Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-07-25


pleasure trip across Lake Michigan.
One Thousand Dead.
After working ceaselessly all day
and far into the night, the bodies OF
S42 victims Of the catastrophe, most
, Of them women and children, were
collected from temporary morgues
and taken to the Second Regiment Ar.
mory, where the bodies had been
tagged. Coroner Kaufman, taking in.
to consideration estimates Of bodies,
thought to be in the hold OF the
steamer lying on it's side in the river,
and in the stream itself, said that he
had hoped that the total dead would
not exceed 1000. a..r. .-. J..
Every effort was made by thous
ands of persons on the river wharf to
rescue the drowning men and women.
Mothers went to death While their
children were snatch to safey, and
other children died in the arms OF
their parents, who. We're finally saved.
Hundreds Of girls, released for a dccy
from their tasks Of making tele.
phones and lotller apparatus in the
factory Of the Western Electric com
pany,o and dressed in their smartest
white frocks, drowned miserably.
F'f Street in Mourning. ,.., ..,l.
koin avenue, a small street near
the factory of the Western Electric
company, was in universal mourning
tonight. Every house lost from one
to all of it's occupants in the disaster.
One large house, in which dWelt two
families of workers in the factory,
was without a light tonight and neigh
bors said that every ono of the house.
hold had been lost in the wreck.
Efforts to discover the cause of the
accident were begun long before the
work of rescue was over.
Officer Is Arrested.
w. G.. Steele, secretary and treas
urer of the St.. Joseph Chicago Steam
ship company, which owned the
steamer, Eastland, built on Lake Erie
in 1903, and remodeled later because
it was top-heavy, it is said, was ar
rested tonight and locked up at a po-
lice station. The steamer was leased
by the Indiana Transportation COM
pany, whose officers said they were
not responsible for the licensing Of
the ship and did not control the crew.
Faulty in Design. .5""
Under the glare Of searchlights to-
GIT scores of men worked in tle
hull Of the vessel to remove the bod
ics The steamer lay on the bottom
# the rivr, one side protruding like
monument to the hundreds it had
drowned as it turned over. The cause
& capsizing has not been determined
tonight, but federal, city and state
officers were conducting investiga.
ticns to determine whether the ship
was top heavy from faulty designing
:. as improperly ballasted, or was
poorly handled in wharfing from the
wharf. Marine architects asserted
that the Eastland was faulty in de-
sign. That the top deck had been
removed because of the tendency of
the snip to list, and also pointed to
the possibility that the ship had been
unevenly or insufficiently ballasted.
The Eastland used water ballast and
investigators are working on theory
that the ballast tanks were not filled,
and the rushing of passengers to one
side of the deck caused it to roll over.
Bound For Michigan City.
Under misty skies, 1000 men, wo-
men and c:lildren wended their way
to the river wharf early today to ill
five large lake steamers with holiday
mirth in trip to Michigan City. The
steamer Eastland, brought to Chicago
from Lake Erie, after an unsatisfac-
tory career, was the first to be load
ed
Rain began to fall as the wharf SUI
perintendent lifted the gang plank
from the Eastland, declaring that the
government limit of the $500 passen-
gers had been reached. White dress
es peeped from raincoats along the
shore rails as those aboard waved
goodbye to friends on shore waiting
to board the steamer Theodore Ro0se-
welt and other vessels.
Did Not Burge.
Then the passengers swarmed to
the left side of the ship as the other
steamr drw UP the river toward the
wharf. A tug was hitched to the
Eastland, ropes were ordered cast off
anfl tho Stonm or'c nnpinnc hnpan tn