Okla-homey
4/27/2007, 06:03 AM
April 27, 1865: "Sultana" Disaster or "Unbridled Greed Kills 1700."
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7503/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz46.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
142 years ago on this day, the steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killing 1,700 passengers including many discharged Union soldiers.
Sultana was launched from Cincinnati in 1863. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. She was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the lower Mississippi River during the Civil War which was raging when Sultana was launched.
Sultana left New Orleans on April 21, 1865 with 100 passengers. She stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repair of a leaky boiler. R. G. Taylor, the boilermaker on the ship, advised Captain J. Cass Mason that two sheets on the boiler had to be replaced, but Mason ordered Taylor to simply patch the plates until the ship reached St. Louis.
Capt Mason wanted to save money because he knew the job could be done cheaper in STL than on the lower Mississippi. The skipper also wanted to get to STL because arriving there and disembarking government passengers there allowed him to submit his voucher to federal officials there and get paid.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3774/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz3.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Survivors of the hell of CS POW camps, like this unfortunate from Camp Sumter at Andersonville GA were shipped aboard Sultana. Men in such obviously weakened condition didn't have a chance when they hit the water after Sultana exploded.
Mason was part owner of the riverboat, and he and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. The federal government promised to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer delivered to the North. 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.
When Sultana left Vicksburg, it carried 2,100 troops and 200 civilians, more than six times its legal capacity.
http://img244.echo.cx/img244/712/sultana2vr.jpg
Actual photograph of the dangerously overloaded ship as she departed Vicksburg.
On the evening of April 26, the ship stopped at Memphis before cruising across the river to pick up coal in Arkansas. As it steamed up the river above Memphis, a thunderous explosion tore through the boat. Metal and live steam from the boilers killed hundreds, and hundreds more were thrown from the boat into the chilly waters of the river.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/8850/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz19.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Mississippi was already at flood stage, and Sultana had only one lifeboat and a few life preservers. Only 600 people survived the explosion. A board of inquiry later determined the cause to be insufficient water in the boiler--overcrowding was not listed as a cause. The Sultana accident is still the largest maritime disaster in U.S. history.
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/15349/2004002475398681098_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004002475398681098)
The city of Mansfield OH, home of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, lost 167 men and thus was the city which lost the largest number of sons aboard "Sultana."
http://img214.echo.cx/img214/5669/insane2ee.jpg
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7503/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz46.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
142 years ago on this day, the steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killing 1,700 passengers including many discharged Union soldiers.
Sultana was launched from Cincinnati in 1863. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. She was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the lower Mississippi River during the Civil War which was raging when Sultana was launched.
Sultana left New Orleans on April 21, 1865 with 100 passengers. She stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repair of a leaky boiler. R. G. Taylor, the boilermaker on the ship, advised Captain J. Cass Mason that two sheets on the boiler had to be replaced, but Mason ordered Taylor to simply patch the plates until the ship reached St. Louis.
Capt Mason wanted to save money because he knew the job could be done cheaper in STL than on the lower Mississippi. The skipper also wanted to get to STL because arriving there and disembarking government passengers there allowed him to submit his voucher to federal officials there and get paid.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3774/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz3.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Survivors of the hell of CS POW camps, like this unfortunate from Camp Sumter at Andersonville GA were shipped aboard Sultana. Men in such obviously weakened condition didn't have a chance when they hit the water after Sultana exploded.
Mason was part owner of the riverboat, and he and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. The federal government promised to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer delivered to the North. 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.
When Sultana left Vicksburg, it carried 2,100 troops and 200 civilians, more than six times its legal capacity.
http://img244.echo.cx/img244/712/sultana2vr.jpg
Actual photograph of the dangerously overloaded ship as she departed Vicksburg.
On the evening of April 26, the ship stopped at Memphis before cruising across the river to pick up coal in Arkansas. As it steamed up the river above Memphis, a thunderous explosion tore through the boat. Metal and live steam from the boilers killed hundreds, and hundreds more were thrown from the boat into the chilly waters of the river.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/8850/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz19.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Mississippi was already at flood stage, and Sultana had only one lifeboat and a few life preservers. Only 600 people survived the explosion. A board of inquiry later determined the cause to be insufficient water in the boiler--overcrowding was not listed as a cause. The Sultana accident is still the largest maritime disaster in U.S. history.
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/15349/2004002475398681098_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004002475398681098)
The city of Mansfield OH, home of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, lost 167 men and thus was the city which lost the largest number of sons aboard "Sultana."
http://img214.echo.cx/img214/5669/insane2ee.jpg