Slate is published by The Slate The boilers exploded off Cairo, killing at least 1443 men, a loss of life never exceeded on the rivers, and rarely at sea. Everyone escaped to the muddy, isolated safety of Grand Tower Island. The Missouri was a dangerous river. Shewas a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying nearly 2,000 releasedUnion prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. FS: In the course of your story, you declare that It is now possible to write a work of historical nonfiction without ever leaving home. How do you actually feel about that? The Golden Eagle was bound for Nashville, Tenn., from its St. Louis home via the Ohio and Cumberland rivers. Yet, shortly after my 1996 book came out, a cabal of people sprang up touting the sabotage theory once again. Unlike many of the nautical discoveries in. By Commander Robert Frank Bennett, U. S. Coast Guard. Burning of the Orline St. John, near Montgomery, Alabama, March 2, 1850. Iowa is the only state with four border rivers, the Mississippi, Missouri, Des Moines, and Big Sioux. Instead of taking two or three days, the temporary repair took only one. GRAND TOWER, ILL. It was the first trip of the season for the Golden Eagle, an antique steamboat with twin stacks, gingerbread woodwork and a splashing sternwheel. It was easier to copy everything and not use some of it than to forget to copy something and need it later on. The early morning of May 18, 1947, was dark but quiet, the Mississippi River 10 feet below flood stage. It has been going on for centuries. "It's pretty exciting. More and more government documents are coming online every day, so it is now quick and easy to make a search for needed information. Marion, across the river from Memphis, Tenn., is near the spot where the 260-foot side-wheeler came to rest. A passing towboat gave them a lift back to Grand Island, Ill., where they boarded buses for the trip home. GES: I think the reporting of the Sultana disaster in April and May 1865 was pretty accurate. The preliminary crest of 19.61 . By eliminating the manpower required to row or paddle, often against powerful currents, steamboats fueled an exponential growth in trade and development. The few steamboats still gliding along the rivers today are usually carrying tourists on short trips. Although they knew that the water above Cairo was cleaner, the only problem they thought they faced by the dirtier lower Mississippi water was that they had to clean their boilers more often. In his book, he builds a strong case against the boat's captain and co-owner, J. Cass Mason. Via History.com The steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killing 1,700 passengers including many discharged Union soldiers. On May 6, 1856 a steamboat named Effie Afton crashed into the bridge, destroying the steamboat as well as part of the bridge. It's estimated between 300 and 400 boats have sunk along the Missouri River. "At 2 a.m., one of the boilers exploded, resulting in two other boilers exploding," Potter says. Steamboats should not have been racing each other, but it happened all the time, and the public loved it! That is a sunken ship almost every 3 miles! Packed on board the riverboat Sultana when her boilers blew, recently freed Union POWs faced being consumed by flames or drowning in the Mississippi. However, Courtenay's great-great-grandson, Joseph Thatcher, who wrote a book on Courtenay and the coal torpedo, denies that a coal torpedo was used in the Sultana disaster. Highlights of the Mississippi River Cruise: Round-trip from New Orleans Length: Five days Price: Starts at $2,405 per person Enjoy a complimentary overnight in New Orleans before embarking on. Mrs. Lind's birthday cake was lost, but fellow evacuees serenaded her as morning sun warmed their island refuge. Then the captain did his best to steer around the dead trees, but sometimes they were hidden underwater. For two years, she ran a regular route between St. Louis and New Orleans and was frequently commissioned to carry troops during the American Civil War. 1820 1830 April 21, 1838 - Oronoko Most of the passengers were asleep at the time Killed almost everyone either instantly or later from wounds it caused 109 people died 1840 Was traveling to St. Louis when it hit a snag and had several planks torn from the bottom of the boat The sternwheel paddleboat that would later be named the Eclipse was built in 1901 at St. Joseph, Missouri, for Captain A. Stewart for service on the Missouri River, and was christened the City of St. Joseph . The number of people killed instantly or who drowned or died as a result of their injuries was variously estimated from seventy to two hundred; the actual number was likely closer to the smaller figure. Because of a trick of fate, the story of the Sultana is virtually unknown. In Malta Bend, Missouri, there's one that sank loaded down with expensive and rare trading . When was it going to stop and where were the numbers going to end? Lena Kent, a . Nathan Smith of Normandy, Mo., the pilot of the Golden Eagle when it sank on May 18, 1947, as he prepared to testify two days later at a Coast Guard hearing on the accident in downtown St. Louis. After a few Union gunboats filled up their bunkers but refused to pay, the farmer supposedly hollowed out a log, filled it with gunpowder, and then left the lethal log on his woodpile. As shown in my book, when steam navigation of American waterways first began, there were very little, if any, laws for safety. A freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in southwestern Wisconsin on Thursday, injuring four employees and sending two containers into the Mississippi River. New York: Dover Maritime, 1994. Find out more about what this space is all abouthere. During the gold rush to Montana in the 1860s, steamboats traveled far up the Missouri to early mining towns. It went upward at a 45-degree angle, tearing through the crowded decks above and completely destroying the pilothouse, instantly killing Captain Mason. Today, Potter describes the scene from a park along the banks of the Mississippi, just north of Memphis. Publisher James T. Lloyds 1856 book Lloyds Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters, is illustrated by 32 woodcuts of explosions, fires, and foundering ships, chronicling a decades-long history of steamboat mayhem. FS: Your handling of how the owners and crews of these vessels seemed to have not factored in the reality that dirty river water was not suitable for being used to create steam, and thus propulsion. He was company president for many years and sold the company in 1946. You have permission to edit this article. Click on links in the titles below to reach Lloyds descriptions of the accidents pictured. A potential reader should care about this story because it shows that greed and corruption in the government is not a new thing. The Sultana should be remembered because what happened to her need not have happened. Terrific Explosion of the Steamboat Ben Franklin, at Mobile, Alabama, March 13, 1836. William "Buck" Leyhe, who had sold Eagle Packet Co. the year before, waits for rescue on Grand Tower Island after the Golden Eagle sank. Many Sultana survivors ended up on the Arkansas side of the river, which was under Confederate control during the war. He/she ate the same fare as the roustabouts and hands unless he/she bought a dinner ticket. (Post-Dispatch), Retired Capt. Her two side-mounted paddle wheels were driven by four fire-tube boilers. All contents "All the boilers, four in number, burst simultaneously . GES: I began to dispel the myths and untruths surrounding the Sultana shortly after the Naval Institute Press published my first book in 1996. [18] Louden, a former Confederate agent and saboteur who operated in and around St. Louis, had been responsible for the burning of the steamboat Ruth. Explosion of the Moselle, Near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 25, 1838. "It won't move!" All Rights Reserved. While researching those numbers, I ran across other myths and legends that were incorrect or misleading, while at the same time verifying many of the stories. The Sultana was on its way from Vicksburg, Miss., to St. Louis when the explosion occurred, says Jerry Potter, a Memphis lawyer and author of The Sultana Tragedy. The sediment tended to settle on the bottom of the boilers or clog between the flues and leave hotspots. Most were Union soldiers, newly released from Confederate prison camps. HEROINE. Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations. The name stuck. To the left are the smokestacks of the Union Electric Co. plant at Cahokia. The current was calmer and the channel was deeper. tragically sunk during the civil war the sultana accident took as many lives as the titanic but has garnered far . The Chicago Opera Troupe, a minstrel group that had traveled upriver on Sultana before getting off at Memphis, staged a benefit performance, while the crew of the gunboat Essex raised US$1,000 (equivalent to $17,702 in 2021) [14], In December 1885, the survivors living in the northern states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio began attending annual reunions, forming the National Sultana Survivors' Association. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Naval History this month. Although the mechanic wanted to cut out and replace a ruptured seam, Mason knew such a job would take a few days and cost him his precious load of prisoners. The Sultana made it only a few miles north of Memphis. The areas between the many flues clogged easily, especially since dirty river water carried much sediment, and were difficult to clean. On his trips up and down the river, Odis often took his wife, Rosa, along. Johnson points out that steamboat explosions, caused by faulty boilers, were the nineteenth centurys first confrontation with industrialized mayhem, and Lloyds prose seemed almost to revel in these horrors. Passing boats and bystanders on both sides of the Mississippi helped pull survivors from the muddy water. The Wreck of the Sultana. Paul recorded 41 steamboat arrivals in 1844, and 95 in 1849. The term steamboat is used to refer to smaller, insular, steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers . Crew members roused passengers and swung a gangplank onto land. "The paddle wheel fell off of one side, caused the boat to turn sideways; the other paddle wheel fell off.". Experience showed that the rivers were briefly superior to rails as lines of communication. 1, which tends to become brittle with prolonged heating and cooling. At around 2:00AM on April 27, 1865, when Sultana was about seven miles (11km) north of Memphis, its patched boiler suddenly and violently exploded, killing 400-500 men instantly. FS: Tell us why the Sultana Disaster Museum is located in Marion, Arkansas. [4]:50,5556 Although Sultana had a legal capacity of only 376, by the time she backed away from Vicksburg on the night of April 24, she was severely overcrowded with over 1,953 paroled prisoners, 22 guards from the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, over 70 fare-paying cabin passengers, and 85 crew members, for a total of 2,130 people. [24]:193197, Despite the magnitude of the disaster, no one was ever formally held accountable. On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and sank while transporting Union soldiers up the Mississippi. When steamboats went out to investigate the wreck, they reported on what was found. hide caption. Hunter, Louis C. Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. Sometimes these snags stuck out of the water. He is currently a freelance writer living in Annapolis. A look back at today in history as seen through our archives. Many of these boats were salvaged soon after the accident and rebuilt, but some remain in or near Iowa rivers. Captain Mason of Sultana, who was ultimately responsible for dangerously overloading his vessel and ordering the faulty repairs to her leaky boiler, had died in the disaster. In the early 1900s, the Mississippi River shifted about two miles to the east, leaving the wreck under about 15 feet of Arkansas soil. Both groups met as close to the April 27 anniversary date as possible, corresponded with each other, and shared the title National Sultana Survivors' Association. SS Sultana:The steamboat was bound for St. Louis in April 1865 when the boilers failed right above Memphis, 13 days after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. [13] The dead soldiers were interred at the Fort Pickering cemetery, located on the south shore of Memphis. It happened near Memphis, Tennessee, almost in the very heart of the United States, and yet very few people have ever heard about it. Also, many people chose to pay for only deck passage, which restricted the traveler to the lowest (main) deck. As a lawyer, Potter was well-equipped to investigate the mistakes and malfeasance that led to the Sultana disaster. By the 1830s steamboats had navigated the Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone River. Some 1,700 returning Union Veterans died. However, the explosion of her boilers just above Memphis on 27 April 1865 put a terrible end to that endeavor. In the 1820s, steamboats on the Mississippi carried lead from Julien Dubuque's lead mines near Dubuque. (Post-Dispatch), Capt. Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Library of Congress Hersey and many others died instantly in a blast of scalding steam. [4]:62, Sultana spent two days traveling upriver, fighting against one of the worst spring floods in the river's history. Nathan Smith eased the coal-burning steamer downstream through a narrow bend 80 miles below St. Louis. On March 26, 1915, while the Alice Miller was laid up at Vicksburg, fire broke out in the kitchen, and the boat was destroyed. [4]:198,200,202, Monuments and historical markers to Sultana and her victims have been erected at Memphis, Tennessee;[25] Muncie, Indiana;[26] Marion, Arkansas;[27] Vicksburg, Mississippi;[28] Cincinnati, Ohio;[29] Knoxville, Tennessee;[30] Hillsdale, Michigan[31] and Mansfield, Ohio. During the 1850s, traffic soared. It didn't run for several years during World War II because wartime supply restrictions blocked needed upgrades to the boilers. Now, 129 years later, kayakers like Edinger are getting an up-close look at the vessel. Louis.". On the three-hundred-mile upriver leg, it made stops at Donaldsonville, Plaquemine, Baton Rouge, Port Hudson, Bayou Sara, Red River Landing, Fort Adams, Natchez, Waterproof, Rodney, St. Joseph, Grand Gulf, and Warrenton, before arriving at Vicksburg. The Corp of Engineers in a report issued July 3, 1934 listed 36 types of steamboat wrecks on the Missouri River alone. Daniel Jackson / May 29, 2021 A BNSF Railway freight train traveling along the banks of the Mississippi River derailed near Ferryville, Wis., shortly after noon Thursday, the company said. Steamboat Princess Disaster On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew. But there were many other reasons the event didn't get much attention at the time. [4]:202 Captain Hatch, who had concocted a bribe with Captain Mason to crowd as many men onto Sultana as possible, had quickly quit the service to avoid a court-martial. All 25 soldiers were rescued, historians say, and the Fogelman home became a refuge for Sultana survivors. By that standard, the loss of the Golden Eagle was a minor event. Dead trees fell into the river and got stuck on the bottom. After the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Louisiana, in July 1863 and the opening of the Mississippi, the Sultana was used to bring cotton from parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas that were now under Union control up north so that it could be sent to Eastern manufacturers that had been starving for the raw material. Salecker, historical consultant for the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Arkansas, recently participated in an author q&a with former Naval History editor-in-chief Fred Schultz to discuss the book: FS: After having read your exhaustive story of the various iterations of the steamboat Sultana, I couldnt help but compare her fate to the loss of the Titanic, which, as Im sure you know, has received much more attention from historians. "The wind blew the fire to the rear, burned that out," Frank Fogelman says. Sometimes terrible accidents happened on the Mississippi too. Explosion of the Oronoko, April 21, 1838, near Princeton, Mississippi. [22], In 1903, another person reported