APPALLING STEAMER DISASTER

Southland Times, Issue 17483, 26 July 1915, Page 5

APPALLING STEAMER DISASTER

i * HOLIDAY SHIP TURNS OVER. DREADFUL DOSS OF DIKE. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright) CHICAGO. .Inly 24. Tiie Electric Company's employees chartered the steamer Eastland for a day's picnicking. Two thousand live hundred persons crowded aboard while tiie vessel was moored to the wharf. The weight of humanity caused the vessel to list and many fell and rolled to the j wrong side. The vessel heeled over, 1 broke tlm hawsers, and floated out to : (he middle of the river with one side ! .submerged. Amidst scenes of panic ■ scores were drowned in the cabins. I Others leaped into the river. A steamer ! put out boats and rescued hundreds. ! Policemen in launches picked up many. | Scori-s clambered on to the side of tiie j Eastland while site was floating slowly j down the river. These were all saved. ! It is believed that 701< bodies are still j aboard in the flooded cabins. Difesavcr.s I are culling through the ship's sides, hopi ing to reach any who may have survived. I One polieeniati in a boat rescued fifty women and children. Three hundred | bodies have heen recovered. ! OFFICIALS A RRESTED. MANY XARI'.OW ESCAPES ACCIDENT DUE TO DEFECT. IX STEAMER'S CONSTRUCTION, CHICAGO, .Inly 24. Received .Inly 2a. R. 25 p.m. The police arrested all tiie officials in the steamship company. The crowd threatened to lynch them en route to the police station. There were many remarkable escapes. One man, unable to swim, was caught by his coat on a nail and held up. The firemen chopped through the sides of the ship but everyone was dea.d, the bodies being piled up like hales of merchandise. There were pathetic scenes at the morgue. Tire Customs reported that the vessel carried no more passengers than the regulations provided for. Survivors describe the sinking like a lightning stroke, and it was impossible to effect rescues. Divers are recovering many bodies. The city is in mourning. Tt is impossible io ascertain the number oijjgidead. but it is known they exceed a thousand. The accident is believed to be due to a. defect in the steamer's const ruction.