Just three weeks after capsizing at its dock and carrying more than 800 picnickers to their death, the ill-fated steamship "Eastland," its hull patched and decks stripped, was raised out of the mud of the Chicago River and towed into the "north branch."

A number of perplexing situations confronted the engineers in charge of the salvaging. The majority of these were more exasperating than serious, however, and served principally to delay the final operation of righting the vessel. The question of supplying sufficient power to float the half-submerged ship did not prove so troublesome in the end as did much of the preliminary work, although this constituted one of the interesting phases of the undertaking.

It will be remembered that the vessel listed away from its berth and turned over on the port side, submerging about two-thirds of its beam. After as many of the bodies had been recovered as could be reached, the funnels, spars, and all other deck obstructions, were cut off by divers and sealed. While this was being done the openings which had been ripped in the starboard side of the ship, by rescuers with oxyacetylene torches, were patched. Much difficulty was experienced in closing the portholes and gangways on the under side , for these were obstructed by great piles of luggage, ship furniture, and debris. The closing of the hatches was not so difficult.

Before the water could be pumped out of the vessel it was necessary to seal and reinforce the aft bulkhead, which had been broken through in attempts to penetrate the interior. This work, which presented one of the trying problems, had to be done by divers. The entire partition, approximately 26 feet long and 9 feet high, when in normal position, was reinforced by 2 by 10-in. planks lapped one over the other. Another thickness of lumber was placed over this, the planks crossing the first ones. Canvas was subsequently stretched over the whole to prevent leakage. The sealing of this wall prevented an inrush of water from the stern of the boat when the centrifugal pumps were started to expel that in the main part of the hull. After a part of this had been pumped out, however, the tremendous pressure against the bulkhead threatened to cause it to collapse. It was apparent that elaborate bracing was required to forestall this, so divers were again sent beneath the water to do the work. Beams were extended diagonally between the bulkhead and the deck, much of the carpentering being done with the use of block and tackle and pneumatic instruments.

The shifting of the coal in the bow to the port side, and the leakage of some of the holes which had been inadequately sealed, were also matters which contributed to delay the work. The ballast tanks on both sides were filled in order to provide rolling weight which would assist in righting the vessel and in balancing it when raised.

The "Favorite," a wrecking tug, was anchored at the bow of the "Eastland," while aft, near the stern, a large pontoon carrying a heavy hoisting apparatus was moored. Cables were extended entirely around the hull of the sunken ship from both of these vessels and secured to the starboard, or upturned, side. The forward cable was fastened to the iron standard streak and passed over a big sheave at the stern on the "Favorite." This line was then wound on a large winch. The aft cable reaching from the pontoon was fixed to the "chop" forward of the stern.

 

When everything was in readiness to attempt the actual righting of the vessel, both the "Favorite" and the pontoon were flooded until the tug was lowered 8-1/2 ft. and the latter 9 ft. The weight of the "Eastland" is about 1,200 tons. Its boilers held approximately 40 tons of water and its hold a large quantity of coal, while a considerable amount of water also remained in the hull. This was the load which had to be negotiated in order to keel the ship, which, it was estimated, would right itself upon being pulled to a 45 degree angle. When the engines had drawn up the cables until the tug and pontoon had been pulled as deeply into the water as advisable, pumps were started exhausting the water from both. It was the natural buoyancy of these two vessels, coupled with the work of the engines, that finally brought up the "Eastland".

Instead of righting itself at 45 degrees, however, the death ship had to be pulled to approximately 70 degrees. Before this point was reached the water was taken from the boilers and still more expelled from the hold. The ship was not completely trimmed, however, until the coal and wreckage, thrown to the port side, had been removed.

