The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-07-29
ONE THOUSAND LIYESLOST
STEAMER SINKS IN CHICAGO
RIVER.
Eastland, Carrying $500 Persons,
Overturns at Whar.-Ship De-
clared to Have Been Defective.

1000 persons lost their lives IN the
Chicago river today by the capsizing
Of the excursion 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 Mich
igan.
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 in temporary morgues and
taken to the <2nd 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, ly-
ing on it's side in the river, and in the
stream itself, said he believed the
total dead would not exceed 1000.
Steamer Declared Top-heavy.
The Eastland, said by marine ar
chitects to have been top-heavy and
ballasted in an uncertain manner,
turned over inside of five minutes af-
ter it began to list, pouring its pas
sengers into the river or imprisoning
them in it's submerged hull.
Every effort was made by thou
sands of persons on the river wharf
to rescue the drowning men, women
and children, but many went down
almost within grasp of the river bank.
Mothers went to death, while their
children were snatched to safety
Other children died in the arms OF
their parents, who finally were saved.
Hundreds of girls, freed for a day
from their tasks of making tele-
phones and other electrical appara-
fuses in the factory of the Western
Electric company, dressed in their
smartest white frocks, drowned.
A pail Of sorrow hung tonight
over the entire West Side Of Chica-
20, where the majority Of the victims
lived.
Every Home in Mourning.
Kolin avenue, a small street near
the factory of the Western Electric
company, was in universal mourning.
Every house lost from one to all its
occupants in the disaster, and many
of the residents of this street tonight
lay in the morgue or beneath the
steel hull Of the Eastland, over which
searchlights shot their binding glare,
while hundreds of men searched for
more bodies.
Efforts to discover the cause OF the
accident were begun long before the
work of rescue was over. Federal
and county grand juries were order
ed. a coroner's jury was impanelled
and all of the officers and crew Of
the Eastiand were arrested.
W. C. Steele, secretary and treas
urer of the St. Joseph-Chicago Steam
ship company, who owned the East
land, built on Lake Erie in 1903, and
remodelled later because top-heavy,
it is said, was arrested tonight and
locked up at police station. The
steamer was leased by the Indiana
Transportation company, whose Of
ficers said they were not responsible
for the licensing of the ship and did
not control the crew.
Under misty skies 1000 men,
women and children went to the
Clark street dock early today to fill
five large lake steamers with holiday
mirth in a trip to Michigan City. The
steamer Eastland was the first to be
loaded.
Rain began to fall as the wharf
superintendent lifted the gangplanks
from the Eastland, declaring that the
government limit of $500 passengers
had been reached.
Eastland Fails to Move.
The passengers swarmed to the
left side of the ship as the other
steamers drew up the river towards
the wharf. A tug was hitched to the
Eastland, ropes were ordered cast OF
and the steamers engines began to
hum. The Eastland had not budged,
however.
Instead the heavily laden ship wa
vered 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 decks.
The ship never heeled back; it
turned slowly, but steadily. toward
its left side. Children clutched the
skirts of mothers and sisters to keep
from falling. Water began to enter
lower port holes and the hawsers tore
out the spikes to which the vessel
was tied.