In order to save time, they would set the people off in treetops, and go back to the boat to take more off. All 25 soldiers were rescued, historians say, and the Fogelman home became a refuge for Sultana survivors.
Vindicating Lincoln: Presidential Patronage, the Sultana Disaster, and Although it was designed to only hold 376 persons, more than 2,000 Union troops were crowded onto the steamboat - more than five times its legal carrying capacity. The Sultana was seen just another event of suffering and loss, with a death total akin to a minor Civil War battle.
By the time it reached the Union army outpost at Vicksburg, it already had 180 people onboard, but the profits to be realized by both the owners of the Sultana and by army officials, who received kickbacks for providing passengers, were too great to pass up.
Why Did the S.S. Sultana Explode - Civil War Academy The New Orleans Streetcar Protests of 1867. For specific terms and conditions, please refer to the coverage form. The mechanic who did the work told the captain and the chief engineer the boiler was not safe, but the engineer said he would have a complete repair job done when the boat made it to St. Louis," Potter says. As the flames spread, those who survived the initial explosion began jumping overboard in the false belief that they were near the shore. The modern day benefit to this disaster is the inspection and insurance industry as well as codes such as the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code and the National Board Inspection Code. The first rescue craft, the Bostonia No. Though the official number of deaths is recorded as 1,547, modern historians believe the number could be as high as 1,800, making the Sultana disaster even more terrible than the better-known Titanic tragedy: slightly more than 1,500 passengers were lost when the much-larger ocean liner sank in the North Atlantic 47 years later. Mason was part owner of the riverboat, and he and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. The story of the Sultana isn't well-known even among people who live along the Mississippi. On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and sank while traveling up the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,800 people. | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | DMCA Notice, This website uses cookies to improve your experience. But the boat didnt make it, and locals are still haunted by the tragedy. Such a contract could pay huge dividends, and Mason convinced local military authorities to pick up the entire contingent despite the presence of two other steamboats at Vicksburg. 2, was ninety minutes away when her crew spotted the glow of the Sultana pyre in the night sky. The Black Tom Explosion, MV Joyita: The Ghost Ship that Couldnt Sink, https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/surviving-the-worst-the-wreck-of-the-sultana, https://blog.hsb.com/2016/04/27/sultana-disaster-cause/, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/sultana-disaster. var cdMetadata = {
The blast threw many passengers into the water; however, many remained trapped aboard the ship, where they either perished or were maimed by the heat of the explosion and the collapsing ship. Some people got off the boat at Memphis to explore the town and then re-boarded the ship. A monument erected by the survivors to the memory of the East Tennessee victims of the Sultana disaster stands in the Mount Olive Cemetery in Knoxville. In the months after Appomattox, Union soldiers in the Deep South made their ways by foot, horse, train, and boat from their southern postings, and from notorious prisons such as Andersonville and Cahaba from which they had been paroled, towards Mississippi River ports such as New Orleans, Memphis, and Vicksburg, in the hopes of being able to board a northbound ship. The US Civil War was in its closing stages and the Sultana had been pressed into service as a transport ship. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River.
