Summarising and paraphrasing

CHAPTER 13:

THE SINKING OF THE SULTANA (1865)

Introduction

The nation’s rivers played a vital role in the evolution of the nation, serving as the

nation’s early highway system. By the early 1800s, steam had been captured and powered the

riverboats, which proved to be an essential resource that was vital to the economic growth of our

new Nation. In times of peace, the rivers and such ports located at St. Louis, Cape Girardeau,

Cairo, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans were major centers of economic

development. In times of war, such locations also played a significant role of implementing a

variety of strategic actions.

The value of the nation’s rivers, along with the hundreds of vessels used during the war

for combatant and transport purposes, cannot be understated. The numerous vessels would be

critical in the movement of soldiers from the battlefields to their home during the discharge

process, and their role remained an integral part of the conclusion of the Civil War. In many ways

these ships served as the transportation from war to peace.

In 1865, the Sultana was just one of many overworked riverboats, stilling struggling

against the currents of the river, now taking over a thousand Union soldiers, many recently

released from Confederate prisoner camps and civilians up the Mississippi and to civilian life.

Constructed of wood and iron, the Sultana was designed to be powerful enough to withstand the

strain of the Nation’s great river and large enough to be profitable.

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With each trip, the ship pushed its limits of operational safety as maintenance was often

deferred to keep the ship in service. For over two years, the Sultana moved up and down the

river, transporting people and supplies as her cargo, but eventually, the ship’s infrastructure

suffered from its numerous trips, and it was in dire need of repair.

The Setting

The War Between the States was rapidly coming to a conclusion. The Mississippi and the

ports along the River were under the control of Federal authorities. Military demobilization

would soon be in full swing as hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides began their

travels home from the various battlefields. The need to rapidly move men and materials created

a logistical challenge for military authorities. With many of the railroads in the South destroyed

in the struggle and the primitive nature of roads and overland travel, the reliance upon the

nation’s networks of rivers to move men and cargo was significant.

In this setting, hundreds of boats, in various states of repair, were pressed into service

and were believed to be capable of moving men and cargo throughout the river system.

Understanding the economic opportunity presented by these federal contracts, many boats, some

of which were in need of repair or overhaul, were pushed into service. The Sultana was one of

these vessels.

The Sultana was just one of hundreds of coal-burning steamship that moved people and

cargo along the nation’s rivers in the mid-1800s. Constructed and launched in January 1863, the

Sultana was of solid construction and reflected the technology in river boats construction of the

time. The Sultana was a coal burning side-wheeler, 260 feet in length with multiple desks,

adequate room for cargo and passengers, which was designed to have the size and power to

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navigate in the brown waters of the Mississippi River system. While the Sultana was designed to

carry a maximum load of 375 passengers and cargo, it was not uncommon to be found, along

with similar ships, to be overloaded with passenger and cargo when profitable (Madden, 2015).

For the commercial vessels that survived the journey supplying the federal forces, the

War Between the States proved profitable. Military officers responsible for contracting cargo

and troop transportation served with little oversight. Ship owners found moving people and

cargo very lucrative. For this last trip, the government agreed to pay $5 for each enlisted man,

and $10 for each officer who made the trip. Overloading of the Sultana proved appealing to both

the Army officials and the ship owner: 1) for the Army contract officer, overloading the Sultana

would expedite the soldiers return home; and 2) for the ship owner, more profit.

During the War, contracts were plentiful, and such financial assistance to transport men

and materials was intended to supply and replenish the Federal Army as they moved closer to

victory. For many ship owners, scheduled and needed maintenance was delayed in favor of

profits. As the War drew to closure, many of these boats had reached the end of their operational

life, but the desire for another contract kept them in service. Consequently, as in the case of the

Sultana, economic opportunity, greed and a disregard for safety would be the ingredients for a

disaster.

When constructed in January 1863 in Cincinnati, the 260-foot Sultana was state of the art

vessel, and was registered at 1,719 tons (Potter, 2006). The Sultana operated with a crew of

about eighty, and when constructed included, the most modern safety equipment available to

include safety gauges that fused open when the internal boiler pressure reached 150 pounds per

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square inch, three fire-fighting pumps, a metallic lifeboat and a wooden yawl, 300 feet of fire

hose, thirty buckets, five fire-fighting axes, and 76 life belts (Ambrose, 2001).

