Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-07-26
Steamer Lht. to Por.

AS the SdnSplank was pQlled IN ana
preparations were made to cast off
the steamer listed to port, or toward
the river. The passengers were crowd
ing on that side to get the view. The
sway at first occasioned little alarm.
The joking and laughter continued,
but as the great hull continued to
swing over terror suddenly gripped
the passengers.
There was a mad scramble a panic
in which the terrified passengers
fought for places of safety. Shrieks
on shore.
A minute or two and the ship was
fiat on it's side like a dead fish, and
those caught befeath and within were
entombed. by. the 'inrushing water.
Work Of Rescue Begun
The surface of the water was thick
with struggling forms. Babies per-
and bridges. The forms of men and
women in a frenzied fight for life
churned the. water, then sank.
On the side Of the boat were num-
bers who. had flambered over the
rail as the boat settled on it's side.
Some escaped without even wetting
their feet.
The whistles Of tugs and excursion
boats shrieked the alarm. Boats put
off to the rescue. Hundreds Of persons
were dragged from the river to safety.
South Water street men tossed bar
re1s and crates and chicken boxes into
the rlveF. where they were seized by
the drowning. 4:
Forty miles awaysa Lockport the
bear trap dam in the drainage canal
was closed to stop the river current.
Firehoats and tugs spread out like a
fan around the death. ship and then
began the work Of. taking out the
bodies
The nearby streets sand warehouses
were turned into morgues. Bodies were
piled In rows. Ambulancs and vans and
delivery trucks were pressed into SER
vice as death carts, while. as fast as
the bodies were taken out hundreds of
physicians strove to bring back life.
Few Victims Resuseitated
At the south approach to the Clark
street Bridge respiration machines were
operated on the sidewalk. Victims were
worked over the moment they reached
shore. Emergency hospitals were estab-
lished within few feet Of the disas-
ter.
The Theodore Roosevelt, one of the
five boats chartered for the excursion.
which was moo-ed on the opposite
side Of the Clark street bridge, was
turned into morgue and hospital.
AS soon as the calamity became
known, doctors and nurses by the hun
dreds volunteered their services and
Tor hours they strove in the work Of
resuscitation. Few were revived, how
ever. as the bodies had been in the
water too long.
Inc spectacles were narrowing. Po-
ncemen wept as the bodies of women
were taken out with their babies still
clutched to their bosoms in the grasp
of death.
While those on land were disposing
OF the dead. injured and rescued, the
divers in the heart of the vessel sent
up an almost constant stream of
corpses from the submerged decks.
First 1t was gaily dressed girl in her
teens who had been caught between a
pile OF chairs and a cabin wall, Next it
was slight boy, gathered from the life-
less arms of father. who had chung to
his offspring even in death.
Then followed an old woman, who had
gone aboard the ship to watch the YOUTH
ful pleasure Of her grandchildren, or a
little girl with bare legs and bottees with
gay ribbons sodden against the lace of
her holiday gown.
One thrill passed through the crowd as
word came from the steamer that a girl
baby had been found alive among hun
dreds Of dead in the ship. The child was
discovered in starboard stateroom
where she had been held from the water
by chair that damned against the
berth. The baby only half awakened as
It was carried to land. Its mother could
not be found.
Estimate 800 in Hull
Two women were found alive in anoth-
er stateroom on the protruding side of
the Eastland, but that ended the hopes
that any number had escaped death in
The trap. There were still 800 persons II
The hold when the three persons were
AIKEN out alive and the explorers Of the
hulk said that IN were dead.
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