Sultana: Titanic of the Mississippi

[CruelestSea]

Beautiful and moving tribute. Well done.

[ninjaco99]

1:10-1:09 I almost thought that was Theodore Roosevelt :P

[Cincinnatus1869]

two of my ancestors were drowned as passengers of the Sultana . Both brothers had survived almost 2 yrs of combat in Indiana regiments in the Western theatre only to drown in the damned river .Both are buried on my farm and I maintain their resting places with due respect .

[ZoneIII]

Yes, it's a sad story. No doubt about that. But, geesh! You really need to learn to spell. "bearly"??? "parished"??? I mean no disrespect but I am amazed how people can't spell these days. Also, the death toll was between 1,400 and 1,800 but those are just estimates. Nobody really knows the true count. Thanks for posting this. It's a very interesting part of our history that most people aren't even aware of.

[SteveLLW]

The explosion could have resulted from "careening". If an old steamboat listed to one side (the overloaded Sultana was listing), then the opposite side boilers could drain to the lower interconnected boilers. The drained boiler is still being fired while dry and when the ship rolls back, the very hot boiler iron causes the water to explosively flash to superheated steam, then ca-boom! Modern boiler water level controls are critical! We engineers learn from these types of disasters. May they RIP.

[Modeltnick]

That was a great video to commemorate those lost in the Sultana disaster. You couldn't have picked a better piece of music. The photographs of the men are really haunting and almost seem to speak to your soul from the past. Great job.

[MCHS38]

I think they have an exhibit about this at the Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, correct?

[alf513]

it is tragic that history is so cruel.

the memory of the sultana was overshadowed by the murder of Abraham Lincoln. both were tradgedies, but the captain of the sultana should be charged with murder or manslaughter.

[Kanefan701]

RIP to those died.

[mika26055]

the background song was

sleeping sun by: nightwish

[NewEnglandFish]

Also, the captian didn't want to stop for repairs because he was afraid that another ship would come and pick up the soldiers. The captain wanted his money.

[joshykill22]

snakes3425 ur wrong. it sank because of bad bolts. they used iron on the red and steel on black. So your wrong!

[Ultimaton100]

@joshykill22 Naw, I'm going with the confederate sabateur version.

[NewEnglandFish]

@joshykill22 No, you're wrong. There was a crack in the boiler. It blew up.

[mybsaler1413]

I am the great great grandson of one of the survivors. Actually there were only slightly over 500 survivors. There may have been as many as 3000 on board when it exploded and sank. An accurate count was never taken except for the Union POWs that the captain was getting paid for. My great great grandfather was a member of the 9th Indiana Cavalry and coming from the confederate prison at Cahaba, Alabama. The disaster was intentionally suppressed by the U.S. Gov. at the time due to worry.

[cunard61]

America's greatest maritime disaster. It's all but forgotten today because it occured in the month of April 1865, one of the most eventful months in the nations history. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Lincoln was assassinated, and his killer, John Wilks Booth, was pursued and finally killed, all in this same month. The Sultana disaster has remained an obscure event in history ever since. It was truly a sad end for hundreds who had endured so much, and were so close to finally returning home.

[4freespeech]

Its pronounced SUL-TANNA, and we kids knew about it.

There's a famous poem about the pilot of the Sultana who

stayed at the wheel long enough to bring it closer to land or

the 700 who were saved would have drowned. The pilot

burnt up in the wheelhouse, a hero. Mark Twain, a riverboat pilot

himself, mentioned the Sultana in his writings. Of course

they have taken those kind of books out of American schools

now to "dumb down" our kids, making them better "slaves"

for the New World Order.

[abileneraider]

Sultana Tragedy by Jerry O. Potter is an excellent book on the subject.

[HotBrittany45]

it was sad that he got pad four every sholdier he vrought home itt shoulent get paid four it he shoul be glad that their alive but the vido was really good and i hope it never happens againe and it is still the sadest tragity that happend in the u.s history

sooooooooooo sad it would bring people eyes to the event they should have paid atteniont to it

[HotBrittany45]

it was sad that he got pad four every sholdier he vrought home itt shoulent get paid four it he shoul be glad that their alive but the vido was really good and i hope it never happens againe and it is still the sadest tragity that happend in the u.s history

[destroyingsociety]

i hate this song..

