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Show Identification of victims was all but completed Monday night, except for corpses still in the river. Checking against duplications in the various lists proceeded all night. More than $200,000 was subscribed by business houses and individuals on Monday to alleviate any suffering among those who had lost their sources of support in the tragedy. While several families were almost wiped out, most of the households affected af-fected lost only one or two members. Many of the employees of the Western West-ern Electric company had been working work-ing on part time, but with the aid of the National Red Cross it is thought that there will be no suffering for lack of funds. William Olander, secretary of the Lake Seamen's union, said on Monday that there were many other ships on the Great lakes as dangerous as the Eastland because of faulty construction. construc-tion. He held that the Eastland was not properly designed and charged that United States inspectors under Captain Charles H. Westcott of Detroit, De-troit, chief of the lake district, had played into the hands of shipowners at the expense of sailors and passengers. passen-gers. He said this was shown by the fact that thirty-one ships passed by the inspectors had sunk in the great lakes since 1905, several of them taking tak-ing all on board to death. The coroner, the state's attorney and city officers reiterate their charge that all the possible causes for the disaster dis-aster could be blamed to negligence by federal Inspectors, or failure of federal officers to enforce marine laws. The last inspection of the Eastland was made by Robert Reid, government inspector at St. Joseph, Mich., who declared de-clared the steamer fit this spring and procured a position as chief engineer of the boat for his son-in-law, J. M. Erickson. THOUSAND LIVES ARE LOST WHEN BOA! CAPSIZES 6TEAMER LOADED WITH PLEASURE PLEAS-URE SEEKERS TURNS TURTLE IN CHICAGO RIVER. Many of Victims Had No Chance of Escape, Being Penned in Sunken Vessel and Drowned Like Rats in a Trap. Chicago. A thousand persons lost their lives in the Chicago river on July 24 by the capsizing of the excursion excur-sion steamer Eastland while warping from Its wharf with more than 2.500 employees of the Western Electric company and their relatives and friends on board, bound for a pleasure pleas-ure trip across Lake Michigan. Many were drowned in the cabins. The bodies of 809 victims had been recovered Monday morning, after forty for-ty hours of searching by divers around the steel hulk, still lying on its side, half submerged. The total dead as a result of the turning over of the ship still remains at approximately 1,000, according to estimates made by Coroner Hoffman, whose reports Indicated that probably 200 bodies still were held in the mud of the river by the superstructure of the overturned, boat. Efforts to discover the cause of the accident were begun long before the work of rescue was over. Federal and county grand juries were ordered, a coroner's jury was impaneled and all the officers and crew of the Eastland were arrested. President Wilson has ordered that & complete investigation be made by the department of commerce into the sinking of the excursion steamer Eastland. Acting Secretary Sweet, of the department, sent him word that the cause of the disaster would be looked into and the president directed that nothing be left undone to fix the responsibility. Fully 7,000 men, women and children chil-dren came down to the river wharf to 'board the. boats for a holiday excursion. excur-sion. The lake steamer Eastland had keen loaded, a tug was hitched to the 111 fated vessel, ropes were ordered cast off and the engines began to sum. The Eastland had not budged, however. Instead, the heavily laden ship .wavered sideways, leaning -first toward to-ward the river bank. The lurch was Ibo startling that many passengers 'Joined the large concourse already on the other side of the decks. I The ship then heeled bacV It turned slowly . hut steadily towards its left side. Children clutched the skirts of mothers and sisters to keep from falling. The whole cargo was impelled towards the falling side of the ship. Water began to enter lower low-er portholes, and the ropes snapped off the piles to which the vessel was tied. Screams from passengers attracted the attention of fellow excursionists on the wharf awaiting the next steamer. Wharfmen and picnickers soon lined the edge of the embankment, embank-ment, reaching out helplessly towards the wavering steamer. For nearly five minutes the ship turned before it finally dived under the swift current of the river, which, owing to the drainage canal system, flows from the lake. During the mighty turning of the ship with its cargo of humanity, lifeboats, chairs and other loose appurtenances on the decks slipped down the sloping floors, crushing the passengers toward the rising waters. Then there was a plunge with a 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 its passengers into the water. Many sank, entangled with clothing and bundles, and did not rise, but scores came to the surface, giving the river the appearance of a crowded bathing beach. Many seized floating chairs and other objects. Those on shore threw out ropes apd dragged in those who could hold these life lines. Employees of commission firms with houses along the ' river threw crates, chicken coops and other floatable things into the current, but most of these were swept away by the Btream. Boats were put out. tugs rushed to the scene with shrieking whistles, and many men snatched off their coats and sprang into the river to aid the drowning. drown-ing. With thousands of spectators ready to aid and the wharf within grasp, hundreds went to death, despite every effort at rescue. One mother grasped her two children chil-dren in her arms as she slipped from the 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.' Stories of heroism were almost as numerous as the number of persons on the scene immediately after the disaster. disas-ter. Divers were placed at work as soon as possible, and as the divers gaineJ entrance to the hull the scene of distress dis-tress moved for the time being from the river to the improvised morgues. Warehouses of wholesale companies along the river were thrown open and bodies were laid in rows on the floors. Scores of persons taken from the water wa-ter were severely injured and these were taken to the Iriquois hospital, built in memory of the 600 women, children and a few men who were burned and crushed to death in the Iroquois theatre New Year's eve several sev-eral years ago. Efforts to resuscitate those taken from the river were unsuccessful, ex cept in two or three instances. It wa i also said that many of those injured would die. Capt. Harry Pedersen, 57 years old, who was in command of the steamer Eastland when it capsized, said: "I was on the bridge and was about ready to pull out when I noticed the boat begin to list. I shouted orders to open the inside doors nearest the dock and give the people a chance to get out. The boat continued to roll and shortly afterwards the hawsers broke and the steamer turned over on her side and was drifting toward the middle of the river. When she went over I jumped and held on to the upper up-per side. It all happened in two minutes. min-utes. "The cause is a mystery to me. I have sailed the lakes for twenty-five years and previous to that sailed on salt water twrelve years and this is the first serious accident I ever had. I do not know how it happened." To make sure that none of the members mem-bers of the crew should avoid the inquest in-quest and other inquiries, eight more of the crew were arrested. Nearly all of the seventy-two men employed on the ship are now held, in addition to Walter C. Steele, secretary of the company owning the boat. The county grand jury was ordered held in session to take cognizance of any evidence of criminal negligence in connection with the overturning of the Eastland. |