that Sultana had been sabotaged by a Tennessee farmer who lived along the river and cut wood for passing steamboats. The Sultana Tragedy: Americas Greatest Maritime Disaster. The crew threw more wood on the fire. The temporary museum it has created near City Hall includes pictures, personal items from soldiers, pieces of the Sultana, and a 14-foot replica of the boat. Steamboats on the Mississippi River The first steamboat on the Mississippi River along Iowa's border was the 109-ton Virginia, on its way to Fort Snelling (now Saint Paul, Minnesota) in May 1823. Reuben Benton Hatch, an individual with a long history of corruption and incompetence, who kept his job through political connections: he was the younger brother of Illinois politician Ozias M. Hatch, an advisor and close friend of President Lincoln. Jan. 3, 1844 Steamboat wreck kills as many as 70 on the Mississippi at St. Louis By Tim O'Neil St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jan 3, 2023 0 1 of 2 Steamboats and freight wagons crowd the St. Louis. Yet Captain Mason of the Sultana, and Captain Reuben Hatch, the chief quartermaster at Vicksburg, saw no problem in crowding as many men as possible on board the boat, hoping to reap the biggest profit possible. web oct 10 2017 it was the steamboat sultana on the mississippi river and it could have been prevented in 1865 the civil war was winding down and the . Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Sometimes the boilers exploded. It was not until the U.S. government began to crack down and either enact, or enforce, the laws, that safety became an overriding factor in steamboat travel. I then decided that since it had been 25 years since the publication of my first book, I needed to put out a new book on the Sultana. By August 1872 the count of steamboats under the Burlington Railroad Bridge was 147, while the 1,108 engines and trains crossed over that bridge during the same month. But what the museum really has to offer is a powerful story of soldiers who died just days away from seeing their families and loved ones. The vessel was heading from St . [5] About ten hours south of Vicksburg, one of Sultana's four boilers sprang a leak. And even before the Civil War, 30 steamboats had traveled to Des Moines before the Civil War. Bates, both eight-footers, arrive a, On April 18, 1949, at Verhagen Hall at St. Louis University a priest just back from a year of study at Harvard completed an exorcism after hea. Near midnight, Sultana left Memphis, leaving behind about 200 men. Get up-close and in-depth when examining artifacts such as photographs. No one seemed to question the danger of a steamboat race until there was an accident or the boilers exploded. The fires still going against the empty boiler created hot spots. The city of Marion is the closest city to the wreck site and is also the home to a number of descendants of people who aided in the rescue of the Sultana victims. An interview with author Gene Eric Salecker. The city has created a museum and is hosting events intended to bring attention to the tragedy. When the Princess pulled up to the wharf in Baton Rouge early on the morning of February 27, 1859, it was already late. But perhaps the best explanation is that after years of bloody conflict, the nation was simply tired of hearing about war and death. Explosion and Burning of the Steamboat Teche on the Mississippi River, May 5, 1825., Explosion of the Helen McGregor, At Memphis, Tennessee, February 24, 1830., Terrific Explosion of the Steamboat Ben Franklin, at Mobile, Alabama, March 13, 1836.. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Cardinals latest, deflating loss compounds concerns, Man shot, killed near Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis, What was Andrew Knizner thinking? It was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the The most recent investigation into the cause of the disaster by Pat Jennings, principal engineer of Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, which came into existence in 1866 because of the Sultana explosion, determined that three main factors led to the disaster: 1) The type of metal used in the construction of the boilers Charcoal Hammered No. He has conducted interviews with some 75 high-profile people, including historians, government officials, combat veterans, journalists, explorers, and Hollywood stars. GES: I agree wholeheartedly. Its clientele were among societys elite in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. In the early hours of April 27th, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. [11] The official count by the United States Customs Service was 1,547. Evidence like that may have led the government to downplay the Sultana tragedy, Potter says. 1, a wooden model barge, and Vessel No. On the other hand, the Sultana was an American steamboat carrying almost 100 percent American passengers, including almost 2,000 recently released Union prisoners-of-war returning home to their families. 