[NirvashZ]

@destroyingsociety

me to...it's in almost all of the sunken ships video -_-;;

Give the song a rest huh??

[MegaTitanicfreak]

ive never heard of sultana ever in my life

[jmantime]

THEY SHOULD MAKE A MOVIE OUT OF THIS LIKE THEY DID TITANIC

[scorsbygirl]

Good video but you should use a dictionary.

[wolfgunner4564]

i learned it was the captins falt the ship sank. He took on to many pasengers than it could carry and did bad sterring. The boiler were rocked back and fourth untill one could not take the burning water inside and just exploded. If the captin was more expericed and smarter 1900 of those soliders would have gone back to see there familys!

[snakes3425]

@wolfgunner4564

True the captain was being paid for every soldier he brought home, he also didn't want to wait for the damaged boilers to be replaced. The cause was that the amount of people on board made the ship top heavy, causing her to roll and pitch, which caused the water in the boilers to shift exposing the weakened steel to the heat, there are some who believe the boilers were sabatogue by Confederate remnants or pro-Confederate sympathizers while Sultana was in Vicksburg for repairs

[nicholasbreeden]

@snakes3425 The Boiler had a crack and they had communicated with a mechanic who said it needed to be replaced, so instead of wasting time the captain took the quickest option, he patched the boiler, and that night the patch gave way...the rest is history

[Ultimaton100]

@nicholasbreeden Actually, an ex-confederate agent named Robert Louden confessed on his deathbed to setting a bomb on the Sultana. He had been responsible for sabatoging several steamboats on the Mississippi River during the war and it really would not have been a stretch for him.

[snakes3425]

@Ultimaton100

That may have been true and given the Sultana was in Vicksburg and Mississippi was one of the most die-hard Confederate States it wouldn't surprise me, but it was a deathbed confession and Louden was sick with Yellow Fever, so there's a chance he was delerious and thought the Sultana was one of the steamboats he help sink at St. Louis, but he was primarily responsible for delievering messages to Confederate troops and pro-Confederate gurrellas during the war

[snakes3425]

@nicholasbreeden

I know the boiler was already damaged, I was refuring to the water inside the Boiler that was heated to generate steam and cool the boilers. The ship was tilting side to side due to the fact her design was compromised by the POWs, causing the water in the boilers to shift, and every time the water came into contact with hot spots steam built up until the damaged boiler ruptured. the bomb story is an urban legend since the Sultana was in occupied Vicksburg before sailing on

[nicholasbreeden]

@snakes3425 I know, I meant to reply to his comment about bad steering haha my fault.

[doughesson]

The towboat company I work for is situated at Mile 740 on the Lower Mississippi,5 miles above the I-40/Hernando deSoto Bridge and 2 more miles below where this riverboat met her end. The actual location is now farmland due to the river changing its channel.

[40thCapeRifles]

I've got to admit, I'm a history buff but I never knew about this until Son Volt came out with their album.

[whatwhere]

i saw this show on the discovery channel...the captain had poor boilers that were cheaply fixed and i think they said the weather was bad that night which made it even worse...i think they also said the captian over loaded the steamer so he could get more money for dropping off the soldiers and stuff

[TheMythfox]

What a beautiful Ship, its sad shes gone.

[legomaxmania]

The aniversy of sinking is april 27 and this year it is 145 years since targedys

[b544128]

Great song, may someone tell me the name please ?

[ApertureAce]

Sleeping Sun

[legomaxmania]

its sad those realesd prisonors never had their freedom *sobs*

[andrewwatson39]

May the souls who perished with her rest easy now.

[h3rsh3y94]

Do you pronounce this like katana or banana?

[snakes3425]

The name means queen in Arabic, and is pronouced like Sultan

[Tundraboy05]

@h3rsh3y94 Sul [like 'sultan'] -tan [color] -a [short moan]

[DeepFriedCorn]

The description is right more people died on this ship then the Titanic many people fail to realize that

[InnAb109]

Interesting to learn of this tragic event - had to turn the sound down tho, what an awflu song!

