The
steamboatA steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels....
Sultana was a
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
paddlewheeler destroyed in an explosion on 27 April, 1865. This resulted in the greatest maritime disaster in
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history. An estimated 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers were killed when one of the ship's four boilers exploded and the
Sultana sank not far from
Memphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
. This disaster received somewhat diminished attention as it took place soon after the
assassinationThe assassination of Abraham Lincoln, one of the last major events in the American Civil War, took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre with his wife and two guests.Lincoln's assassin,...
of President
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery...
and during the closing weeks of the
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
.
The wooden steamship was constructed in 1863 by the John Lithoberry Shipyard on Front Street in
Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was estimated to be 333,336 in 2008, making it the state's third largest city...
, and intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade.
The
steamboatA steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels....
Sultana was a
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
paddlewheeler destroyed in an explosion on 27 April, 1865. This resulted in the greatest maritime disaster in
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history. An estimated 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers were killed when one of the ship's four boilers exploded and the
Sultana sank not far from
Memphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
. This disaster received somewhat diminished attention as it took place soon after the
assassinationThe assassination of Abraham Lincoln, one of the last major events in the American Civil War, took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre with his wife and two guests.Lincoln's assassin,...
of President
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery...
and during the closing weeks of the
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
.
The Sultana
The wooden steamship was constructed in 1863 by the John Lithoberry Shipyard on Front Street in
Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was estimated to be 333,336 in 2008, making it the state's third largest city...
, and intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. Weighing 1,719 tons, the steamer normally carried a crew of 85. For two years, the Sultana ran a regular route between
St. LouisSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
and
New OrleansNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
. The steamship was frequently commissioned by the
War DepartmentThe United States Department of War, also called the War Office, was the cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the US Army...
to carry troops.
The tragedy
Under the command of Captain J.C. Mason of St. Louis, the
Sultana left New Orleans on April 21, 1865, with 75 to 100 cabin passengers, deck passengers, and numerous heads of livestock bound for market in St. Louis. At
Vicksburg, MississippiVicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located 234 miles northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and 40 miles due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910,...
, the steamship stopped for a series of hasty repairs to the boilers and to take on more passengers. Rather than have a bad boiler replaced, a small patch repair was made to reinforce a leaking area. A section of bulged boiler plate was removed, and a patch of less thickness than the parent plate was riveted in its place. This repair only took about a day, whereas to replace the boiler completely would have taken about three days. Captain Mason was itching to be on his way and had the patch job done because it was faster. During the Sultana's time in port, men tried to muscle, bribe, and threaten their way on board, until the ship was bursting at the seams with soldiers. More than two thousand men crowded aboard.
Most of the new passengers were Union soldiers, chiefly from
OhioDuring the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort...
and just released from
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
prison campsA prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
such as
CahawbaCahaba Prison, also known as Castle Morgan, was a prisoner of war camp in Alabama where the Confederacy held captive Union soldiers during the American Civil War. The prison was located in the small Alabama town of Cahaba, at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers, not far from...
and Andersonville. The US government had contracted with the
Sultana to transport these former
prisoners of warA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
back to their homes. With a legal capacity of only 376, the
Sultana was severely overcrowded. Many of Sultana's passengers had been weakened by their incarceration and associated illnesses. Passengers were packed into every available berth, and the overflow was so severe that the decks were completely packed.
The cause of the explosion was a leaky and poorly repaired steam boiler. There was reason to believe allowable working steam pressure was exceeded attempting to overcome the spring river current. The boiler (or "boilers") gave way when the steamer was about 7 to 9 miles north of Memphis at 2:00 A.M. There was a terrific explosion that sent some of the passengers on deck into the water while destroying a good portion of the ship. Hot coals scattered by the explosion soon turned the remaining superstructure into an inferno, the glare of which could be seen in Memphis.