The Sultana Disaster | American Battlefield Trust Frederick Speed was the only official found guilty of any impropriety and was court-martialed. Improvements in boiler design happened later on, as engineers sought to avoid any repeat of the Sultana explosion. But some of the most poignant stories involve Confederate soldiers rescuing their Union counterparts. Work began on legislation culminating in 1871 with a coherent and unified body of maritime safety laws, revised for vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam in 1874. Fearing that his colleagues were taking bribes to transport prisoners on other boats, Union Army Captain George Williams, who oversaw the operation, hastily ordered that all former prisoners at the parole camp and hospital at Vicksburg be transported on the Sultana. Additionally, Americans were tired of war and wanted to move past it rather than deal with yet another tragedy. Age of Discovery Bruce Kaplan is a Boston-based transportation planner and independent scholar. The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America. The iron plates were burnt, one of the boilers had two repairs in two months and had already been re-tubed once. Chat with a librarian, Monday through Friday, 12-2 pm Eastern Time (except Federal Holidays). Rapid additional exploitation of the nations waterways ensued, catalyzing the westward expansion and economic development of the United States. Explosion of the Sultana, April 28, 1865. Many Sultana survivors ended up on the Arkansas side of the river, which was under Confederate control during the war. Overshadowed by the death of a so monumental individual, the deaths of the hundreds on board the Sultana received hardly a mention. One of the first was repatriating tens of thousands of Union soldiers from southern battlefields, encampments, and prisons back to their homes and families in the North, where they could be formally demobilized, discharged, and with luck reintegrated into civilian society. caused the Sultana disaster In the early morning of April 27, 1865, just north of Memphis Tennessee, three of the four boilers on the Sultana steamboat exploded. The Sultana was a ticking timebomb waiting to explode with many passengers on board. The Union troops onboard were only enlisted men, chiefly recent parolees from Confederate prison camps. 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 wer. ASME Executive Director and CEO Thomas Costabile about ASMEs approach to supporting engineers in developing and deploying the necessary climate technologies. And the boat was filled with enlisted men primarily men who really hadn't made a mark in history or a mark in life." However, after several detailed investigations, it was concluded that what made the Sultana explode was not sabotage but an explosion in the boilers. Sincerely, Mike Marshall, Producer, Remember the Sultana documentary. The paddle wheel fell off of one side, caused the boat to turn sideways; the other paddle wheel fell off. Eventually, the Sultana turned so that the wind was pushing the flames toward the bow, where 25 soldiers remained. The Sultana explosion can be linked with many industry and legislation improvements including safety regulations and inspection services that improved how people work with them: Terms of Use
Events & Documents, Civil War announces negligence caused death of The Crow actor Brandon Lee. You can navigate days by using left and right arrows. In April 1865, the SS Sultana, carrying over 2,000 recently released Union soldiers, exploded. Archaeologists Find 12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints in Utah.
They match the statistics of boiler explosions of the time and the science of boiler explosion theory. Today, Potter describes the scene from a park along the banks of the Mississippi, just north of Memphis. To escape the burning steamer, some passengers leaped into the river, where they faced hours in the dark, frigid water listening to the shrieks and cries of the injured and dying. He has been crawling around, studying, talking and writing about boilers for almost 30 years.
The worst maritime disaster in American history occurred on April 27, 1865, when the steamship Sultana exploded and burned on the Mississippi River while dangerously overloaded with passengers. The disaster was overlooked at the time because it occurred just weeks after Lees surrender and President Lincolns assassination, with most news outlets covering the end of the Civil War, Lincolns funeral train, and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth. All rights reserved. The Sultana was launched from Cincinnati in 1863. Newspaper accounts suggest John Fogelman and his sons spotted the burning Sultana as the remains of the paddle-wheeler drifted downriver. For a nation saturated by news of war and death, writes Stephen Ambrose for National Geographic, one more catastrophe just wasnt that newsworthy. Yet the wreck of the Sultana remains unfamiliar to the general public, an elision that has several probable causes. A few weeks earlier, he might have been attacking the Sultana if it had come in. Instead, newspaper accounts say Franklin Barton saved several Union soldiers. A Buckeye private named William Boor convinced his friends to find a spot away from the power plant, warning that if it did explode they would "go higher than a kite." Open space disappeared as the various decks became congested, and still the . Newspaper accounts suggest John Fogelman and his sons spotted the burning Sultana as the remains of the paddle-wheeler drifted downriver. Better maintenance and processes inside the ships boiler chamber could have stopped the tragedy from happening. Communication Preferences. Moreover, the years of war had deadened people to loss.
The SS Sultana Disaster, 1865 - LinkedIn On the night of April 26, 1865, the passenger steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. The tragedy that struck the Sultana that night remains the deadliest disaster in United States maritime history. not a suitable iron for boiler construction, Part 1: A story of greed, chaos and fire. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. Read More. The rescue effort that followed the disaster included Confederate soldiers saving Union soldiers they might have shot just weeks earlier, he writes. 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.
The Sultana - Part 5: What caused the Sultana disaster? Written by Allen R. Coggins 2 minutes to read At 2:00 a.m. on April 27, 1865, the magnificent side-wheeler riverboat Sultana was struggling against the surging current of the Mississippi River eight miles north of Memphis. Read more about it! + Follow. All Rights Reserved. The Lusitania and the Blame Game: A Legitimate Target? These cookies are not optional. A Net Inceptions project. Contributions
It was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the lower Mississippi River. Exploring solutions for equipment, cyber, innovation and loss control, The hidden danger lurking in your electrical box, Home more than 20 years old? There were three primary reasons for the condition of the boilers and it was the combination of these that was the root cause of the tragedy. And many of them were saved by local residents, like John Fogelman an ancestor of the city of Marion's current mayor, Frank Fogelman. How well is it meeting the pledge to develop and deploy scalable zero-emission fuels? The boiler explosion of the Mississippi River Steamboat Sultana on April 27, 1865 caused one of the 100 deadliest fires ever and claimed more lives than the Titanic.
