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Show STEAMER CAPSIZES IN CHICAGO RIVER THOUSAND LIVES LOST WHEN CROWDED VESSEL MEETS WITH ACCIDENT. More Than Twenty five Hundred Men, Women and Children Thrown into I Water in Dense Mass, While Many Drovyi In Cabins. 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 Mlchigau. Many were drowned in the cabins. The bodies of 809 victims had been recovered Mouday morning, after forty for-ty hours of searching by divers around the steel hulk, still lying on its side, half submerged. 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 been loaded, a tug was hitched to the ill fated vessel, ropes were ordered cast off and the engines began to hum. The Eastland had not budged, however. Instead, the heavily laden ship wavered sideways, leaning first toward to-ward the river bank. The lurch was so startling that many passengers Joined the large concourse already on the other side of the. decks. The ship then heeled back. It turned slowly but steadily towards its left side. Children clutched the ekirts 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 embank-. 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 Bigh 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 and 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 pf these were swept away by the Btream. Boats were put out, tugs rushed tc 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 gained entrance to the hull the scene qf distress dis-tress moved for the time heine 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 floor. Kcores of persons taken from the water wa-ter were severely Injured and these were taken to the Irlquols 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 tnken from the river were unsuccessful, except ex-cept In two or three Instances. It was also said that many of those Injured would dlo. |