The first boat on the scene at about 3:00 A.M. (an hour after the explosion) was the southbound steamer
Bostonia II which overtook the burning wreck and rescued scores of survivors. The hulk drifted to the west bank and sank about dawn off the tiny settlement of Mound City, Arkansas. Other vessels joined the rescue, including the steamer
Arkansas, the
Jenny Lind, the
Essex, and the Navy sidewheel gunboat USS
Tyler, manned by volunteers. The ship's regular crew had been discharged days before.
Passengers who survived the initial explosion had to risk their lives in the icy spring runoff of the Mississippi or burn with the ship. Many died of drowning or
hypothermiaHypothermia is a condition in which an organism's temperature drops below that required for normal metabolism and body functions. In warm-blooded animals, core body temperature is maintained near a constant level through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
. Some survivors were plucked from trees along the
ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
shore. Bodies of victims continued to be found downriver for months, some as far as Vicksburg. Many bodies were never recovered. The
Sultana's officers, including Captain Mason, were among those who perished.
About 500 survivors, many with horrible burns, were transported to hospitals in Memphis. Up to 300 of them died later from burns or exposure. Newspaper accounts indicate that the people of Memphis had sympathy for the victims despite the fact that they had recently been enemies. The Chicago Opera Troupe staged a benefit, the crew of the
Essex raised $1,000, and the mayor took in three survivors.
Monuments and historical markers to the
Sultana and its victims have been erected at
Memphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
;
Muncie, IndianaMuncie is a city in Center Township, Delaware County in east central Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University and the birthplace of the Ball Corporation. It is the principal city of the Muncie, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 118,769...
;
Marion, ArkansasMarion is a city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 8,901 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Crittenden County, and is part of the Memphis metropolitan area...
;
Vicksburg, MississippiVicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located 234 miles northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and 40 miles due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910,...
;
Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was estimated to be 333,336 in 2008, making it the state's third largest city...
;
Knoxville, TennesseeFounded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is also the largest city in East Tennessee. As of the 2000 United States Census, Knoxville had a total population of 173,890; the July 2007...
;
Hillsdale, MichiganHillsdale is a city in the state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 8,233. It is the county seat of Hillsdale County, and is run as a council-manager government...
; and
Mansfield, OhioMansfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Richland County. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau, approximately 80 miles southwest of Cleveland and 66 miles northeast of Columbus.It was founded in 1808 on a...
.
Casualties
No exact death toll is known. Estimates range from 1,300 to 1,900. The official count by the
United States Customs ServiceUntil March 2003, the United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties....
was 1,547. Modern historians tend to concur on a figure of "up to 1,800". Final estimates of survivors were between 700-800. Many of the dead were interred at the
Memphis National CemeteryMemphis National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the Nutbush neighborhood of the City of Memphis, in Shelby County, Tennessee...
.
Cause
The official cause of the
Sultana disaster was determined to be mismanagement of water levels in the boiler, exacerbated by "careening." The
Sultana was severely overcrowded and top heavy. As the steamship made its way north following the twists and turns of the river, the Sultana listed severely to one side then the other. The Sultanas four boilers were interconnected and mounted side-by-side, so that if the ship tipped sideways, water would tend to run out of the highest boiler. With the fires still going against the empty boiler, this created hot spots. When the ship tipped the other way, water rushing back into the empty boiler would hit the hot spots and flash instantly to steam, creating a sudden surge in pressure. This effect of careening could have been minimized by maintaining high water levels in the boilers. The official inquiry found that Sultana
's boilers exploded due to the combined effects of careening, low water level, and a faulty repair to a leaky boiler made a few days earlier.
In 1888, a St. Louis resident named William Streetor claimed that his former business partner, Robert LoudenRobert Louden was a Confederate messenger and partisan in the American Civil War.Louden was said to be the primary messenger for delivering messages from Sterling Price to Confederate regulars and bushwhackers. He was involved with the sinking of several Union steamboats in St...
, made a deathbed confession of having sabotaged the Sultana
by a coal torpedoThe coal torpedo was a hollow iron casting filled with explosives and covered in coal dust, deployed by the Confederate Secret Service during the American Civil War, and intended for doing harm to Union steam transportation...
