The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1915-07-29
1000 LIVES LOST
WHEN SHIP SINKS
HUNDREDS, MOSTLY WOMEN AND
CHILDREN, PERISH IN A CHI
CAGO RIVER.
TRAGEDY SADDENS CHICAGO
Whole City Shocked When Excursion
Steamer Upsets at Pier-Most of
the Bodies Recovered.

Chicago. Bodies of" more than
one thousand persons have been
found, most of them women and
children, who were drowned within
a few feet of land by the capsizing of
the steel steamer Eastland, as it was
about to leave it's wharf in the Chicago
river with $500 relatives and friends
of the employees of the Western Elec-
trio company, for an excursion across
Lake Michigan. The ship rolled over
on it's side in Is feet of water and with
in five minutes after it began to list.
The total dead remained at approx
imately 1000 according to estimates
by Coroner Hoffman, whose reports
indicated that possibly 100 bodies were
held in the mud of the river by the
steamers superstructure. While only
LOOP Of the 2,408 passengers of the
Eastland have registered as saved, it
was thought that about Ats survivors,
including the crew of Y, had failed to
report.
Several persons were taken alive
from the cabins of the ship after it had
laid ON it's side in the river for four
hours, the the others said to be in
the hulk all are dead
Under the glare of searchlights at
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 monu-
ment to the hundreds it had drowned
as it turned over.
The cause of the capislzing had not
been determined but federal, city and
state officers were conducting investi-
cations to determine whether the ship
was top heavy from faulty designing,
was improperly bal1asted or was poor
1y handled in warping from the wharf.
Marine architects asserted that
the Eastland was faulty in design,
that the top dock had been removed
because of the tendency of the ship to
list and also pointed to the possibility
that the ship had been uneven1y or in
sufficiently ballasted. The Eastland
used water ballast, so that it could
pump out some on entering shallow
lake harbors, so some investigators
are working on a theory that the bal
last tanks were not filled and the rush
ing of passengers to one side of the
deck caused it to roll over.
Under misty skies, 1000 men, wo-
men and children wended their way
to the Clark street dock early in the
day to fill five large lake steamerers
with holiday mirth in a trip to Michi-
gan City. The steamer Eastland
brought to Chicago from Lake Erie
after an unsatisfactory career, was
the first to be loaded.
Rain began to fall as the wharf SUI
perintendent lifted the gang planks
from the vessel, declaring that the gov
eminent limit of $500 passengers had
been reached. White dresses peeped
from raincoats along the shore rails
as those aboard waved goodbye to
friends on shore who we're waiting to
board the steamer Roosevelt and 9TH
er vessels.
Then the passengers swarmed to the
left side of the ship as the other steam
ers drew up the river towards the
wharf. A tug was hitched to the East
the steamer engines began to hum.
The Eastland had not budged, how
ever
Instead, the heavily laden ship wav-
cred sidewise, leaning first towards
the river bank. The lurch was so
startling that. many passengers join
ed the large concourse already on the
river side of the decks.