LAKE BOATS ENTER OCEAN STEAMSHIP SERVICE

Vessels for transatlantic and coastwise shipping have been in considerable demand since the opening of hostilities abroad. This has been responsible for the sale of a number of Great Lakes freighters to ocean steamship companies and the subsequent delivery of the ships at eastern ports. This has been done by taking the vessels through the Welland Canal, connecting lakes Erie and Ontario, and thence down the St. Lawrence River. The locks in the waterway, however, do not permit the passage of boats greater than 270 ft. in length, which has made it necessary in several instances to cut the freighters in two amidships and float the segments through separately. This was done with the 'Matoa' recently, which has a length of 291 ft. The ship was cut apart at Port Huron, Mich., and the hull sealed with heavy bulkheads. The aft part of the vessel proceeded under its own steam as it was steered by a tug, while the bow section was towed. Concurrent with this four other ships were similarly prepared at Buffalo for the trip.

COMMENT AND REVIEW

"Safety First" Eastland Memorial
At this writing the sorrow of the "Eastland" disaster is rapidly fading into history, while the usual investigations by various city, county, and Federal officials are progressing. Various causes will be set forth as more or less contributory, but the simple verdict of "overloading" will include all the others. Owners and managers, by reason of immunity from accident in the past, naturally grow impatient at restrictions imposed, and use every means to load to maximum capacity. A maximum load on either a man or machine is just a little more than prudence will suggest, as it removes that margin, though small, which furnishes the factor of safety.

The other Chicago calamity, the fire in the Iroquois theater a few years ago, also claimed chiefly as its victims women and children. That disaster so awakened the sluggish public that today scarcely a theater throughout the entire United States but has been made either safe or far less dangerous as a result.

The most imaginative novelist could scarcely have had the temerity to weave in fiction what actually took place in the case of the "Eastland", so unusual were the conditions and so startling the effect. Monuments in stone and a memorial of some benevolent character will commemorate the event, but the best memorial would be that which will make a repetition impossible, and safeguard the public for all time to come.

Scuttling American Ships
If an enemy had succeeded in driving the American Flag from the high seas only a fraction as effectively as our lawmakers have legally done, the whole nation would be aroused and in arms. Apparently no effort has been neglected to make the burden of flying the American Flag as heavy as possible.

As a result the Pacific Mail S.S. Co. will very soon withdraw its ships from the trans-Pacific trade; and when the Great Northern does the same, as its vessels are unprofitable, there will remain no American trans-Pacific line, and this vast oceanway will be left to Japan to claim and use. That Japan will not be slow to seize the opportunity goes without saying, for Japan subsidizes the ships that fly her flag, while the United States refuses a dollar of encouragement and imposes restrictions and requirements which are in effect a practical prohibition.

Even the Great Lakes are not immune; for when the idiotic La Follette act takes effect next November, the American Flag will come down from a forest of mastheads, not to fly again until the law is changed. Labor unions are credited with the conception of the La Follette bill, which was heralded as an act "to promote the welfare of American seamen," but which in its results will promote thousands of sailors out of a job. The Interstate Commerce Commission has also lent a helping hand, and the lake steamers of railroad lines will have to tie up. Inasmuch as these lines have not been particularly profitable under fairly good conditions in the past, it is not to be expected navigation companies will spring up and clamor to buy these ships. With the close of navigation on the Great Lakes next December, the American Flag will be practically exterminated on the inland seas. The boats will almost certainly be sold to other countries.

What a fine thing it all is; what a grand accomplishment; how proud we all should be to have made it almost a misdemeanor to fly our own flag, and to have thrown so many obstacles against its being flown from the masthead that an owner and captain stand a mighty good chance of going to jail every time they do it! While almost every other nation which has even a few miles of seacoast is striving in every way to encourage its marine, we, with the largest available seacoast on earth, have apparently neglected nothing to exterminate the little marine we had. This country will pay a costly penalty one of these days, and will reap in humiliation and dismay the bitter harvest which shortsighted and misguided politicians have sown for us.

FOUR real photographs of the Eastland - valuable exposure meters for Graflex and other camera - descriptive of the best Anastigmat Lens on earth, and the finest round-cornered roll-film camera made in America, all for ten cents in coin. Lafbury Co., 305 North Fifth Ave., Chicago.