By April 1865, though only 27 months old, the Sultana was worn-out beyond its years.

A veteran of river service, the Sultana was used extensively to move troops and cargo along the

river throughout the second half of the Civil War. Often overloaded, the strain on its boilers had

taken its toll. Combined with her route between St. Louis and New Orleans, the life of a river

vessel could only endure several months while navigating through the mighty Mississippi River.

For the Sultana, its last trip began in New Orleans on the night of Friday April 21st, 1865

when she started her journey up the river with 75 to 100 cabin passengers and a cargo, which

included a hundred hogsheads of sugar and a hundred head of assorted livestock (Larson, 1955).

In charge of the Sultana was Captain Frederick Speed, an experienced river captain that

methodically navigated the ship, and sought to obtain one of the many contracts being awarded

to transport soldiers north.

The Sultana continued its journey up the river, but there was an issue with one of its

boilers. In Vicksburg, the Sultana was inspected, and its boilers were subjected to repair.

Repairs took time. Records indicate work continued for as many as 33 hours for repairs until the

ship was declared safe again.

Vicksburg had been turned into a great repatriation center, and here were gathered

thousands of gaunt, worn-out men in faded blue uniforms—Union prisoners of war, just released

from the horrors of prison compounds like Andersonville, waiting in Vicksburg for transportation

to their northern homes (Larson, 1955). In Vicksburg, Army contractors booked approximately

2,000 Union solders onto the Sultana, to be transported, many of whom were recently released

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prisoners of war. Loaded and with a quick boiler repair, the Sultana was declared safe and

capable of continuing her journey to St. Louis. Captain J. C. Mason of St. Louis, oversaw the

Sultana, and had a reputation as an experienced veteran of the Mississippi River (Larson, 1955).

As they boarded, it was obvious the ship was overloaded, although there is no indication anyone

expressed concern.

The Sultana arrived in Memphis where it received further repairs and unloaded some

passengers and cargo. Some of the passengers disembarked. The hogsheads of sugar were

unloaded, and some of the stronger ex-prisoners helped in the work. Still others left the ship to

enjoy Memphis and failed to return before the ship departed. About midnight, the overloaded

Sultana pulled into the main current of the river, straining to move up current in a river swollen

by recent rains. The majority of the passengers settled down to sleep. About seven miles north of

Memphis the end of the Sultana was near.

The Disaster

It was a dark April night in 1865, when the Sultana strained and struggled against a cold,

swollen and rapidly running Mississippi River, as it moved northward a few miles north of

Memphis. The Sultana was overloaded, carrying about 2,600 passengers and cargo. Of the

passengers, about 2,400 were Union soldiers, many recently released from Southern Prisoner of

War Camps, all traveling north and for the majority, an expectation of military discharge and

return to civilian life. In addition to the soldiers, there were also about 180 civilians, and a crew

of about 85, all hoping for an uneventful journey. Below deck, crewmen fed coal into the four

boilers, which provided power to the Sultana as it struggled within the swollen river.

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A few miles above Memphis, the unexpected would soon wreak havoc, which would

result in a catastrophic nightmare. As the Sultana pushed up the Mississippi River, its boilers that

were overworked and in need, began to strain as they fought against the current. At

approximately 2:00 am, three of the overworked boilers powering the vessel exploded, which

started a series of events that resulted in a burning shipwreck, confusion, and all passengers

suddenly fighting for their lives. Unfortunately, the quiet night changed into a scene of chaos,

death, and destruction.

Over a brief period, an explosion ensued on the Sultana, which sent an orange-colored

flame into the dark sky that was visible for miles. In Memphis, the night watchman on the River

Gunboat U.S.S. Grosbeak, saw the light and heard the noise. Immediately, the night watchman

notified the captain of the Grosbeck, who believing a disaster had just occurred, ordered the cast

off the mooring lines and movement of the Grosbeck up the river. Other steamers on the

Memphis waterfront also suspected a disaster had occurred and joined the movement of the

Grosbeck up the river (Larson, 1955).

As the tragedy unfolded, the subsequent explosion, fire, confusion, and rapid current of

the river inflicted a maritime death toll of a level unseen in the United States. Many of the

passengers were asleep when the explosion occurred, and the sudden shock, combined with the

darkness, intensified the confusion. Ultimately, the hopeless fate of the Sultana and its many

passengers was sealed in the crux of the mighty Mississippi River.