. Louden was a former Confederate agent and saboteur who operated in and around St. Louis. Louden had the opportunity and motive to attack the Sultana. He may have had access to the means. (
Thomas Edgeworth CourtenayThomas Edgeworth Courtenay was a member of the Confederate Secret Service and the inventor of the coal torpedo, a bomb disguised as a lump of coal that was used to attack Union steam-powered warships and transports....
, the inventor of the coal torpedo, was a former resident of St. Louis and was involved in similar acts of sabotage against Union shipping interests.) Supporting Louden's claim are eyewitness reports that a piece of artillery shell was observed in the wreckage. Louden's claim is controversial, however, and most scholars support the official explanation.
Survivors
An East Tennessee Sultana survivors' group met annually on April 27 until 1928, when four survivors were left.
Remnants found
In 1982, a local archaeological expedition uncovered what was believed to be the wreckage of the Sultana. Blackened wooden deck planks and timbers were found about 32 feet under a soybean field on the Arkansas side, about four miles from Memphis. The Mississippi River has changed course several times since the disaster. The main channel now flows about two miles east of its 1865 position.
Music
Jay FarrarJay Farrar, is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. A veteran of two critically-acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond his established talents as a songwriter, he is a guitarist, harmonicist, and a...
of the band
Son VoltSon Volt is an alternative country group formed by Jay Farrar in 1994 after the breakup of the band Uncle Tupelo.-History:The group formed after Farrar met Jim and Dave Boquist during the final Uncle Tupelo tour. Together with former Uncle Tupelo drummer Mike Heidorn, the band rehearsed and...
wrote a song called "Sultana" which pays tribute to the "the worst American disaster of the maritime." Farrar calls the ship the "the Titanic of the Mississippi" in the song which can be found on the "American Central Dust" album.
The norwegian group Titanic had a hit in 1971 with an instrumental called Sultana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(band)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdh8jA7vsiM
Artwork
The J. Mack Gamble Fund of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen and the Friends and Descendants of the Sultana sponsored a mural entitled The Sultana Departs from Vicksburg
as one of the Vickburg Riverfront Murals. It was dedicated on April 9, 2005.
Further reading
Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History" (Collins, 2009) ISBN 0061470546 ISBN 978-0061470547
Chuck NorrisCarlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist, actor and media personality. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
, Ken Abraham, Aaron NorrisAaron Norris is an American film producer, director, actor.-Personal information:Norris, who is of Irish and Cherokee heritage, is the brother of Chuck Norris....
, Tim Grayem, "Justice Riders" Historical fiction involving the Sultana disaster- Broadman and Holman 2006 ISBN 978-0805440324
Stephen Ambrose: Remembering Sultana, National Geographic News, May 1, 2001
Margie Riddle Bearss: "Messenger of Lincoln Death Herself Doomed," The Lincoln Herald (Spring 1978), pages 49–51.
Chester D. Berry: Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences of Survivors (University of Tennessee Press, 2005) ISBN 1-57233-372-3 (First published 1892)
William O. Bryant: Cahaba Prison and the "Sultana" Disaster (University of Alabama Press, 1990) ISBN 0-8173-0468-1
Hank Harvey, retired staffer for The (Toledo) Blade, coverage on Sultana disaster, Sunday, October 27, 1996, Section C, Pages 3,6.
Jerry O. Potter: The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster (Pelican Publishing, 1992) ISBN 0-88289-861-2
Gene Eric Salecker: Disaster on the Mississippi: the Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865. Naval Institute Press, 1996. ISBN 1-55750-739-2
Gene Eric Salecker: "A Tremendous Tumult and Uproar." America's Civil War, May 2002, Vol. 15 Issue 2
G. E. and Deb Rule: "The Sultana: A case for sabotage." North and South Magazine, vol. 5, issue 1.
Hugh E. Berryman, Jerry O. Potter & Samuel Oliver (1988): "The ill-fated passenger steamer Sultana: an inland maritime mass disaster of unparalleled magnitude." Journal of Forensic Sciences, 33(3): 842-850.
External links