Middletown transcript., 1915-07-31
STEAMER UPSET
LEAVING ITS DOCK
Over 1000 on Excursion Boat
Eastland Drown in
Chicago River.
PLACE BLAME ON INSPECTORS
Federal Officials Are Charged
With Negligence.

With Negligence.
States Attorney Hoyne selzes Core
spondenee Between Western Elec
trio Employees Organization and the
Transportation Company, Which
Shows That the More Tickets Sold
the Greater the Rebate PaId-sev
eral Employees Had Complained They
Were Compelled To Go On Picnic.
Chicago.-Plans for investigation BY
Federal. State and city official bodies
% determine who was to blame for the
capsizing Of the steamer Eastland in
the Chicago River Saturday with a loss
OF hundreds OF lives were completed
Monday. A coroner's jury will start
an Inquest Immediately, while Federal
departments, headed by Secretary
Redheld, and officers from the city Po-
lice Department and the Office Of the
states attorney, will gather evidence,
holding formal inquiry in allegiance
until the inquest has progressed as far
as possible.
Efforts continued to remove victims
OF the disaster from the wrecked shin
and to tabulate the dead to determine
whether the total death list would re-
man around 1000. as many believed,
or creep up to 1900 or more, as others
predicted. Registration Of employees
by the Western Electric Company
showed nearly 400 missing, but many
OF the names Of these were included
in the list OF 826 bodies already identi-
fed. 1t was said also that probably a
goodly number did not report at the
plant, although safe.
The probability of swelling the list
above 1000 was suggested by the an
nouncement Of detectives from the
states attorneys Office that they had
seized the tickets taken from passen-
gers boarding the Bastland for the ex-
cursion to Michigan City, Ind. They
asserted that these tickets numbered
1850, and did not account for children,
musicians and the 72 members of the
crew. They estimated that the total
number Of persons aboard the steamer
might have been $500 or more, In
stead Of the 2,4sO previously an
nounced by officers Of the Indiana
Transportation Company. The lessees
Of the ship asserted that 2,4O8 pas
senger tickets had been collected.
Selzes CorFespondence,
States Attorney Maclay Hoyne, in
pursuing his investigation, seized cor
respondence which had passed be-
tween officers Of the Western Electric
Employees Organization, which gave
the picnic. and the Indiana Transpor-
tation Company, operating the EAST
land and four other steamers set aside
10 carry more than 1000 persons
across the lake.
Chicago.-More than 1000 persons,
most of them women and children,
were drowned Saturday within a few
feet Of land by the capsizing Of the
steel steamer Eastland as it was about
to leave its wharf in the Chicago river
with $500 relatives and friends of en-
ployes of the Western Electric Com
pany for an excursion across Lake
Michigan. The ship rolled over on
Its side in 25 feet Of water within five
minutes after it began to list.
Three Investigations Under Way.
The cause of the capsizing has not
been determined, but Federal, city and
State officers are conducting investi-
cations to determine whether the ship
was top heavy from faulty designing
was improperly ballasted or was poor
ly handled in warping from the wharf.
Marine architects asserted that the
Eastland was faulty in design, that
the top deck had been removed be-
cause of the tendency of the ship to
list and also pointed to the possibility
that the ship had been unevenly 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 theory that the bal
last tanks were not filled and the
rushing of passengers to one side of
the deck caused it to roll over.
1000 Were Out For Merry Day.
Under misty skies 1000 men, women
and children wended their way to the
Clark street dock to fill five large lake
steamers with holiday mirth in trip
to Michigan City. The steamer East
land, brought to Chicago from Lake
Erie after an unsatisfactory career,
was the first to be loaded.
Rain began to fall as the wharf
superintendents lifted the gangplanks