The deck supporting the Sultana’s main passenger cabins collapsed at one end into the

fire, and its wreckage immediately began to drift downstream. The twin smokestacks, hallmark

of every Mississippi packet boat, soon crashed, which resulted in additional fatalities (Larson,

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1955). As the Sultana continued to disintegrate, fire continued to spread that was fueled by the

timbers and cargo of the ship and gale forced April winds, which further contributed to

impending deaths and injuries to passengers.

Of those onboard, over 1500 were killed and hundreds more injured. ***This number is

different from page two Almost immediately, the first of over two thousand entered the water.

Many could not swim, and were quickly pulled under the rapidly moving currents, while others

struggled to survive amid a hostile river.

The fortunate ones who found themselves in the river clung to anything that would float,

which included debris in the river, horses and mules that had escaped the boat, anything hoping

to make it to shore. Some tried to swim, others decided to float. The level of confusion and fear

can only be imagined. The night was dark, the river swift and almost five miles wide at the point

of the disaster (Dennis, 2015). The section of the Mississippi River above Memphis, had now

become the scene of the Nation’s greatest maritime disaster as the burned Sultana, drifted and

began to sink.

Toward morning, the wreckage of the Sultana struck a small island, and some of those

still aboard jumped ashore. Approximately, 20 to 30 more passengers managed to fabricate a

makeshift raft from broken timbers. Eventually, as the flames died down, what was left of the

Sultana drifted away and sank.

Along the shoreline of the Mississippi River, the sound of an explosion was heard, and

many local residents took immediate steps to quickly rescue those they could. Such rescue

efforts resulted in the saving of many who would have otherwise been lost. Throughout the

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night and into the next day, many, including former enemies risked their lives to save the victims

of the disaster, but the death toll would be great.

Eventually, boats from Memphis arrived and rescued hundreds from the Mississippi

River. Survivors struggled in the river, clinging to anything they believed would float, logs,

rafts, spars, barrels, sections of railing and other bits of wood. Others were found on both shores

of the Mississippi, clinging to trees or driftwood, many of them badly burned and without

clothing (Larson, 1955).

A subsequent investigation of the wreckage determined that three of the Sultana’s four

boilers had exploded. The steam and scalding water from the ruptured boilers immediately killed

those nearby, and injured others, many critically. Flames spread throughout the wooden ship,

with the intensity of the fire fueled by cargo and personal items of the passengers.

Survivors of the Sultana wreckage were sent to hospitals in Memphis. Many were naked

by the time they were rescued, having shed their clothes to make it easier to swim. In Memphis,

most were given red long underwear, which some of them wore as they wandered the streets of

Memphis, while they waited for the Army to provide a new set of clothing and shoes. When they

were well enough, the survivors were put on other boats and sent north (Huffman, 2009).

Investigation/Assessment of the Event

Each story of Sultana survival reveals one part of a great tragedy. The exact toll of those

injured, who would later die of sustained injuries is unknown. Approximately 700 of Sultana’s

passengers and crew that sustained injuries arrived in Memphis, where an estimated 200 of them

soon died (Madden, 2015). Organized efforts to recover the dead continued for days with

bodies eventually found as far south as Vicksburg. In Memphis, the riverfront became a large

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morgue with more than a hundred coffins lined up as bodies were continually being brought, or

washed ashore.

Many passengers of the Sultana remained unaccounted for. For several months after the

disaster, passengers and crewmen travelling on the Mississippi River in other boats reported

seeing what they believed to human remains along the river bank, which they assumed to be

from the Sultana disaster. Thereafter, many of the bodies recovered were so decomposed that it

was impossible for the remains to be identified.

On May 19, 1865, less than a month after the disaster, Brigadier General William

Hoffman, Commissary General of Prisoners, released the results of his preliminary investigation

of the Sultana disaster. He reported an overall loss of soldiers, passengers, and crew of 1,238, a

number that upon further investigation, proved to be low. Such disaster aspects that included the

explosion, a fire, and the river, all combined to make true accountability impossible.