April 27, 1865: Riverboat SS Sultana Sinks in Mississippi, or the Worst It was accepted in engineering circles that the design of the ship boiler had the possibility of an explosion at any given time. American Revolution The government was paying $5 per enlisted man, $10 per officer, to carry men upriver from the South. From St. Louis, Missouri, his age and date of birth are unknown although he was thought to be about 35 years old when the disaster occurred. "In order to save time, they would set the people off in treetops, and go back to the boat to take more off.". In the aftermath of the Sultana explosion, Captain Frederick Speed, a federal officer in charge and assistant adjutant general for the Department of the Mississippi, was accused of knowingly overloading the ship seven times over the legal passenger capacity. Frank Barton is the descendant of one of those Confederate soldiers, a man named Franklin Hardin Barton. All Rights Reserved. K29-K30.
Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana | U.S. Naval Institute hide caption. Those involved in steam power also noticed that huge loss of life due to common boiler explosions, happening as often as every four days in the 1850s, could be prevented if safety improvements were made as larger boilers were being built. Biographies The event remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history (the sinking of the Titanic killed 1,512 people). The Poison Squad Trials: Do You Know Whats In Your Food? 2023 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
We should honor the memory of those 1,700 plus lives lost. Unless there was a specific personal connection to a victim, there was just detached numbness. Chaos and panic ensued as those in the water either tried to help one another or competed for handholds on every available piece of floating debris. Only 600 people survived the explosion. Three of the ships four boilers burst from an overpressure of steam, producing the effect of an explosion, tearing the nearby furnaces, and scattering hot coals on the midship and the hundreds of soldiers sleeping there. After lengthy testimony, a military commission appointed to investigate the tragedy eventually charged Captain Speed with neglect of duty to the prejudice of good order and military discipline. Speed was the only individual ever to face charges resulting from the incident and, though a court-martial eventually found him guilty, the decision was later reversed and the Army closed its investigation.
The Sultana, a typical side-wheeler coal-burning steamer, was built in 1863. Passing boats and bystanders on both sides of the Mississippi helped pull survivors from the muddy water. "Lincoln had just been assassinated. The Steamboat Inspection Service was created in 1871. Only very few people survived the tragedy to tell the tale.
Alexa, When did the sultana explode? | Alexa Answers It made frequent trips up and down the Mississippi River between New Orleans and St. Louis during the war, often carrying military personnel. The publics news fatigue was at a high, and the death of fewer than 2,000 peoplestacked up against the roughly 620,000 soldiers who died during the Civil War, to say nothing of civiliansdidnt register on a national scale, Ambrose writes. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), Union soldiers die in steamship explosion, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/union-soldiers-die-in-steamship-explosion, Navigator Ferdinand Magellan killed in the Philippines, U.S. agent William Eaton leads U.S. forces to the shores of Tripoli, South Africa holds first multiracial elections, Rocky Marciano retires as world heavyweight champion, D.A. The deaths of more than 300 people from steamboat boiler explosions in the spring of 1838 finally spurred Congress to issue the first national public safety regulatory act. "It's clear that he had bribed an officer at Vicksburg to ensure that he would get a large load of prisoners," Potter says. As a result of the explosion, hot water and embers rushed into other areas of the ship where people were resting.
April 27, 1865: Riverboat SS Sultana Sinks in Mississippi, or the Worst US Maritime Disaster of All Time By Major Dan April 27, 2016 Updated: March 15, 2020 18 Comments 4 Mins Read LinkedIn A Brief History On April 27, 1865, the paddle-wheel steamboat, SS Sultana was carrying 2427 people when she blew up, killing 1800! Wartime Sabotage in a Neutral Country? Early in the morning of April 27, 1865 approximately 1,700 people, both soldiers and civilians, died in the explosion of the steamer Sultana on the Mississippi River. Samuel Clemens (not the famous author) was the engineer on duty that night.
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