THE ARIZONA REPUBLICAN, Friday July 30, 1915
EXTRA! | JULY 25 | JULY 26 | JULY 27 | JULY 28 | JULY 29 | JULY 30 | JULY 31

WHY EASTLAND TURNED TURTLE STILL UNKNOWN

[Associated Press Dispatch] CHICAGO, July 29 -- Interest is centered in the federal government's effort to fix the blame for the capsizing of the steamer Eastland on Saturday with a resultant loss of hundreds of lives. The state investigation of the disaster was halted temporarily to await the service of mittimi upon the six men charged by the coroner's jury with responsibility for the disaster.

William Redfield, Secretary of Commerce, is in charge of one government investigation, and a federal grand jury impaneled by Federal Judge Landis is conducting another. The grand jury examined the Eastland as she lay in the river while the wreckers proceeded at the work of righting the ship.

Nothing to throw new light on the cause of the capsizing of the Eastland was developed before Redfield. Inspectors and others expressed an opinion that under-ballasting or improper manipulating of the water ballast tanks upset the ship.

The missing list has dwindled to 200 names. Walter Greenbaum, lessee of the Eastland; Engineer Erickson, Captain Harry Pederson, three of the six held responsible by the coroner's jury, have been arrested. Greenbaum was released on $20,000 bail. Erickson and Pederson have not furnished bail.

The sheriff learned that he could not arrest William Hull, general manager of the Chicago & St. Joseph Steamship company, the owner of the Eastland, as he is in Chicago on a federal subpoena from his home in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Four bodies were recovered today, making a total found of 834.

Redfield, aided by members of the steamboat inspection service, Solicitor A.L. Thurman of the Department of Commerce, and a number of civilians, invited as an advisory board, heard several witnesses, and will continue the investigation tomorrow. United States District Attorney C.F. Clyne, who had arranged the the witnesses shall go before the grand jury, said that every angle of the case would be probed.

Robert Reed of Grand Haven, Michigan, the federal inspector who granted the Eastland permission to increase the passengers from 2200 to 2500 on July 2, testified that the ship had ample room for even more passengers and had complied with the law in providing the legal amount of life preservers, boats and life rafts. He said he had seen the ship carry 3000 safely.

Quicktime bombs were used today in an attempt to force the corpses from the bottom of the river, without success. Divers who have worked around the wreck for five days say that nine bodies discovered during the last three days indicate that not many more are to be found.

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