[citation needed], By the mid-1920s, only a handful of survivors could attend the reunions. On May 6, 1856 a steamboat named Effie Afton crashed into the bridge, destroying the steamboat as well as part of the bridge. In the 1820s, steamboats on the Mississippi carried lead from Julien Dubuque's lead mines near Dubuque. The early morning of May 18, 1947, was dark but quiet, the Mississippi River 10 feet below flood stage. Investigation Tip: The exact number of steamboat accidents in Iowa Rivers is not known. 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. 19th-century American steamboat that sank on the Mississippi River in 1865. It was not until the U.S. government began to crack down and either enact, or enforce, the laws, that safety became an overriding factor in steamboat travel. 5) was built in February 1863, but she was used extensively throughout the last two years of the Civil War to carry Union troops and supplies on the Cumberland and the Mississippi Rivers to aid in the collapse of the Confederacy. Who Was John Wilkes Booth Before He Became Lincoln's Assassin. The remains of a ship on the banks of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, La., on Oct. 17, 2022, after recently being revealed due to the low water level. The Worst Marine Disaster in U. S. History. Human errorfailure to maintain safe boiler pressurewas determined to be the cause of the tragedy, and a pall was cast over the 1859 Mardi Gras celebrations. Steamboat - Wikipedia Many bodies were never recovered. Get up-close and in-depth when examining artifacts such as photographs. And the shrapnel, the steam and the boiling water killed hundreds. An estimated 1,800 people died in the explosion and ensuing fire more than died in the sinking of the Titanic. But there were many other reasons the event didn't get much attention at the time. Morgan, James Morris. Packed on board the riverboat Sultana when her boilers blew, recently freed Union POWs faced being consumed by flames or drowning in the Mississippi. 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 . Near midnight, Sultana left Memphis, leaving behind about 200 men. Steamboat companies often made huge profits by carrying tons of cargo to rapidly growing communities. Newspaper accounts indicate that the residents of Memphis had sympathy for the victims despite the ongoing Union occupation. 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 . The collision startled Marga Sachse, a passenger from St. Louis, who said she "felt a jar, and the ship lurched.". Steamboat Princess Disaster - 64 Parishes Send to: Patrick Rash. Because of a trick of fate, the story of the Sultana is virtually unknown. He is currently a freelance writer living in Annapolis. Also, many people chose to pay for only deck passage, which restricted the traveler to the lowest (main) deck. (Post-Dispatch), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews dismantle the wreck of the Golden Eagle on May 28, 1947, to eliminate its hazard to river navigation. [4]:50,5556 Although Sultana had a legal capacity of only 376, by the time she backed away from Vicksburg on the night of April 24, she was severely overcrowded with over 1,953 paroled prisoners, 22 guards from the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, over 70 fare-paying cabin passengers, and 85 crew members, for a total of 2,130 people. Lloyd, James T. Lloyds Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. 0:12. Mississippi River's low water level reveals shipwreck, apparently a The Golden Eagle's new St. Louis-based owners left it to the river's mercy. Sultana launched on January 3, 1863, the fifth steamboat to bear the name. Then, once some laws were passed, they were generally ignored. At around 2:00AM on April 27, 1865, when Sultana was about seven miles (11km) north of Memphis, its patched boiler suddenly and violently exploded, killing 400-500 men instantly. Wreck of the Montana - YouTube Under the command of Captain James Cass Mason of St. Louis, Sultana left St. Louis on April 13, 1865, bound for New Orleans. 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. Click on links in the titles below to reach Lloyds descriptions of the accidents pictured. All contents (Post-Dispatch), The Golden Eagle moored on the St. Louis riverfront in May 1946. "The wind blew the fire to the rear, burned that out," Frank Fogelman says. 2) The use of the sediment-laden Mississippi River water to feed the boilers. All rights reserved. After days in flood stage, the Mississippi River appeared to be at crest in Lansing, Iowa Friday evening as the river has spent hours below the max daily crest. The lure of huge profits led steamboats to travel in unsafe river conditions and at unsafe speeds. Hundreds of steamboats were wrecked on the Missouri. At 0200 on 27 April 1865, when the boat was seven miles above Memphis, her boilers exploded. 