Paskoff, Paul F. Troubled Waters: Steamboat Disasters, River Improvements, and American Public Policy, 18211860. Smith shouted at 2:20 a.m., suddenly unable to turn the steering wheel. However, the Upper Rapids and Lower Rapids were serious obstacles to navigate. [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. Immediately, Captain Mason grabbed an armload of Cairo newspapers and headed south to spread the news, knowing that telegraphic communication with the southern states had been almost totally cut off because of the recently-ended American Civil War. Its sister craft included the Spread Eagle and the Bald Eagle. Maintaining a posted schedule was important in the competitive business of steamboat commerce. Some survivors were plucked from the tops of semi-submerged trees along the Arkansas shore. ", Jerry Potter, lawyer and author of The Sultana Tragedy. Thousands of recently released Union prisoners of war who had been held in the Confederate prison camps at Cahaba and Andersonville had been brought to a small parole camp outside of Vicksburg to await release to the northern states. Under reduced pressure, the steamboat limped into Vicksburg to get the boiler repaired and to pick up her promised load of prisoners. Barrels of flour were emptied on the ground, and the terribly burned victims were rolled in it and placed in the shade. Nashville: Land Yacht Press, 2000. Publisher James T. Lloyd's 1856 book Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters, is illustrated by 32 woodcuts of explosions, fires, and foundering ships, chronicling a. Slate is published by The Slate Shewas a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying nearly 2,000 releasedUnion prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. The owners of the Effie Afton decided to take the railroad companies that had built the bridge to court. 0:04. The steamboat has been submerged in the water of the Missouri river ever since. You can see the wreck in low water just north of the Eads Bridge. As to whether it is a good thing or not, yes, I believe that it is a good thing to do so much research and get so much information from the internet. Many of these boats were salvaged soon after the accident and rebuilt, but some remain in or near Iowa rivers. By eliminating the manpower required to row or paddle, often against powerful currents, steamboats fueled an exponential growth in trade and development. Only six years before, it had foundered in the river near Chester, Ill., with one crew member lost. "All the boilers, four in number, burst simultaneously . In support of Louden's claim, what appeared to be a piece of an artillery shell was said to be recovered from the sunken wreck. A crew member fished liquor bottles from the half-flooded bar. Golden Eagle's pilot house was salvaged. The Missouri was a dangerous river. 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. The flaming hull drifted onto a shoreline sandbar and grounded. (Post-Dispatch), Ruth Ferris, assistant curator at the Missouri Historical Society (now the History Museum), displays the steering wheel in the Golden Eagle pilot house as it went on display in the museum on May 2, 1962. The Sultana tragedies seem to be classic examples of putting profit over safety. 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. Look for details such as clothing, technologies or buildings in old photographs to learn more about the past. He is currently a freelance writer living in Annapolis. Among other St. Louisans along for the ride was Capt. Although brought up on courts-martial charges, Hatch managed to get letters of recommendation from no less reputable personages than President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant. 1, a wooden model barge, and Vessel No. Badger State (1844) steam paddle. A female fan exclaimed what a lovely shade of Cardinal in reference to the trim on the new uniforms. They'd stay in a motel at night, but she loved to cook for the crew and the men from the Coast Guard. 3) The design of the boilers. Yet few know the story of the Sultana's demise, or the ensuing rescue effort that included Confederate soldiers saving Union soldiers they might have shot just weeks earlier. By that standard, the loss of the Golden Eagle was a minor event. New York: Dover Maritime, 1994. by Kelby Ouchley Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection Steamboat Princess. Library of Congress The Sultanas tubular boilers, however, were harder to clean and could form pockets of sediment that could insulate a section of the tubes from the surrounding water and lead to overheating of the tubes. The giant paddle wheel started turning faster. And, in fact, when the boats used the regular flue boilers, the sediment in the water was not too much of a problem. Probably the most interesting of the wrecks are Vessel No. That is a sunken ship almost every 3 miles! Capt. Explosion of the Oronoko, April 21, 1838, near Princeton, Mississippi. (Post-Dispatch), Retired Capt. Fred Schultz has been in the publishing business since 1980 and was editor-in-chief ofNaval History from 1993-2005. In 1859 the Princess was a four-year-old state-of-the-art side-wheel paddleboat. [4]:146147,168176, Passengers who survived the initial