NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Sultana (steamboat)

The steamboat Sultana was a Mississippi River paddlewheeler destroyed in an explosion on 27 April 1865, resulting in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,700 of the Sultana's 2,400 passengers were killed when one of the overcrowded ship's four boilers exploded and the Sultana sank not far from Memphis, Tennessee. This disaster was less noticed than it might have been, however, because of the recent assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the end of the Civil War. Paddle steamers â€” Lucerne, Switzerland. ... For the river in Canada, see Mississippi River (Ontario). ... A paddle steamer, paddleboat, or paddlewheeler is a ship driven by one or more paddle wheels driven by a steam engine. ... April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Assassination of Abraham Lincoln From left to right: Major Henry Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, and John Wilkes Booth. ... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total...

The Sultana

The ill-fated wooden steamship had been constructed in 1862 by the John Lithoberry Shipyard on Front Street in Cincinnati, Ohio, intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. Her iron boilers were also constructed in Cincinnati (though the History Channel has stated they were made in England). Weighing 1,719 tons, the steamer normally carried a crew of 85. For two years, she ran a regular route between St. Louis and New Orleans. She was frequently commissioned by the War Department to carry troops. Nickname: Motto: Juncta Juvant (Strength in Unity) Location in Hamilton County, Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country United States State Ohio County Hamilton Founded 1788 Incorporated 1802 (village) - 1819 (city) Government - Type Mayor-council government - Mayor Mark L. Mallory (D) Area - City 79. ... A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated under pressure. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates: , Country State County Independent City Government - Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Area - City 66. ... NOLA redirects here. ... Line drawing of the Department of Wars seal. ...

The Tragedy

The Sultana, under the command of Captain J.C. Mason of St. Louis, left New Orleans on April 21, 1865, with 75 to 100 cabin passengers, and considerable livestock bound for market in St. Louis. At Vicksburg, Mississippi, she stopped for a series of hasty repairs and to take on more passengers, and well over a thousand crowded aboard. Most of these new passengers were Union soldiers (mostly from Ohio) just released from Confederate prison camps such as Cahawba and Andersonville. Sultana had been contracted by the United States government to transport these former prisoners of war back to their homes. With a legal capacity of only 376, the Sultana was severely overcrowded, and many of her 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Sultana_Disaster. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Sultana_Disaster. ... is the 111th day of the year (112th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi. ... During the American Civil War, nearly 320,000 Ohioans served in the Union Army, more than any other northern state except New York and Pennsylvania. ... Motto Deo Vindice (Latin: Under God, Our Vindicator) Anthem (none official) God Save the South (unofficial) The Bonnie Blue Flag (unofficial) Dixie (unofficial) Capital Montgomery, Alabama (until May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (May 29, 1861â€“April 2, 1865) Danville, Virginia (from April 3, 1865) Language(s) English (de facto) Religion... A Prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of persons captured by the enemy in time of war. ... Blueprint of Cahaba Prison Cahaba Prison is a site in Alabama where the Confederacy held Union soldiers during the American Civil War. ... The Andersonville prison, located at Camp Sumter, was the largest Confederate military prison during the American Civil War. ... Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ...

The cause of the tragedy was a leaky and poorly repaired steam boiler. The boiler gave way several miles north of Memphis at about 3:00 A.M. in a terrific explosion that sent some of those passengers on deck into the water and destroyed 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 was the southbound steamer Bostonia which overtook the burning wreck and rescued scores of survivors. The hulk drifted to the west bank and sank off the tiny settlement of Mound City, Arkansas, about dawn. Other vessels joined the rescue, including the steamer Arkansas, the Jenny Lind, the Essex, and the Navy sidewheel gunboat Tyler, manned by volunteers, as her crew had been discharged days before. Gunboat Tyler The United States Navy gunboat Tyler was a commercial side-wheel steamboat with twin stacks and covered paddles positioned aft. ...

Passengers not killed by the explosion or trapped in the burning wreckage had to choose between burning to death or risking their lives in the overflooded Mississippi River, where many died of drowning or hypothermia. Some survivors were plucked from trees along the Arkansas shore. Bodies of the victims continued to be found for months downriver, some as far as Vicksburg. Many bodies were never recovered. The Sultana's officers, including Captain Mason, perished. Hypothermia refers to any condition in which the temperature of a body drops below the level required for normal metabolism and/or bodily function to take place. ... Official language(s) English Capital Little Rock Largest city Little Rock Largest metro area Little Rock Metropolitan Area Area Ranked 29th - Total 53,179 sq mi (137,002 kmÂ²) - Width 239 miles (385 km) - Length 261 miles (420 km) - % water 2. ...

About 500 survivors were transported to hospitals in Memphis, many with horrible burns. Up to 300 of these victims died later from burns or exposure. Newspaper accounts indicate that the people of Memphis took the victims of the disaster to heart despite the fact that they had until 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, Tennessee; Muncie, Indiana; Marion, Arkansas; Vicksburg, Mississippi; Cincinnati, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Hillsdale, Michigan; and Mansfield, Ohio For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Muncie (IPA: ) is a city in Delaware County in east central Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University and the birthplace of the Ball Corporation. ... Marion is a city located in Crittenden County, Arkansas. ... Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi. ... Nickname: Motto: Juncta Juvant (Strength in Unity) Location in Hamilton County, Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country United States State Ohio County Hamilton Founded 1788 Incorporated 1802 (village) - 1819 (city) Government - Type Mayor-council government - Mayor Mark L. Mallory (D) Area - City 79. ... Nickname: Location within the U.S. State of Tennessee. ... Hillsdale is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. ... Nickname: Location within the state of Ohio Country United States State Ohio County Richland Founded 1808 Incorporated 1828 (village) - 1857 (city) Government - Mayor Lydia J. Reid (D) Area [1] - City 29. ...