[bluecat97401]

My great-great grandfather Emanuel Yeisley was one of the few who survived this disaster. He had recently been released from the Cahaba prison in Alabama. He had to fight someone for a piece of wood to hang onto as he couldn't swim. Had he perished, hundreds of his descendants wouldn't have been born.

[roncater]

I just finished reading Alan Huffman's Sultana, fascinating bit of History, It was overshadowed by Lincoln's Assassination and the end of the Civil War, but it was the worst maritime disaster in the country

[cytero]

A rebel named Laudon spent the War destroying riverboats on the Miss. After the War he confessed to putting a coal bomb onto the Sultana. History Ch. has a documentary on it.

[sctgresham]

in the group pic at 1:35 the man with a big beard in the mid. of the front row is my great great great grandfather. when the sultana blew up he was completely deafend. he lived in knoxville tn, but faught for the north. he had been in the cahaba (spelled bad) prison camp. a black family pulled him from the water and nursed him back to health. the north had already told the relatives that he was dead. though he walked all the way home alive but deaf

[flutehippie]

great story!

[KnightOwl2006]

That's an amazing story.

[ChiefOren]

If you've seen the movie Dej'a Vu, the explosion of the Sultana was about like the explosion of the Ferry. Many people would have died in the first few seconds.

[andrewwatson68]

I've heard of a rumor that the sultana exploded because someone had a bomb hidden in the coal.

Then again it's just a rumor.

[AuratheDark]

Sultana

Titanic

Britanic

Lusitana

and many more ships should not be forgotten... may they all rest in peace

[Sjurmen]

Is Titanic forgotten? But, yes they should not be forgotten

[Britannic1997]

aprils a bad month for ships!

[isabeats]

I just got a new book about this ship: Alan Huffman's "Sultana".

[WilbertVereAwdry]

How is it that when I tried to use Nightwish music in my vids I can't and I have to audioswap it, but every ship video on Youtube can use Nightwish?

[1919koharu2]

130年以上も前か・・・

[felipe929258]

you love this music, man

[CODEMASTER4601]

i heared about her

[starbster]

The Sultana Sank on April 27th 1865

[woodnic]

very interesting ...great Nightwish tune..

[baritonebynight]

Representative James Oberstar (D-MN) had the nerve to usethe Sultana diaster as a reason to force the last historic overnight steamboat Delta Queen into retirement. Call your Senators and representatives to encourge them to Support Senators Voinovitch and Brown of Ohio to save the Delta Queen!

[custeryelled]

I thank you for posting this video.The 'Sultana' disaster has been swept under the carpet by historians for over 140 years. The event was overshadowed by the Lincoln assassination in the American press of the day. Very few American history books even mention the 'Sultana.'I've always thought that there would maybe someday be a movie made about this preventable disaster. I doubt that it would be a box office bonanza but it would open peoples eyes to the event.

[Sjurmen]

I love your videos and I'm getting many ideas for Newsflash we have on my school (New's and new's but xD )

[finnraft]

A worthy tribute.

Steam had been discovered escaping from a crack in one of her boilers. Fearing that the crack posed a significant threat to the safety of the steamboat, her chief engineer said that he would not proceed until repairs were made. A boilermaker advised that extensive repairs were needed, but Captain J. Cass Mason, wary of losing a profitable shipment of soldiers, insisted on a temporary repair. News of the tragedy was overshadowed by the assassination of President Lincoln.

[PiggyFate]

Sultana was the first steamboat I found out the 2nd was Arabia I think

[bmcclure0561dad]

Most likely the federal union government blew it up, to keep the complicity of the federal government in the andersonville death camp from being told. The federal government of the north refusal to recognize Jefferson Davis as the president of the south and the norths refusal to accept union prisoners being paroled if no blacks were included in the exchange. And General Grants refusal to turn over southern soldiers for fear they would be back in the fight.

[rlzdaciabreak]

that technology with the boilers was relly bad: little speed, unsafety. danger of the explosions (sorry for my bad english because i'm romanian)

[harwetopa]

You're doing fine.

[jasonaw2]

the sultana is more worse then the titanic or lusitania

[marionsuecom]

I wonder where the author of this got the paintings to do this video? Two are ours. My mother, Marion Sue the artist. It is a wonderful video, it seems this terrible event in history has been long overlooked. Thank you for a wonderful tribute to the victims of the Str. Sultana.