explosion had to risk their lives in the icy spring runoff of the Mississippi or burn with the boat. But the story of the Sultana is about more than lost lives. Steamboats brought supplies to the new Iowans and transported their produce and products to market. All rights reserved. The power of the boilers came with risk - the water levels in the fire tubes had to be carefully maintained at all times. Potter says he went to the library to learn more and wondered, "Why haven't I ever heard of this?" BNSF Railway says two of three locomotives and "an unknown number of cars carrying freights of all kinds" derailed onto the banks of the Mississippi River around 12:15 p.m. Crews are now working . Why should potential readers care? The Sultana was launched from Cincinnati in 1863. The men were packed into every available space as all cabin spaces were already filled with civilian passengers; the overflow was so severe that in some places, the decks began to creak and sag and had to be supported with heavy wooden beams. Instead of taking two or three days, the temporary repair took only one. FS: It seems to this reader that one of the main reasons for such a series of disasters for vessels named Sultana is that the owners of the steamers and the people entrusted with actually navigating the ships [boats] were ignoring the fact that overcrowding may have been the principal reason for the long list of tragedies. In writing my first few books I literally had to go to the U.S., state, and military archives to do my research. James Cass Mason, King's German Legion "Blues in the Water" tells a stylized version of the, This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 19:15. Leyhe's father and uncle established the Eagle Packet Co., and Leyhe began working on the Mississippi River when he was 18. At some places, the river overflowed the banks and spread out three miles wide. During the Civil War steamboats carried Iowa soldiers, weapons and food supplies to army posts. As the steamboat made her way north following the twists and turns of the river, she listed severely from side to side. No one seemed to question the danger of a steamboat race until there was an accident or . An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this disaster. Considered one of them was the biggest vessel ever to sail via the world. The earliest steamboat disaster in Arkansas waters may have been the Car of Commerce, which suffered a boiler explosion north of Osceola (Mississippi County) on the Mississippi River in 1828, killing twenty-one people, while the deadliest was the loss of the Sultana near Marion (Crittenden County) on April 27, 1865, in which as many as 1,800 were The Sultana Tragedy: Americas Greatest Maritime Disaster. In his book River of Dark Dreams, historian Walter Johnson writes that the table of contents of Lloyds bestseller was sort of a nightmare poem of alphabetized Americana: a catalog of 97 major and hundreds of minor boat disasters. The Nick Wall was a sternwheel river packet that struck a snag on the Mississippi River near Grand Lake (Chicot County) on December 18, 1870. There is no apparent motive for him to have blown up the boat, especially while on board. Wolf River. "It was like a tremendous bomb going off in the middle of where these men were. 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. One-Year subscription (4 issues) : $20.00, Two-Year subscription (8 issues) : $35.00, 64 Parishes 2023. The city has created a museum and is hosting events intended to bring attention to the tragedy. "It's clear that he had bribed an officer at Vicksburg to ensure that he would get a large load of prisoners," Potter says. 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. What effect did steamboats and travel on the river have on the development of Iowa? [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. He was a passenger on its trip to Nashville, Tenn. (Post-Dispatch), Passengers pass time on Grand Tower Island until they were picked up by a passing towboat. It was part of the museum's River Room. In 1859, the Blackhawk made 29 round trips between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo on the Cedar River. [9] In February 1867, the Bureau of Military Justice placed the death toll at 1,100. Dead trees fell into the river and got stuck on the bottom. Subscribe now and never hit a limit. However, they were not without hazards, as high-pressure steam boilers manufactured according to the science of the day were analogous to kegs of dynamite. GES: Readers should care about the Sultana since it was the greatest maritime disaster in American history. A sister boat to the famous Natchez, the Princess had undergone a thorough retrofitting the previous summer and was said to be one of the fastest and most luxurious craft on the Mississippi River. Of this group, there were only 31 deaths between April 28 and June 28. 