2, a stern-wheel steamboat. Then, as time went on, I noticed that the numbers of people supposedly on board the Sultana when she exploded, and the number of people that died on board the Sultana, kept going up and up and up. ", Discovery Gives New Ending To A Death At The Civil War's Close. A tall mirror glistened behind the walnut bar. The last northern survivor, Private Jordan Barr of the 15th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, died on May 16, 1938, at age 93. One of the most horrific accidents occurred in 1838, when the Moselle, a fast and nearly new Ohio River steamboat, exploded off Cincinnati. Three civilian victims of the wreck of Sultana are interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. As the steamboat made her way north following the twists and turns of the river, she listed severely from side to side. and Mrs. M.V. WASHINGTON -- If the U.S. Senate has its way, a 90-year-old steamboat will soon be able to return to the Mississippi River. The current on the Missouri was fast, and the channelthe deepest part of the rivershifted from place to place. Steamboats collided or caught on fire. A series of maritime disasters, occurred over the next 120 years before the Coast Guard assumed enforcement responsibility. "Somebody had came by and notified us. The men located around the twin openings quickly crawled under the wreckage and down the main stairs. GES: Readers should care about the Sultana since it was the greatest maritime disaster in American history. In 1929, only two men attended the southern reunion. By that standard, the loss of the Golden Eagle was a minor event. Cape Girardeau:Later renamed the River Queen, the vessel sank in 1968. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), Capt. GES: The dirty river water of the lower Mississippi was not really thought of as a problem by the steamboat captains or engineers. On April 21, Sultana left New Orleans with about seventy cabin and deck passengers and a small amount of livestock. The Missouri History Museum had it on display from 1962 to 1996, and preserves it in storage. 19th-century American steamboat that sank on the Mississippi River in 1865. The last of the southern survivors, and last overall survivor, was Private Charles M. Eldridge of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, who died at his home at age 96 on September 8, 1941, more than 76 years after the disaster. The Hero and the Pavillion traveled the Des Moines River to Fort Des Moines in 1837. 1 was no longer used to manufacture boilers after 1879. (Post-Dispatch), The Golden Eagle heads downstream at St. Louis on May 14, 1940. The report blamed quartermaster Capt. The Sultana tragedies seem to be classic examples of putting profit over safety. She then went a short distance upriver to take on a new load of coal from some coal barges and then, at about 1:00 AM, started north again. Regaining control, Smith wheeled toward the island and shoved the bow against the bank as the boat listed to port. The last Iowa steamboat to carry goods was the coal fired sternwheeler the Loan Star in 1967. The power of the boilers came with risk - the water levels in the fire tubes had to be carefully maintained at all times. 2 As rapidly as the number of steamboats increased, they could not keep pace with demand. BNSF said in a statement that two of . April 27, 2023. 3) The design of the boilers. Barges still carry some goods on the river, but trains and trucks carry most of the freight in America. The train derailed in Crawford County at about 12:15 p.m. Two of the train's three locomotives and an unknown number of cars . Among those killed were Louisiana state representatives H. J. Huard and Charles Bannister. The main channel now flows about 2 miles (3km) east of its 1865 position. However, as I said, a person still needs to go to a resource location such as a museum archive to get the basic facts. There was no manifest to record the names of passengers aboard the Princess at the time of the disaster. Eventually, the group settled on meeting in the Toledo, Ohio area. This effect of careening could have been minimized by maintaining high water levels in the boilers. Steamboats brought supplies to the new Iowans and transported their produce and products to market. Early western river navigation was always dangerous, but it was a necessity in order to ship supplies to U.S. Army frontier posts and civilian settlements. At least a hundred people survived their injuries. As stated in the 1903 newspaper article, the log was mistakenly taken by Sultana. In 1857, The Nebraska City Advertiser newspaper listed 46 steamboats traveling the Missouri, with 12 more being built. The exact death toll is unknown, although the most recent evidence indicates that 1,169 died. [4]:24 On April 26, Sultana stopped at Helena, Arkansas, where photographer Thomas W. Bankes took a picture of the grossly overcrowded vessel. 2), built in 1860 but coming downriver on her maiden voyage after being refurbished,[6] arrived at about 2:30 AM, a half hour after the explosion, and rescued scores of survivors. It is also about a rescue effort that brought together people who had been at war just weeks earlier. By Lieutenant Commander Ralph P. Dillon, U. S. Naval Reserve. I do not feel that it lets would-be historians off the hook as long as they go the extra mile and gather the basic facts, etc., through diligent leg work. And the boat was filled with enlisted men primarily men who really hadn't made a mark in history or a mark in life." "The river is at flood stage," he says as we watch a barge struggle to move up river, "very similar to what it was on April 27, 1865." 0:12. At the same time, dozens of people began to float past the Memphis waterfront, calling for help until they were noticed by the crews of docked steamboats and U.S. warships, who immediately set about rescuing the survivors. The Missouri History Museum displayed it from 1962 to 1996 and preserves it in storage.
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