Sultana: Titanic of the Mississippi

On April 27th 1865, the overload steamboat Sultana, carrying upwards of 2,400 passengers and crew, mostly Union Prisoners of War returning home from Confederate POW Camps including the Andersonville Death Camp, was torn apart by a boiler explosion in the resulting fire storm 1,900 sick and wounded soldiers, women and children parished in the worst maratime disaster in United States History
Today the tragedy of the Sultana is completly forgotten overshadowed by the end of the Civil War and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln a few weeks before, dispite the fact more people died in the Sultana Disaster then on the Titanic, or the Lusitania, the only memorials are a few obscure plaques in forgotten cemetaries
I apologize for the lack of variety among the pictures in this video but that should serve as a testimant to just how forgotten the Sultana and the 1,900 who died on that horrible night truely are.

Music: Sleeping Sun
Artist: Nightwish
Subject: The Sultana

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Sultana
• Titanic
• Lusitania
• American
• Civil
• War
• Mississippi
• River
• Steamboat
• Fire
• Memphis
• Explosion
• Nightwish
• Sleeping
• Sun

[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

[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.

[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