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. Today, Potter describes the scene from a park along the banks of the Mississippi, just north of Memphis. ARCHERAt Galena, from St. Louis, Sept. 8, 1845; sunk by collision with steamer "Di Vernon", in chute between islands 521 and 522, five miles above mouth of Illinois River, Nov. 27, 1851; was cut in two, and sunk in three minutes, with a loss of forty-one lives. As stated in the 1903 newspaper article, the log was mistakenly taken by Sultana. Everyone escaped to the muddy, isolated safety of Grand Tower Island. The Montana was a Mississippi and Missouri River stern-wheel steamboat, one of three "mega-steamboats" built in 1879 during the steamboat era on the Missouri. "It was like a tremendous bomb going off in the middle of where these men were," Potter says. Steamboats ultimately carried more men and freight in the Civil War than the faster and more expensive railroads. The ship, which archaeologists. The collision startled Marga Sachse, a passenger from St. Louis, who said she "felt a jar, and the ship lurched.". [32], In 1982, a local archaeological expedition, led by Memphis attorney Jerry O. Potter, uncovered what was believed to be the wreckage of Sultana. From 1817 to 1871, about 5,600 people died on Mississippi River wrecks of all sorts, including burst boilers, collisions and fires. It was her 82nd birthday. The Tricky Missouri River and the Steamboat Bertrand, The First Bridge Over the Mississippi and the Effie Afton, Majestic Riverboat Reigned on the Mississippi, Simulated travel guide describing travel conditions in Iowa from 1830 to 1879, Personal accounts from a steamboat captain describing life on the Mississippi transporting lumber, Article describes the history of steamboats in Iowa City in the 1800s, Transcribed official records, newspaper clippings, historical accounts and diary entries about life on the Mississippi River, Transcribed official records, newspaper clippings, historical accounts and diary entries about life on the Missouri River, Audio story about the last riverboat gambling cruise of the Mississippi Belle II in 2007, Ginalie Swaim Ed., Steaming Up the River,. 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. All the examined boat wrecks were working vessels, towboats or barges, so the artifacts and other data gave a glimpse into the lives of river men on the Mississippi around the turn of the 20 th century. Perhaps inspired by their northern comrades, a southern group of survivors, men from Tennessee and Kentucky, began meeting in 1889 around Knoxville, Tennessee. You have permission to edit this article. But, no, the ice cream cone wasn't invented there. Hundreds of steamboats were wrecked on the Missouri. It was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the On a landscape lacking roads but braided with bayous and rivers, travel via water was the only efficient means of transportation. "It's pretty exciting. At least thirty-nine passengers and crew members died in the accident. Three civilian victims of the wreck of Sultana are interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. 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. The Worst Marine Disaster in U. S. History. Further back, the collapsing decks formed a slope that led down into the exposed furnace boxes. Now, through the use of the internet, people can search hundred, perhaps thousands, of newspapers, from the United States as well as from around the world. [21], Two years earlier, in May 1886, came a claim that 2nd Lt. James Worthington Barrett, an ex-prisoner and passenger on the steamboat, had caused the explosion. The rest can be gotten through the internet, which can be a positive thingif done correctly. When steamboats went out to investigate the wreck, they reported on what was found. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. [10] In 1880, the United States Congress, in conjunction with the War Department, reported the loss of life as 1,259. Since then, he says, studying the Sultana has become an obsession. Yet, shortly after my 1996 book came out, a cabal of people sprang up touting the sabotage theory once again. Marion, across the river from Memphis, Tenn., is near the spot where the 260-foot side-wheeler came to rest. [4]:40, Although Hatch had suggested that Mason might get as many as 1,400 released Union prisoners, a mix-up with the parole camp books and suspicion of bribery from other steamboat captains caused the Union officer in charge of the loading, Captain George Augustus Williams, to place every man at the parole camp on board Sultana, believing the number to be less than 1,500. The U.S. government would pay US$2.75 per enlisted man and US$8 per officer to any steamboat captain who would take a group north. Charcoal Hammered No. 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 . And it was very cold. "I understand that the Fogelmans were able to put together some logs to make a raft and go out and take people off the boat as it drifted back this way," Fogelman says. 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. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Cardinals send prized prospect Jordan Walker to Class AAA in curious series of moves, Rudderless ship of chaos: St. Louis judge advances Kim Gardner contempt case, What Oliver Marmols gamble in ninth vs. LA reveals about managing to spark Cardinals, How sending Jordan Walker to Class AAA is a bet clarity can correct muddled outfield: Cardinals Extra, Messenger: Kim Gardner drives the judicial bus over her employees and into the ditch, A closer on ice. All contents By Commander Robert Frank Bennett, U. S. Coast Guard. The Princess ran weekly round trips from New Orleans to Vicksburg, Mississippi and back, departing the New Orleans wharf promptly at 5 p.m. every Tuesday. Explosion of the Moselle, Near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 25, 1838. William "Buck" Leyhe, who had sold Eagle Packet Co. the year before, waits for rescue on Grand Tower Island after the Golden Eagle sank. Explosion of the Oronoko, April 21, 1838, near Princeton, Mississippi. DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) People living along the Mississippi River watched warily Sunday as water levels rose in southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois, awaiting spring crests as floodwaters began . A train derailment in southwestern Wisconsin on Thursday sent two derailed containers into the Mississippi River, and at least four employees were injured, according to officials. The city of Vicksburg was ravaged by the American Civil War, and so were the men who were about to board the steamboat Sultana. Steamboat explosions were dramatic, deadly, and common. However, the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army overturned the guilty verdict because Speed had been at the parole camp all day and had not personally placed a single soldier on board Sultana. 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. "At 2 a.m., one of the boilers exploded, resulting in two other boilers exploding," Potter says. A Hancock County native died Sunday evening from injuries she sustained in a boat crash on the Jourdan River, Coroner Jeff Hair confirmed to the Sun Herald. Built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1832, the steamboat Heroine plied the Ohio and Mississippi from its launch in that year until in 1838 a navigation disaster left it beneath the waters of the Red River. FS: Tell us why the Sultana Disaster Museum is located in Marion, Arkansas. After some time, the weakened twin smokestacks fell; the starboard smokestack fell backward into the blasted hole, and the port smokestack fell forward onto the crowded forward section of the upper deck, hitting the ship's bell as it fell. Explosion of the Helen McGregor, At Memphis, Tennessee, February 24, 1830. [24]:193197, Despite the magnitude of the disaster, no one was ever formally held accountable. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), Capt. Without a pilot to steer the boat, Sultana became a drifting, burning hulk. The Sultana should be remembered because what happened to her need not have happened. "The wind blew the fire to the rear, burned that out," Frank Fogelman says. Barges still carry some goods on the river, but trains and trucks carry most of the freight in America. "And the entire center of the boat erupted like a volcano.". Explosion of the Steamboat Constitution, May 4, 1817, Point Coupee, Louisiana. The early morning of May 18, 1947, was dark but quiet, the Mississippi River 10 feet below flood stage. It was the last wooden-hulled passenger boat to travel the Mississippi. GES: The dirty river water of the lower Mississippi was not really thought of as a problem by the steamboat captains or engineers. The ill-fated Sultana in Helena, Ark., just before it exploded on April 27, 1865, with about 2,500 people aboard. The Sultana sank in the Mississippi River near Marion, and over the years, the wreck was eventually covered with silt. Since the US government was paying steamboat captains a dividend to carry the prisoners back north, Captain Hatch and the captain of the Sultana worked out a deal whereby Hatch would guarantee a large load of ex-prisoners for the Sultana in exchange for a kickback of the government funds from Captain Mason. Louis.". Catchers once in a lifetime lunge saves Cardinals, The world watches (and makes donations) as St. Louis bald eagle raises eaglet from a rock, Governor threatens to keep Missouri lawmakers in session over transgender rules, Barat Academy in Chesterfield to close after years of financial troubles, Four young people die in Old Monroe head-on crash, Court records online include private information for thousands of Missouri residents, Archdiocese releases third draft of proposed changes to St. Louis parishes. [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. 1, which tends to become brittle with prolonged heating and cooling. The disaster of the Princess near Baton Rouge in 1859 was a tragically typical example. Blackened wooden deck planks and timbers were found about 32 feet (10m) under a soybean field on the Arkansas side, about 4 miles (6km) from Memphis. The Capt. It has been going on for centuries. The location of the explosion, from the top rear of the boilers and far away from the fireboxes, tends to indicate that Louden's claim of sabotage of an exploding coal torpedo in the firebox was pure bravado. The preliminary crest of 19.61 . It was late April 1865 and more than 2,000 tired, sick, and injured men, wearing dirty and tattered clothes, filed down the bluff from Vicksburg to a steamboat waiting at the docks on the Mississippi River. Constructed of wood in 1863 by the John Litherbury Boatyard[1] in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. HEROINE. One wall is decorated with the names of every soldier, crewmember, and passenger on the boat on April 27, 1865. 