Some survivors were plucked from the tops of semi-submerged trees along the Arkansas shore. In the 1820s, steamboats on the Mississippi carried lead from Julien Dubuque's lead mines near Dubuque. Steamboats collided or caught on fire. 1, which tends to become brittle with prolonged heating and cooling. On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and sank while transporting Union soldiers up the Mississippi. 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. 2 As rapidly as the number of steamboats increased, they could not keep pace with demand. Students tour the pilot house of the Golden Eagle on display at the U.S. Army Engineers base at the foot of Arsenal Street on Jan. 4, 1948. In writing my first few books I literally had to go to the U.S., state, and military archives to do my research. Being so closely packed within the 48-inch (120cm) diameter boilers tended to cause the muddy sediment to form hot pockets and were extremely difficult to clean. Steamboats should not have been racing each other, but it happened all the time, and the public loved it! Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The coal-burning steamboat was on a trip to Nasvhille, Tenn., via the Ohio and Cumberland rivers, when it sank at Grand Tower Island 80 miles below St. Louis on May 18, 1947. Whenever possible, I tried to dispel that myth. [4]:7479. Via History.com The steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killing 1,700 passengers including many discharged Union soldiers. However, Louden's claim is controversial, and most scholars support the official explanation. Dead trees fell into the river and got stuck on the bottom. The Sultana Tragedy: Americas Greatest Maritime Disaster. "It won't move!" Long before Kanesville or Council Bluffs were settlements on the Missouri river, the steamboat the Western Engineer arrived in the area in 1819. William "Buck" Leyhe, who had sold Eagle Packet Co. the year before, waits for rescue on Grand Tower Island after the Golden Eagle sank. And finally, at the end of the war, the Sultana would have played a significant role in transporting former Union prisoners-of-war back to the North. "And the shrapnel, the steam and the boiling water killed hundreds.". The sediment tended to settle on the bottom of the boilers or clog between the flues and leave hotspots. 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. 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 Under reduced pressure, the steamboat limped into Vicksburg to get the boiler repaired and to pick up her promised load of prisoners. Barges still carry some goods on the river, but trains and trucks carry most of the freight in America. 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. A USS Abeona Andy Gibson (steamboat) USS Antelope (1861) USS Arizona (1858) B USC&GS Baton Rouge (1875) USS Black Hawk (1848) C USS Cincinnati (1861) City-class ironclad CSS Colonel Lovell 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. Tubular boilers were discontinued from use on steamboats plying the Lower Mississippi after two more steamboats with tubular boilers exploded shortly after the Sultana explosion. It was just weeks after the Civil War ended, Potter explains, and the vessel was packed with Union soldiers who'd been released from Confederate prison camps. The flaming hull drifted onto a shoreline sandbar and grounded. Constructed of wood in 1863 by the John Litherbury Boatyard[1] in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. April 27, 2023. William H. "Buck" Leyhe of St. Louis at the wheel of the Golden Eagle steamboat in April 1939. 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. An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this 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. The most terrible steamboat disaster in history was probably the loss of the Sultana in 1865. [citation needed], By the mid-1920s, only a handful of survivors could attend the reunions. And many of them were saved by local residents, like John Fogelman an ancestor of the city of Marion's current mayor, Frank Fogelman. A year later, when the U.S. government established the Memphis National Cemetery[4]:206 on the northeast side of the city, the bodies were moved there. 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. By eliminating the manpower required to row or paddle, often against powerful currents, steamboats fueled an exponential growth in trade and development. Why should potential readers care? 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. Hersey and many others died instantly in a blast of scalding steam. Survivors panicked and raced for the safety of the water, but in their weakened condition, they soon ran out of strength and began to cling to each other. Passing boats and bystanders on both sides of the Mississippi helped pull survivors from the muddy water. The steamboat needed a lot of steam power to pull away from the shore. The Sultana sank in the Mississippi River near Marion, and over the years, the wreck was eventually covered with silt. On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and sank while traveling up the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,800 people. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Preston Lodwick, then a consortium including Capt. That is a sunken ship almost every 3 miles! Cost $8 for poster plus $3.50 postage (U.S.). Maintaining a posted schedule was important in the competitive business of steamboat commerce. FS: Tell us why the Sultana Disaster Museum is located in Marion, Arkansas. But perhaps the best explanation is that after years of bloody conflict, the nation was simply tired of hearing about war and death. Since most steamboats of the time were constructed of wood covered with paint and varnish, fires were a significant concern. Explosion of the Steamboat Constitution, May 4, 1817, Point Coupee, Louisiana. 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. All 25 soldiers were rescued, historians say, and the Fogelman home became a refuge for Sultana survivors. A tall mirror glistened behind the walnut bar. Non-subscribers can read five free Naval History articles per month. BNSF said in a statement that two of . 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. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), Capt. However, the Upper Rapids and Lower Rapids were serious obstacles to navigate. Soldiers from Kentucky and Tennessee were among the first to die, he says, "because they'd been packed in next to the boilers. 