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 it was very cold. It went upward at a 45-degree angle, tearing through the crowded decks above and completely destroying the pilothouse, instantly killing Captain Mason. And, the cost of a stateroom was not based on the wealth of the traveler. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. Contains photos of War Eagle and steamer Reindeer. It has been going on for centuries. [5] About ten hours south of Vicksburg, one of Sultana's four boilers sprang a leak. But it was the last trace of St. Louis' own Eagle Packet Co., which Leyhe's father and uncle founded shortly before the Civil War, when the downtown levee was crowded with steamboats. (Post-Dispatch), The Golden Eagle heads downstream at St. Louis on May 14, 1940. Salecker, historical consultant for the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Arkansas, recently participated in an author q&a with former Naval History editor-in-chief Fred Schultz to discuss the book: FS: After having read your exhaustive story of the various iterations of the steamboat Sultana, I couldnt help but compare her fate to the loss of the Titanic, which, as Im sure you know, has received much more attention from historians. 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. Among its owners on that day was Herman Pott, St. Louis boatbuilder. 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. Throughout the war, Captain Hatch had shown incompetence as a quartermaster and competence as a thief, bilking the government out of thousands of dollars. All Rights Reserved. GES: The Sultana Disaster Museum is located in Marion because that is the closest city to the remains of the vessel. In Malta Bend, Missouri, there's one that sank loaded down with expensive and rare trading . Mississippi River Shipwreck Exposed by Drought as Water - Newsweek As the crew made sure the cargo was packed tightly, the captain blew the whistle. 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 . [4]:7479. 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? As for the Sultana disaster itself, it was clearly a case of putting profit over safety. [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. Lawmakers voted 85-12 Monday to approve legislation that would exempt . The Sultana should be remembered because what happened to her need not have happened. During her time in port, and while the repairs were being made, Sultana took on the paroled prisoners. 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. Constructed of wood in 1863 by the John Litherbury Boatyard[1] in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. Down Yonder On The Yazoo - The Waterways Journal Passengers were blown apart or scalded by the hot water. Burning of the Orline St. John, near Montgomery, Alabama, March 2, 1850. 2023 He/she ate the same fare as the roustabouts and hands unless he/she bought a dinner ticket. By the time the repairs would have been completed, the prisoners would have been sent home on other boats. 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. 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 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. ", Jerry Potter, lawyer and author of The Sultana Tragedy. GES: Readers should care about the Sultana since it was the greatest maritime disaster in American history. "And the entire center of the boat erupted like a volcano.". (Post-Dispatch), Retired Capt. Steamboats and flatboats brought thousands of early settlers to the new land of Iowa. Explosion of the Moselle, Near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 25, 1838. 3) The design of the boilers. "In order to save time, they would set the people off in treetops, and go back to the boat to take more off.". 3. the Steamboat Era in Illinois The few steamboats still gliding along the rivers today are usually carrying tourists on short trips. Explosion of the Moselle, Near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 25, 1838.. The steamboat sank shortly after it struck submerged rocks at 2:20 a.m. All 91 passengers and crew members reached the island by gangplank, and were rescued later that day by a towboat. An outfield in flux. 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. The St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, April 29, 1865, states that the "steamer Sultana left New Orleans on Friday evening the 21st, with about seventy cabin passengers, and about eighty five employees on the boat. On the Mississippi river, it was four to five years." "There were about 289 steamboats that sank or possibly more on the Missouri River in the mid-19th century," Rose said. When railroads started carrying freight across the country, the days of the steamboats were over. And, in fact, when the boats used the regular flue boilers, the sediment in the water was not too much of a problem. The event remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history (the sinking of the Titanic killed 1,512 people). As stated in the 1903 newspaper article, the log was mistakenly taken by Sultana.

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