steamboat wrecks on the mississippi river

Through the corruption of Captain Reuben Hatch, a Union officer at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the captain of the Sultana, James Cass Mason, those 2,000 ex-prisoners were crowded onto a boat with a legal carrying capacity of only 376 passengers. The owners of the Effie Afton decided to take the railroad companies that had built the bridge to court. 3) The design of the boilers. Steamboats brought supplies to the new Iowans and transported their produce and products to market. And, the cost of a stateroom was not based on the wealth of the traveler. Nathan Smith eased the coal-burning steamer downstream through a narrow bend 80 miles below St. Louis. The Sultana tragedies seem to be classic examples of putting profit over safety. 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? We turn the clock back to April of 1993 and present excerpts of the original reviews from Joe Pollack. Despite even less reliable water depth than the border rivers, interior Iowa rivers (those rivers that do not border the state) also saw considerable steamboat travel. But perhaps the best explanation is that after years of bloody conflict, the nation was simply tired of hearing about war and death. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. The Golden Eagle's new St. Louis-based owners left it to the river's mercy. ", 15th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, "Sultana: A Tragic Postscript to the Civil War", https://www.nationalboard.org/SiteDocuments/General%20Meeting/Jennings.pdf, "The Sultana Disaster (Coal Torpedo theory)", http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/civil-war-sabotage/, Sultana museum in Arkansas memorializes 1,169 people who died in river, "Surviving the Worst: The Wreck of the Sultana at the End of the American Civil War", "Blues in the Water, by King's German Legion", "Ardent Presents: Cory Branan "The Wreck of the Sultana", "Remember the Sultana | Film Threat - Part 2", Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1865, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sultana_(steamboat)&oldid=1152358259, Articles with incomplete citations from April 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Initially Capt. Lawmakers voted 85-12 Monday to approve legislation that would exempt . Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Shewas a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying nearly 2,000 releasedUnion prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. 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. 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. 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 . Steamboat Princess Disaster On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew. The Capt. Men in skiffs from both riverbanks rescued people clinging to debris. Potter, Jerry. Find out more about what this space is all abouthere. 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 . All Rights Reserved. Sometimes terrible accidents happened on the Mississippi too. The Missouri was a dangerous river. 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. 2, a stern-wheel steamboat. And, in fact, when the boats used the regular flue boilers, the sediment in the water was not too much of a problem. Almost all were Union soldiers who had survived the . The exact number of steamboat accidents in Iowa Rivers is not known. Steamboats traveled into Iowa border waters even before Iowa was legally open for settlement. The museum also features many artifacts from the Sultana Survivor's Association, as well as a fourteen-foot model replica of the boat. Because of a trick of fate, the story of the Sultana is virtually unknown. from 1993-2005. The power of the boilers came with risk - the water levels in the fire tubes had to be carefully maintained at all times. Investigation Tip: Late in April of 1865, the Mississippi stood at flood stage. It didn't run for several years during World War II because wartime supply restrictions blocked needed upgrades to the boilers. 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. William "Buck" Leyhe, who had sold Eagle Packet Co. the year before, waits for rescue on Grand Tower Island after the Golden Eagle sank. [4]:12 On the morning of April 15, she was tied up at Cairo, Illinois, when word reached the city that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had been shot in Washington, D.C. The vessel measured 260 feet (79m) long, with a 42 feet (13m) width at the beam, displaced 1,719 short tons (1,559t), and had a 7-foot (2.1m) draft. HEROINE. The Corp of Engineers in a report issued July 3, 1934 listed 36 types of steamboat wrecks on the Missouri River alone. Leyhe's father and uncle established the Eagle Packet Co., and Leyhe began working on the Mississippi River when he was 18. Dropping water levels could cause hot spots leading to metal fatigue, significantly increasing the risk of an explosion. An interview with author Gene Eric Salecker. The broken wood caught fire and turned the remaining superstructure into a raging inferno. St. Louis' biggest party ran for seven months and was such a success it even made money. The Mississippi was not as dangerous. Like us onFacebook, follow us on Twitter@slatevault, and find us onTumblr. 2 likes, 0 comments - BHYHA (@bhyhapodcast) on Instagram: "On this day in 1865.The steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killi." BHYHA on Instagram: "On this day in 1865.The steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killing 1,700 passengers including many discharged Union soldiers. Author Q&ADestruction of the Steamboat Sultana, Fred Schultz has been in the publishing business since 1980 and was editor-in-chief of. What is the connection? Her two side-mounted paddle wheels were driven by four fire-tube boilers. [33] The museum is only temporary until enough funds can be raised to build a permanent museum. Further back, the collapsing decks formed a slope that led down into the exposed furnace boxes. 