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. For several hours its crew and passengers provided aid before heading upriver, its decks covered with bodies of the dead and injured. How do you feel about that? Paskoff, Paul F. Troubled Waters: Steamboat Disasters, River Improvements, and American Public Policy, 18211860. Library of Congress The violent explosion flung some deck passengers into the water and blew a gaping 2530 foot hole in the steamer. And it was very cold. No one seemed to question the danger of a steamboat race until there was an accident or the boilers exploded. As the crew made sure the cargo was packed tightly, the captain blew the whistle. On April 21, Sultana left New Orleans with about seventy cabin and deck passengers and a small amount of livestock. 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. Potter, the lawyer and author, grew up around Memphis, but didn't learn about the tragedy until the late 1970s, when he saw a painting of the ship in flames. The Golden Eagle's new St. Louis-based owners left it to the river's mercy. The Hayne was sold in 1908 to C.J. The Nick Wall, named for a noteworthy Missouri River riverboat captain, was a 338-ton sternwheel paddleboat built in 1869 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The disaster of the Princess near Baton Rouge in 1859 was a tragically typical example. It was a standard fare, no matter who you were. Almost 1,200 people perished. I copied everything I could find, even though I may never use the material. The huge boats could carry many passengers and large amounts of freight. The Sultana should be remembered because what happened to her need not have happened. And, the cost of a stateroom was not based on the wealth of the traveler. [4]:2931, Leaving Vicksburg, Sultana traveled downriver to New Orleans, continuing to spread the news of Lincoln's assassination. 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. In 1859, the Blackhawk made 29 round trips between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo on the Cedar River. hide caption. But, no, the ice cream cone wasn't invented there. An estimated 1,800 people died in the explosion and ensuing fire more than died in the sinking of the Titanic. In the end, no one was ever held accountable for what remains the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history. The train . They can search material held in small, local historical societies. [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. [15][full citation needed], The official cause of the Sultana disaster was determined to be the mismanagement of water levels in the boilers, exacerbated by the fact that the vessel was severely overloaded and top-heavy. One of the most horrific accidents occurred in 1838, when the Moselle, a fast and nearly new Ohio River steamboat, exploded off Cincinnati. It was the last wooden-hulled passenger boat to travel the Mississippi. Explosion of the Oronoko, April 21, 1838, near Princeton, Mississippi. 1, a wooden model barge, and Vessel No. ", Discovery Gives New Ending To A Death At The Civil War's Close. The May 9, 1989 the Des Moines Register newspaper listed 40 known sunken steamboats from the southwest corner of Iowa north just over 100 miles to Sioux City. The report blamed quartermaster Capt. A crew member fished liquor bottles from the half-flooded bar. Wolf River. Further back, the collapsing decks formed a slope that led down into the exposed furnace boxes. 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 1857, The Nebraska City Advertiser newspaper listed 46 steamboats traveling the Missouri, with 12 more being built. 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. During the Civil War steamboats carried Iowa soldiers, weapons and food supplies to army posts. [12] In 1880, the War Department placed the number of survivors at 931, but the most recent research places the number at 961. During her time in port, and while the repairs were being made, Sultana took on the paroled prisoners. One wall is decorated with the names of every soldier, crewmember, and passenger on the boat on April 27, 1865. by Kelby Ouchley Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection Steamboat Princess. Charcoal Hammered No. Instead, Mason and his chief engineer, Nathan Wintringer, convinced the mechanic to make temporary repairs, hammering back the bulged boiler plate and riveting a patch of lesser thickness over the seam. [4]:24 On April 26, Sultana stopped at Helena, Arkansas, where photographer Thomas W. Bankes took a picture of the grossly overcrowded vessel. "And the entire center of the boat erupted like a volcano.". Unlike many of the nautical discoveries in. He died in 1871, having escaped justice because of his numerous highly placed patronsincluding two presidents. When railroads started carrying freight across the country, the days of the steamboats were over. The power of the boilers came with risk - the water levels in the fire tubes had to be carefully maintained at all times. An outfield in flux. 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. "The Arabia sank. Most river travel was between the years of 1846 and 1866. "It's clear that he had bribed an officer at Vicksburg to ensure that he would get a large load of prisoners," Potter says. During the gold rush to Montana in the 1860s, steamboats traveled far up the Missouri to early mining towns. (Post-Dispatch), The Golden Eagle moored on the St. Louis riverfront in May 1946. The exact death toll is unknown, although the most recent evidence indicates that 1,169 died. Irregular river depth, sandbars and snags made steamboat travel on the Missouri slow and dangerous. [4]:72 Sultana subsequently arrived at Memphis, Tennessee, around 7:00 PM, and the crew began unloading 120 tons (109 tonnes) of sugar from the hold. Without a pilot to steer the boat, Sultana became a drifting, burning hulk. 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. The city of Vicksburg was ravaged by the American Civil War, and so were the men who were about to board the steamboat Sultana. FS: In writing this book and having devoted much of your lifetime to telling the true stories of the vessels named Sultana, when did your aim to dispel myths and legends take over your outlook? Steamboats and flatboats brought thousands of early settlers to the new land of Iowa. Burning of the Orline St. John, near Montgomery, Alabama, March 2, 1850. [17], In 1888, a St. Louis resident named William Streetor claimed that his former business partner, Robert Louden, made a confession of having sabotaged Sultana by the use of a coal torpedo while they were drinking in a saloon. Concussion swept away the infrastructure, and the upper cabins, state rooms, and hurricane deck collapsed inward. She also carried a crew of 85. It was reported that the steamer was insured for $8,000.
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steamboat wrecks on the mississippi river