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. Most were Union soldiers, newly released from Confederate prison camps. It seemed that profit was the driving factor for most steamboat owners and captains. Her two side-mounted paddle wheels were driven by four fire-tube boilers. Fortunately, the sturdy railings around the twin openings of the main stairway prevented the upper deck from crushing down completely onto the middle deck. Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations. He has conducted interviews with some 75 high-profile people, including historians, government officials, combat veterans, journalists, explorers, and Hollywood stars. Captain Frederic Speed, a Union officer who sent the 1,953 paroled prisoners into Vicksburg from the parole camp, was charged with grossly overcrowding Sultana and found guilty. Steamboats should not have been racing each other, but it happened all the time, and the public loved it! It was reported that the steamer was insured for $8,000. An engraving of the Sultana explosion, published in Harpers Weekly, May 20, 1865. An epilogue to Tennessee steamboating came in the 1970s with the return of the pleasure sternwheeler to the Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers. The first steamboat on the Mississippi River along Iowas border was the 109-ton Virginia, on its way to Fort Snelling (now Saint Paul, Minnesota) in May 1823. [23], An episode of the PBS series History Detectives that aired on July 2, 2014, reviewed the known evidence, thoroughly disputed a theory of sabotage, and then focused on the question of why Sultana was allowed to be crowded to several times its normal capacity before departure. The Slate Group LLC. When the Princess pulled up to the wharf in Baton Rouge early on the morning of February 27, 1859, it was already late. Almost 1,200 people perished. [8], In 2015, on the 150th anniversary of the disaster, an interim Sultana Disaster Museum was opened in Marion, Arkansas, the closest town to the buried remains of the steamboat,[citation needed] across the Mississippi River from Memphis. "Lincoln had just been assassinated. While the Titanic caused more deaths, the great ocean liner was a British vessel and carried people from several different countries. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. I copied everything I could find, even though I may never use the material. The Missouri History Museum displayed it from 1962 to 1996 and preserves it in storage. 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. 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. Persac, Marie Adrien (Artist). In the early 1900s, the Mississippi River shifted about two miles to the east, leaving the wreck under about 15 feet of Arkansas soil. While wealthy patrons might buy drinks all night at the bar, the bar was usually privately owned, with just a share of the profits going to the steamboat captain and/or owner. 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. So on the 150th anniversary of the sinking, the city of Marion, Ark., is trying to make sure the Sultana will be remembered. "A few weeks earlier, he might have been attacking the Sultana if it had come in.". More passengers boarded at Baton Rouge including a number of politicians fresh from the state legislative session that had just ended early for the holiday. Like us onFacebook, follow us on Twitter@slatevault, and find us onTumblr. "We feel like we're a part of this Civil War story, but we're the conclusion that no one heard," says Lisa O'Neal, a Marion resident and member of the Sultana Historic Preservation Society. Burning of the Orline St. John, near Montgomery, Alabama, March 2, 1850. Since most steamboats of the time were constructed of wood covered with paint and varnish, fires were a significant concern. The Vault isSlates history blog. 0:12. Packed on board the riverboat Sultana when her boilers blew, recently freed Union POWs faced being consumed by flames or drowning in the Mississippi. FS: What was the role played by the last Sultana in the Civil War, and how significant was that role? In the 1820s, steamboats on the Mississippi carried lead from Julien Dubuque's lead mines near Dubuque. Bodies of victims continued to be found downriver for months, some as far as Vicksburg. But perhaps the best explanation is that after years of bloody conflict, the nation was simply tired of hearing about war and death. Persac, Marie Adrien (Artist) When the boat 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. Most were Union soldiers, newly released from Confederate prison camps. By that standard, the loss of the Golden Eagle was a minor event. He ordered the engines reversed, but the drifting boat smacked into submerged rocks near Grand Tower Island, opening a gash on its port (left) side. William "Buck" Lehye, who sold the Golden Eagle one year before, and Mrs. Frank Lind, a lifelong fancier of steamboat travel. (You can unsubscribe anytime), Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection, Steamboat Princess. 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.

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