The tragedy of the SS Sultana: "the worst American disaster of the maritime"

[no_hypocrisy]

I never knew about this . . . .

The SS Sultana was a Mississippi River steamboat paddlewheeler destroyed in an explosion on April 27, 1865. This resulted in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers were killed when three of the ship's four boilers exploded and the Sultana sank near Memphis.<1> This disaster received somewhat diminished attention, as it took place soon after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and during the closing weeks of the Civil War.

-snip-

At Vicksburg, Mississippi, 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.<2> This repair only took about a day, whereas to replace the boiler completely would have taken about three days.

-snip-

Most of the new passengers were Union soldiers, chiefly from Ohio and just released from Confederate prison camps such as Cahawba and Andersonville. The US government had contracted with the Sultana to transport these former prisoners of war 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.

-snip-

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana

[Mac1949]

1. I can highly recommend...

Disaster On The Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion- April 27,
1865 by Gene Eric Salecker. The complete story, well
researched and eminently readable.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Thank you and welcome to DU!

I want to know more.

[Mac1949]

6. Thank YOU and it's nice to be here.

The book is easily available on Amazon, if not at your local library. Fascinating but tragic story and without the weird elements of the Iron Mountain disaster.

[pnorman]

3. From the Wiki:

In 1888, a St. Louis resident named William Streetor claimed that his former business partner, Robert Louden, made a deathbed confession of having sabotaged the Sultana by a coal torpedo.<6> 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 Courtenay, 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.<7><8>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana

[sweetloukillbot]

4. A friend of mine actually wrote a song about this event...

He was researching songs based on disasters and came across the Sultana - and couldn't find any folk songs written about the event. I think he licensed the song for a documentary and worked to raise money for a monument.

Here are the lyrics...
http://www.jonwaterman.com/music.html#ANCHOR016

Since he did his song, Son Volt also recorded a song about the Sultana for their album "American Central Dust."

[NutmegYankee]

5. Boiler explosions like this led to the foundation of ASME.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was founded in 1880, and the USA has benefited well with standards on governing, to just name a few, Fasteners and Pressure Vessels (boilers). We take it for granted today, but these standards saved a lot of lives.