The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-07-27
Fifty Score DrotOned
When Boat Turns OUer

company, was in universal mourning.
Every house lost from one to all its
occupants in the disaster. And many
of the residents of this street tonight
lay in the morgue or beneath the steel
hull of the Eastland, over which search
lights shot t cir 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 ordered,
coroner's jury was empanelled and all
of tie officers and crew of tht East
land were arrested.
W. C. Steele, secretary and treasurer
of the st. Joseph-Cnicago Steamship
company, which owned the Eastland,
built on Lake Erie in 1903 and re-
modelled later, because top-heavy, it
is said, was arrested tonight and lock-
ed up at a police station. TIE steamer
was leased by the Indiana Transpor-
tation company, whose officers said
they were not responsible for the Ii
censing of the ship and did not con-
troll the crew
Search at Night.
Under tt e glare of seachlignts to-
night scores of men worked in the
hull of the vessel to remove the bodies
The steamer lay on the bottom of the
river, one side protruding like mon
ument 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 in
vestigations to determine whether the
ship was top: eavy from faulty design
ing, was improperly balTasted or was
poorly handled in leaving the wharf
Marine architects asserted that the
top decks had been removed because
of the tendency of tie ship to list, and
also pointed out the possibility that
the ship had beer unevenly or INSULT
ciently ballasted.
The Eastland used water ballast, so
that it could pump out some On enter
ing shallow lake iaarbors, so some in
Yestigators are working on theory
that the ballast tanks were not filled
and the rushing of passengers to one
side caused it to roll over.
Flock to Excursion Boats.
Under misty skies 1000 men, wo-
men and children went to the Clark
street dock early today to fill five large
lake steamers with Holiday mirth in
trip to Michigan City. The steamer
Eastland was the first to be loaded.
Rain began to fall as the wharf su-
perintendents lifted the gang planks
from the Eastland, declaring that TIE
government limit of $500 passengers
had been reached
The passengers swarmed to the left
side of the ship as the otter steamers
drew up the river toward the #harf.
A tug was hitched to the Eastland,
ropes were ordered cast off and tie
steamer engines began to hum. The
Eastland had not budged, however.
Instead, the heavily laden snip Wa
vered sidewise, leaning first toward
the river bank. The lurco' was so
startling that passengers Joined the
large concourse already on the river
side of the decks.
the ship never heeled back. 1t
turned slowly but steadily toward its
left side. Children clutched the skirts
of their mothers and sisters to keep
from falling. Water began to enter
lower port holes and the hawsers tore
out the piles to which the vessel was
tied, Screams from passengers at
tracted tie attention of fellow excur-
sionfsts on the dock awaiting the next
steamer. Wharf men and picnickers
soon lined the edge of the embank-
ment, reaching out helplessly toward
the waEering steamer.
For nearly FIVE minutes the ship
turned before it finally dived under
the swift current of the river. During
the listing, of the vessel lifeboats,
chairs and other loose appurtenances
on the decks slipped down the sloping
floors, crushing the passengers toward
the rising waters
Then there was plunge with a
sigh of air escaping from the mold,
mingled WITH crying tof children and