Casualties

No exact death toll is known, and estimates range from 1,300 to 1,900. An official count by the United States Customs Service at the time was 1,547. Modern historians tend to concur on a figure of "up to 1,700". Final estimates of survivors were between 700-800. The United States Customs Service (now part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection or CBP) was the portion of the US Federal Government dedicated to keeping illegal products outside of US borders. ...

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 she made her way north following the twists and turns of the river, she listed severely to one side then the other. However, the Sultana's 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 be 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 previously.

However, in 1888, a St. Louis resident named William Streetor claimed that his former business partner, Robert Louden, had made a deathbed confession to have sabotaged the Sultana by means of a coal torpedo. 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, and 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 and most scholars support the official explanation.^{[citation needed]} Robert Louden (died 1867) was a Confederate messenger and partisan in the American Civil War. ... A coal torpedo. ... Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay (1822-1875) was a member of the Confederate Secret Service and inventor of the coal torpedo, a bomb disguised as a lump of coal that was used to attack Union steam-powered warships and transports. ...

Thomas Courtenay, inventor of the Courtenay coal torpedo, was responsible for providing these devices to several saboteurs, one of which was Robert Louden. Louden would place these disguised coal bombs in with the ships coal supply well in advance of the ship setting sail. Therefore it was a time bomb with no set time, just whenever the stoker would eventually shovel it into the fire. This was how most of the steamships were blown up. A coal torpedo. ...

Survivors

An East Tennessee Sultana survivors group met annually on April 27 until 1928, when four survivors were left. April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 248 days remaining. ...

Remnants found

In 1982, a local archaeological expedition uncovered what is believed to be the wreckage of the Sultana. The Mississippi River has changed course several times since the disaster with the main channel now about two miles east of its 1865 position. The blackened wooden deck planks and timbers were found about 32 feet under a soybean field on the Arkansas side, about four miles from Memphis.

Further reading

Carlos Ray Chuck Norris (born on 10 March 1940) is an American martial artist, action star, Hollywood actor, and recently, an internet phenomenon, who is best known for playing Cordell Walker on Walker, Texas Ranger. ... Aaron Norris (b. ...

External links

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 | Steamships | Ship fires | Shipwrecks of the Mississippi | Tennessee in the American Civil War | Ohio in the American Civil War | Maritime incidents in 1865 | Disasters in Tennessee | History of Cincinnati During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. ... The 1st Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry (or 1st OVI) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. ... Camp Chase Cemetery. ... Camp Dennison was a military recruiting and training post for the United States Army during the American Civil War. ... The Department of the Ohio was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Northern states near the Ohio River. ... For the 1960s commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, see George McClellan (police commissioner). ... The Fighting McCooks were members of a family of Ohioans who reached prominence as officers in the Union Army during the American Civil War. ... Johnsons Island was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate officers captured during the American Civil War. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (605x910, 434 KB) Summary photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran - Soldiers & Sailors Monument, Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio Caspar Buberl Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Clement Vallandigham Clement Laird Vallandigham (velanÂ´digham, -gam) (July 29, 1820 â€“ June 17, 1871) was an Ohio unionist of the Copperhead faction of anti-war, pro-Confederate Democrats during the American Civil War. ... The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society originally founded to promote Southern interests and prepare the way for annexation of a golden circle of territories in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean which would be included into the United States as southern or slave states. ... Albert Gallatin Jenkins (November 10, 1830 â€“ May 21, 1864) was an attorney, planter, representative to the United States Congress and First Confederate Congress, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War. ... The Defense of Cincinnati refers to the period during the American Civil War before September 13, 1862, when Cincinnati, Ohio, was spared from invasion from the Confederate forces. ... The Black Brigade of Cincinnati was a military unit that was organized during the Civil War when the city of Cincinnati was in danger of being attacked by the Confederates. ... The Battle of Fort Fizzle (also called the Holmes County Draft Riots and the Holmes County Rebellion) is the name given to a skirmish that took place during the American Civil War in Holmes County, Ohio, between Federal troops and local draft resisters opposed to the Conscription Act of 1863. ... Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan Morgans Raid was a highly publicized incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Northern states of Indiana and Ohio during the American Civil War. ... The Battle of Buffington Island, also known as the Buffington Island Skirmish, took place on July 19, 1863, during the American Civil War in Meigs County, Ohio. ... // Synopsis The Battle of Salineville is best known as the northernmost battle of the American Civil War involving the Confederate army, or in this case the cavalry [6][19]. The battle occurred on July 26, 1863 near Salineville in Columbiana County, Ohio, approximately 30 miles south of Youngstown, Ohio and... In the spring of 1864, Ohio Governor John Brough was concerned with preventing Confederate invasions of the North, as John Hunt Morgans cavalry raid of Ohio had done during 1863. ... See also Ohio in the Civil War During the American Civil War, Ohio contributed a large number of officers, politicians, and troops to the war effort. ... During the American Civil War, the Ohio River port city of Cincinnati, Ohio, played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army. ... A photograph taken on Public Square of hundreds of Cleveland veterans from the American Civil War in 1865 Cleveland, Ohio, was an important Northern city during the American Civil War. ... The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the southeast quadrant of Public Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio is a monument to the Civil War soldier and sailors from Ohio. ...

Contents