arizona republican., 1915-07-26
EASTLAND WAS
 A MARKED BOAT
 fOR SOME TIME
lll-fatcd Excursion Boat Well Known Ilere-Turn- ed Over Twice Before, But No Lives Were Lost Either Time

The mammoth excursion steamer Eastland which figured in the trag- edy in Chicago Saturday. is well known to Q large number of the residents of Phoenix.
 For several years prior to the present season, she piled between the city of Cleveland and Cedar Point. large summer resort located on a peninsula in sandusky Bay.
 The i'll fated boat. prior to her transfer to the Indiana Transporta ton company. was owned by the C. and B. Transportation company and left Cleveland each morning about 9 o'clock. making the run to the point m few hours. The return trip was made each afternoon. leaving the re- sort about i. l. was a rare occa- sion when the large and commodious steamer was not crowded for the run 10 the most popular resort on the lakes.
 The Eastland was originally built by the Main people for ocean excur- sion traffic in and arodnd New York City. While engaged in that traffic, she first showed her fatal habit of turning over. She turned turtle near New York. but no lives were lost The ship was righted. repaired and 1 sold to the Cleveland and Buffalo people along with .her sister ship,
 the Northland.
 All went well with the Eastland for several years in the daily trir | between Cedar Point and Cleveland
 but finally without warning. as in the case Saturday, she calmly slid 1 over and stood on her head at the wharf at Cedar Point.
 From then on she was a marked boat and on many occasions her | owners refused to allow her to make
 the trip between the two points. when ] the weather was bad. Many are the | excursionists who have been left tc make their way back to Cleveland via the electric railroad due to d sudden storm coming up while she was lying at her pier at the summer
 resort.
 l The Eastland was a boat remark l ably suited for excursion work
 such as she was starting out for on | Saturday. She was built rather higi | out of the water. possessed well fitted up dance hall and carried . | good orchestra.
 Like most of the big excursion ano | passenger boats on the lakes. sht | was a -sidewheeler She never haC | been used in the regular passenger l traffic, and never had carried any | freight most of the space usually given over to this being fitted out to give pleasure to the passenger: lshe carried.
 Up to the receipt of the news her'
 of her having turned turtle in thu river at Chicago, it was generally supposed that she was still in pos session of the c. and B. people anC was still making her trips betweer the Sixth City and the Point.
 | Upon her return to Cleveland eacl night it was the habit to load he
 with passengers at 25c a head an' make a moonlight trip out on tn
 lake where dancing could be en
 ioyed for several hours with the coo 1 lake breezes mitigating the heat O
 the summer. While engaged in this she has served to make many an in
 coming crew of a freight boat home
 sick and set them to wishing tha
 they too had something to do otha than scrub decks and shovel coal. T sight of her on one of thes moonlight trips was worth goinl miles to see. The boat would be Ii
 from bow to fan tail. and a glimps
 of the white dresses, keeping tim to the dance music. while the strain of a waltz or the latest trot cam | floating across the water used t | make the deck hands on more tha r one ore boat want to dive overboar land try to swim across to her.