[deltaqueensmile]

WOW!!!! What wonderful pictures and music. Makes history come alive.

[magictricks3]

Sooooooooo sad!

[ninty99nine]

Wait a second, it was sunk from explosions from the Union Prisoners?? Or was it a accident? I dont get it...

[40AcreMule]

Steamboat boilers frequently blew up during those days, so it is generally considered an accident. However, recent research has undercovered documentation that suggests the explosion may have be caused by an act of sabotage. A Confederate terrorist may have planted a bomb disquised as a lump of coal in the bunker. When it was shoveled into the furnace by the unsuspecting coal heavers the bomb exploded, rupturing the boiler.

[ninty99nine]

ahh..that makes sense..

[ninty99nine]

ahh..that makes sense..

[TheRailroadwolf]

True, dispite her being one of the worst Marein Tradigeys in US waters, Sultana is forgotten. Sultana's hull was uncovered recintley in a Farmer's Soy Bean feld. Hopefully and Arcelogical excivation is in order to learn more about this forgotten war vet.

[marshal1973]

Isnt a mile west or so from the current river?

[TheRailroadwolf]

Mile and a half.

[harwetopa]

"Sultana's hull was uncovered recently in a Farmer's Soy Bean field..."

Wow! Really? I'll bet the results from their studies of that remnant will be most intriguing!

[poperpants]

It must have been a suprise a soy bean field that farmer would of got a bit of a shock

[TheRailroadwolf]

Mile and a half. actually.

[GettysburgGhost1863]

I hear that the Sultana exploded because an ex-Confederate soldier smuggled a bomb aboard in the form of a false piece of coal filled with explosives and ran off. The bomb obviously exploded. How could someone do that? Kill so many people, even if they were your previous enemy?

[Polpolker]

People are stupid, that's my theory. People (no, i am NOT using the word terrorists here) bomped the WTC, and unk the Lusitania, and so on. Let's face it, some people are heartless...

[jrdekalb]

nice job, but bro...spellcheck? "bearly"??? what have bears got to do with any of this?

[ultradumbass]

vessels are tragic. i heard that in the world over 25 million ships have sunk in the last 500 years and nova scotia has the most with over 2 million in its 100 mile water radius.

[clockmakers55]

Well done. Such a tragic loss of life.

[hifive703]

i don't think life boats would have helped

[cerraazizi]

The reason Sultana had so many casualties is that the Sultana carried only 2 lifeboats and only 76 life preservers and maybe the lifeboats and the life preservers are not fit for use

[Celticswynd]

the Sultana was loaded over maximum copacity (Way over.) She wasnt desigened to carry so many people.

[TK42100]

Clive Cussler found this wreck a few years ago lying two miles from the present course of the Mississippi, and twenty feet under a farmer's soybean field in Arkansas.

[ya0ish3lly]

Thats amazing.

[cerraazizi]

Who was the two men at 1:10 and 1:20?

[ya0ish3lly]

Cool.

[RMSAquitania]

Many thanks for this highly informativfe video. I wasn't aware that Sultana had a higher death toll than Titanic. I also hadn't realised there were many former Union POWs from Confederate camps aboard, along with infirm soldiers. I appreciate your sharing of this and am sure others will too. Very nicely done.

[snakes3425]

Union POWs were practically all the passengers Sultana was carrying when she exploded. Many of the POWs were to sick, or badly injured by either their years in captivity or in the blast to escape the inferno. Many of those who escaped died of hypothurmia

[Squamata2468]

Another good tribute video - I had heard of this disaster, but I didn't realise just how many people died. BTW, Wikipedia says there were 1700 deaths rather than 1900.

[snakes3425]

All of the death tolls are estimates since Sultana didn't have a passenger list when it was destroyed, estametes are between 1300 and 1900 parished, I went with 1900 since many who were extreamly ill or badly wounded and were unable to save themselves

[snakes3425]

Sultana was built to carry only 176, the only reason more then 2000 were aboard was the captain was being paid $5.00 for every enlisted man he carried. Also the boilers had been poorly repaired in an effort to save money