The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1915-07-29
sOl LOST IN RIVER


CONTINUED from frat page.
dren, deck gear and furniture slid
into the water in a conglomerate
mass.
Beginning late Saturday night, a
line began passing through the ar
mory. They came all through the
night and all day Sunday. Identifica-
tions were made with rapidity and
unidentified bodies Sunday night had
dwindled to less than ona hundred.
Tension and repression were
shown in the Identification line.
Those who walked In 1t had given up
hope and with clenched hands, steel
ed themselves for thc sight they
sought but dreaded. A. fast as iden-
tifications were made the bodies were
turned over to undertakers and car
ried to lines of hearses drawn up
alongside the armory.
Ministers said more people attend
ed church Sunday than for many
prayer and thought. The preachers
nearly all asked congregations to
join in prayers for the bcreaved.
With the details of the catastrophe
summed up people shuddered that q
thousand people would go to their
deaths with hundreds of persons pow
erless to aid standing within a stones
.hrow-that that great mass could
drown in a narrow river twenty feet
from the dock.
The Eastland and four other
steamers had been chartered for the
picnic occasion. Under misty skies
seven thousand men, women and
| children went to the Clark street
| dock early Saturday to fill five large
lake steamers with holiday mirth in
| er Eastland was the first to be load
| ed.
Rain began to fall as the wharf
| superintendents lifted the gang
blanks from the Eastland, declaring
that the government limit of twenty
five hundred passengers had been
| reached.
| The passengers swarmed to the left
| side OF the ship as the other steamers
drew up the river toward the wharf.
| A tug was hitched to the Eastland, ,
ropes were ordered cast off and the
steamer engines began to hum. The
Eastland had not budged; however.
Instead, the heavily laden ship
wavered sidewise, leaning first to-
ward the river bank. The lurch was
/
the large concourse already on the
river side Of the decks.
| The ship never heeled back. 1t
turned slowly but steadily toward it's
left side. Children clutched the skirts
Of their mothers and sisters to keen
| from falling. Water began to enter
lower port holes and the hawsers
tore out the piles to which the vessel
was tied.
| Screams from passengers attracted
the attention of fellow excursionists
on the dock awaiting the next steam
er. Wharf men and picnickers soon
lined the edge OF the embankment
reaching out helplessly toward the
wavering steamer.
For nearly five minutes the shin
turned before 1t finally dived under
the swift current of the river. Dur
ing the listing of the vessel lifeboats
chairs and other loose appurtenances
on the decks slipped down the slop-
ing floors, crushing the passengers
toward the rising waters.
Then there was plunge with q
sigh of air escaping from the hold
mingled with crying Of children and
shrieks OF women and the ship was
on the bottom of the river, casting
hundreds of living creatures to the
| water.
Many sank entangled with cloth
ing and bundles and did not rise, but
hundreds, coming to the surface
seized floating chairs and other OBJ
iects. Persons on shore threw out
ropes and dragged in those who
would hold the lifelines.
| Employees of commission firms
along the river threw crates, chicken
coops and other floatable objects into
the water, but most Of these were
swept away by the current
| Boats put out, tugs rushed to the
scene, with shrieking whistles and
many men jumped into the river to
aid the drowning. With thousands
of spectators ready to aid and the
wharf within grasp hundreds went
to death despite every effort at res
| cue.
! One mother grasped her two chill
1ren in her arms as she slipped from
he steamer into the water. One
child was torn from her, but she and
The other were saved Fathers were
drowned after aiding their wives and
children to safety.
| one man was seen to cling to a
spike in the side OF the wharf while
two women and three children step
ped upon his body to safety. He fell
| exhausted into the river as the last
Of one Of the five reached the pier.
Instances Of heroism were almost