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. He was company president for many years and sold the company in 1946. Aunt Letty (1855) steam paddle. A tall mirror glistened behind the walnut bar. Aurora (1902) steam screw. [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. "All them boys . Steamboats played a major role in the 19th-century development of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, allowing practical large-scale transport of passengers and freight both up- and down-river. Among other St. Louisans along for the ride was Capt. He is currently a freelance writer living in Annapolis. The ill-fated Sultana in Helena, Ark., just before it exploded on April 27, 1865, with about 2,500 people aboard. [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. That meant another expensive trip and more time. An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this disaster. Hersey and many others died instantly in a blast of scalding steam. In the early 1900s, the Mississippi River shifted about two miles to the east, leaving the wreck under about 15 feet of Arkansas soil. Whole groups went down together. The event remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history (the sinking of the Titanic killed 1,512 people). 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. 2) The use of the sediment-laden Mississippi River water to feed the boilers. Trees along the river bank were almost completely covered until only the very tops of the trees were visible above the swirling, powerful water. 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? On May 6, 1856 a steamboat named Effie Afton crashed into the bridge, destroying the steamboat as well as part of the bridge. 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. The exact death toll is unknown, although the most recent evidence indicates that 1,169 died. "The wind blew the fire to the rear, burned that out," Frank Fogelman says. In later years the steamboats pushed huge rafts of logs from the forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota to sawmills farther down the river. In 1929, only two men attended the southern reunion. Flatboats and keelboats carried cargo down the river. Pages in category "Shipwrecks of the Mississippi River" The following 50 pages are in this category, out of 50 total. Sometimes these snags stuck out of the water. 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. Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations. The huge boats could carry many passengers and large amounts of freight. Then the captain did his best to steer around the dead trees, but sometimes they were hidden underwater. (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. An engraving of the Sultana explosion, published in Harpers Weekly, May 20, 1865. While the Titanic caused more deaths, the great ocean liner was a British vessel and carried people from several different countries. Introduced in 1848, they could generate twice as much steam per fuel load as conventional boilers. 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. It seemed that profit was the driving factor for most steamboat owners and captains. 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. Many Sultana survivors ended up on the Arkansas side of the river, which was under Confederate control during the war. 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. Steamboats ultimately carried more men and freight in the Civil War than the faster and more expensive railroads. During the gold rush to Montana in the 1860s, steamboats traveled far up the Missouri to early mining towns. Historian Ann Fabian writes that Lloyd even peddle[d] his book to the travelers who might soon wind up on the lists of the dead, who bought it and read it to pass the time on their own steamboat voyages. Miller, of Vicksburg, who changed the name to Alice Miller and ran the boat on the Yazoo and Sunflower rivers. The Nick Wall, named for a noteworthy Missouri River riverboat captain, was a 338-ton sternwheel paddleboat built in 1869 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [4]:79 First one boiler exploded, followed a split-second later by two more. So on the 150th anniversary of the sinking, the city of Marion, Ark., is trying to make sure the Sultana will be remembered. The official inquiry found that the boilers exploded because of the combined effects of careening, low water levels, and the faulty repair made a few days earlier.[16]. Sometimes the boilers exploded. "It was like a tremendous bomb going off in the middle of where these men were. [4]:2728, Upon reaching Vicksburg, Mississippi, Mason was approached by Captain Reuben Hatch, the chief quartermaster at Vicksburg, with a proposal. Is it a good thing? In the 1840s, The Ripple was the first steamboat to the capital in Iowa City. Preston Lodwick, then a consortium including Capt. He has conducted interviews with some 75 high-profile people, including historians, government officials, combat veterans, journalists, explorers, and Hollywood stars. 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. The boat and its entire cargo was a total loss. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. 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]: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. yet the tragedy got very few headlines. 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. by Kelby Ouchley Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection Steamboat Princess. The last northern survivor, Private Jordan Barr of the 15th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, died on May 16, 1938, at age 93. You have permission to edit this article. Even amid the horrendous chaos, rescue efforts began immediately. An aerial view of the striken Golden Eagle at Grand Tower Island in the Mississippi River on May 19, 1947. I think reporting was much more accurate, and less political, than it is today. Explosion of the Moselle, Near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 25, 1838. 2 As rapidly as the number of steamboats increased, they could not keep pace with demand. A series of maritime disasters, occurred over the next 120 years before the Coast Guard assumed enforcement responsibility. GES: Readers should care about the Sultana since it was the greatest maritime disaster in American history. The steamboat has been submerged in the water of the Missouri river ever since. [4]:62, Sultana spent two days traveling upriver, fighting against one of the worst spring floods in the river's history. Cardinals latest, deflating loss compounds concerns, Man shot, killed near Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis, What was Andrew Knizner thinking? Although designed with a capacity of only 376 passengers, she was carrying 2,130 when three of the boat's four boilers exploded and caused it to sink near Memphis, Tennessee. Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from 64 Parishes. It was part of the museum's River Room. It is also about a rescue effort that brought together people who had been at war just weeks earlier. The Missouri History Museum had it on display from 1962 to 1996, and preserves it in storage. 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. [7] Many died of drowning or hypothermia. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), Capt. 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. FS: Which cargo would you say was more important and most profitablethe goods and materials or the obviously wealthy patrons who were there just for a glamorous boat ride? Irregular river depth, sandbars and snags made steamboat travel on the Missouri slow and dangerous. 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. It was a standard fare, no matter who you were. All 25 soldiers were rescued, historians say, and the Fogelman home became a refuge for Sultana survivors. [9] In February 1867, the Bureau of Military Justice placed the death toll at 1,100. GES: Sultana (No. 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. GES: I began to dispel the myths and untruths surrounding the Sultana shortly after the Naval Institute Press published my first book in 1996. Savannah Davis, 23, died from blunt . Steamboats and flatboats brought thousands of early settlers to the new land of Iowa. By Commander Robert Frank Bennett, U. S. Coast Guard. "And the entire center of the boat erupted like a volcano.". 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. 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. Newspaper accounts suggest John Fogelman and his sons spotted the burning Sultana as the remains of the paddle-wheeler drifted downriver. FS: What was the role played by the last Sultana in the Civil War, and how significant was that role? 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. No one seemed to question the danger of a steamboat race until there was an accident or the boilers exploded. Explosion of the Oronoko, April 21, 1838, near Princeton, Mississippi. [4]:24 On April 26, Sultana stopped at Helena, Arkansas, where photographer Thomas W. Bankes took a picture of the grossly overcrowded vessel. Passengers were blown apart or scalded by the hot water. [13] The dead soldiers were interred at the Fort Pickering cemetery, located on the south shore of Memphis. [12] In 1880, the War Department placed the number of survivors at 931, but the most recent research places the number at 961. By eliminating the manpower required to row or paddle, often against powerful currents, steamboats fueled an exponential growth in trade and development. In the 1820s, steamboats on the Mississippi carried lead from Julien Dubuque's lead mines near Dubuque. It just hurts my heart. The early morning of May 18, 1947, was dark but quiet, the Mississippi River 10 feet below flood stage. Paul recorded 41 steamboat arrivals in 1844, and 95 in 1849. Many bodies were never recovered. As shown in my book, when steam navigation of American waterways first began, there were very little, if any, laws for safety. The Sultana should be remembered because what happened to her need not have happened. William H. "Buck" Leyhe of St. Louis at the wheel of the Golden Eagle steamboat in April 1939. MADISON, Wis. (AP) A freight train derailed along the Mississippi River in southwestern Wisconsin Thursday, possibly injuring one crew member and sending two cars into the water, officials said. Burning of the Orline St. John, near Montgomery, Alabama, March 2, 1850. Most were Union soldiers, newly released from Confederate prison camps. Paskoff, Paul F. Troubled Waters: Steamboat Disasters, River Improvements, and American Public Policy, 18211860. The Eclipse was a steamboat that struck a snag on the Mississippi River near Osceola (Mississippi County) on September 12, 1925; a deckhand and a passenger lost their lives in the accident. I copied everything I could find, even though I may never use the material. 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. At least a hundred people survived their injuries. Throughout the war, Captain Hatch had shown incompetence as a quartermaster and competence as a thief, bilking the government out of thousands of dollars. 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. [4]:7985, While the Sultana burned, and the men on the steamboat were either already dead or fighting for their lives, the southbound steamer Bostona (No. At least thirty-nine passengers and crew members died in the accident. 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 main channel now flows about 2 miles (3km) east of its 1865 position. It was the last wooden-hulled passenger boat to travel the Mississippi. [24]:193197, Despite the magnitude of the disaster, no one was ever formally held accountable. For several hours its crew and passengers provided aid before heading upriver, its decks covered with bodies of the dead and injured. "It was like a tremendous bomb going off in the middle of where these men were," Potter says. On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and sank while traveling up the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,800 people. Even after the Sultana disaster, steamboat captains continued to accept profit over safety, as shown by boats that exploded when crammed full of recent immigrants moving westward. I gave only short shrift to the coal-torpedo sabotage theory. From 1817 to 1871, about 5,600 people died on Mississippi River wrecks of all sorts, including burst boilers, collisions and fires. I had learned so much more, and collected so many more first-person accounts from the people on board, from the rescuers, and from the people involved, that I knew I had to write a new tell-all book that would dispel, as well as verify, all of the stories, rumors, and myths surrounding the disaster. "The war had just ended a few weeks before," he says. Smith shouted at 2:20 a.m., suddenly unable to turn the steering wheel. Trollz Website Shut Down, 1960s Philadelphia Restaurants, Reo Foreclosure Homes For Sale Near Illinois, Articles S