The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1915-07-30
MORE THAN 1000 PERISH WHEN
HEAviLYILADEN STEAMER
cAPSIZES AT WHARF.
$500 PEOPLE WERE ABOARD
Employee Of Western Electric Conn
pany Were Of For Day Of Pleas
ure-Boat Sinks in Sight Of
Of Thousands.

bA40A4 lives LA Iu0 SuICd6O 4AvO1 OA
July "a by the capsizing of the excur-
sion steamer Eastland while warping
from its wharf with more than 2,40O
employees of the Western Electric
Company and their relatives and
friends on board, bound for a pleasure
trip across Lake Michigan.
After working ceaselessly all day
and far into the night, the bodies of
842 victims of the catastrophe, most
Of them women and children, were col
iected from temporary morgues and
taken to the Second Regiment Armory.
When these bodies had been tagged,
Coroner Hoffman. taking into consid-
Grafton estimates of bodies thought to
be in the hold Of the steamer, lying on
its side in the river, and in the stream
itself. said he hopes that the total dead
would not exceed 1000.
The Eastland, said by marine archi-
tects to have been tOpheavy and ba>
lasted in an uncertain ann urned
over inside of five minutes after it be-
gan to list, pouring its gala passengers
into the river or imprisoning them IL
its submerged hull.
Every effort was made by thousands
of persons on the river wharf to res
cue the drowning men, women and
children, but many went down almost
within grasp of the river bank. Moth
ers went to death while their children
we're snatched to safety. Other chill
dren 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, drowned
miserably.
A pail of sorrow hung over the en-
tire West Side of Chicago, where the
majority of the victims lived. Kolin
Avenue, a small street near the fac
tory of the Western Electric Com
pany, was in universal mourning. Ev-
cry house lost from n to all it's occu-
pants in the disaster.
: 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, a
coroner's jury was empanelel and all
the officers and crew of the Eastland
were arrested.
w. c. Steele. secretary and treas
urer of the st. Joseph-Chicago Steam
ship Company. who owned the East
fand. built IN Lake Erie in 1908, and
remodeled later, because tOp-heavy, it
Is said, was also arrested and locked
up at a police station. The steamer
vas leased by the Indiana Transports.
tion Company. whose officers said
they were not responsible for the Ii
censing Of the ship and did not con
troll the crew.
Under the glare of searchlights
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 a monument
to the hundreds it had drowned as i
turned yer
Marine architects asserted that tn.
Eastland was faulty in design, tina
the top deck had been removed b,
cause of the tendency of the ship t,
list, and also pointed to the POSSIBLE
ity that the ship had been u~nevenl.
or insufficiently ballasted. The East
land used water ballast. so that /
could pump out some on entering
shallow lake harbors; so many inves
tigators are working on a theory tina
the ballast tanks were not filled an,
that the rushing of passengers to on
side of the decks caused it to rol
over.
Under misty skies 1000 men, won
en- and children went to the Clar
Street dock early on the morning O
July "a to fill five large lake steam
ers with holiday mirth in a trip t
Michigan City. The steamer Eastlan
vas the first to be loaded.
Rain began to fall as the wharf 8,
perintendents lifted the gang plank
from the Eastland.s declaring that tn
government limit of $500 passenger
had been reached.
The passengers swarmed to he lei
side Of the ship az the other steamer
drew up the river toward the whar
A tug was hitched to the Eastlant
sopes were ordered cast off and tn
Riot Ae Morque.
Chicago-Shoytly after the openfn
of the great m0rgue at the Secon
Regiment Armory to the public, tn