A military inquiry convened to investigate the disaster in an effort to determine cause and

responsibility. One of the initial findings found that there was notable pressure to quickly move

thousands of soldiers north, which created a demand for boat space that far exceeded available

capacity. In addition, it was also discovered that General Dana, the Union Commander for the

Department of the Mississippi, had ordered that the recently freed federal military prisoners of

war be sent northward from Vicksburg on privately owned steamboats, with the vessels’ owners

receiving five dollars per enlisted man carried and ten dollars for each officer (Potter, 2006).

The captain of the Sultana, J. Cass Mason, met with Brigadier General Morgan L. Smith,

and Lieutenant Colonel Reuben B. Hatch in Vicksburg, where he secured a commitment to

transport hundreds of men upriver, which was above and beyond what the ship was designed to

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safely carry (Potter, 2006). With this demand for space, contracting officers willingly approved

the requests of the Sultana’s captains and owners to compromise its safety limits. It was clear the

Sultana was extremely overloaded, carrying over six times its expected capacity as it departed

Memphis (Ambrose, 2001).

The official cause of the Sultana disaster was determined to be a mismanagement of

water levels in the boiler, exacerbated by the fact that the vessel was severely overcrowded, and

too top heavy. As the Sultana made its way north following the twists and turns of the river, it

listed severely to one side then the other. The inner-workings of the Sultana consisted of four

boilers that were interconnected and mounted side-by-side, so that if the boat tipped sideways,

water would tend to run out of the highest boiler. With the fires still going against the empty

boiler, this created hot spots, which contributed to its demise.

When the boat tipped, water rushed into the empty boiler resulting in an instantly flash of

steam and a pressure surge. This proven to be a critical element in the disaster.. The official

inquiry found that the boat's boilers exploded due to the combined effects of careening, low

water level, and a faulty repair to a leaky boiler made a few days earlier.

Lessons Learned and Policy Impact

The scope of the Sultana disaster quickly led to an official investigation. General Dana

and Brigadier General William Hoffman, the U.S. Army Commissary General of Prisoners, each

conducted an investigation. Hoffman’s findings were the most critical of the military’s

involvement in the Sultana tragedy, and he concluded that the “shipment of so large a number of

troops (1,866) on one boat was, under the circumstances, unnecessary, unjustifiable, and a great

outrage on the troops.” Hoffman’s report also pointed a finger of guilt at General Smith, noting

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that although Smith “had nothing officially to do with the shipment of the troops; yet as it was

officially reported to him by Captain Kerns that too many men were being put on the Sultana, it

was proper that he should have satisfied himself from good authority whether there was

sufficient grounds for the report, and if he found it so he should have interfered to have the evil

remedied. Had [Smith] done so, the lives of many men would have been saved” (Potter, 2006).

Implications for Modern Emergency Management

Although this disaster occurred over 150 years ago, there are many lessons drawn from

such events, which pertain to passenger and cargo limits, vessel inspection, river way and

channel safety, maritime safety regulations, and search and rescue.

The significance our nation’s rivers remain a critical element to our economy, but the

profile of river traffic has changed over the last century (McElreath, et al., 2014). The

steamboats of the 1800s, have been replaced by over 5,500 tugboats and towboats that move

more than 880 million tons of domestic cargo each year. Counted annually among this cargo is

60 percent of U.S. grain intended for export, and approximately 244 million tons of petroleum

(Thorsen, 2017).

To keep the rivers safe, our nation relies on, among other agencies, the United States

Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Army

Corps of Engineers. Maintaining aids to navigation is the Coast Guard’s oldest mission, tracing

its roots to the ninth law passed by Congress, which created the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment

in 1789 (McElreath, et al., 2014).

The Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration have a shared responsibility for navigable waterways in the U.S. As such, the

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NOAA produces nautical charts, and provides tidal and weather information, while the USACE

conducts hydrographic surveys, maintains locks and dredges waterways. As the multi-mission

maritime service, the Coast Guard is responsible for the safety, security and stewardship of

American waterways, the Coast Guard maintains the Aids to Navigation system, which includes

more than 48,000 buoys, beacons and electronic aids. The system safely guides millions of

mariners and trillions of dollars in trade into U.S. ports (Ham, 2017).

Summary

The tragedy of the Sultana would quickly be overshadowed by the death of President

Lincoln. By April 1865, the nation was tired of the conflict, and the deaths and injuries related to

the Sultana proved to be a footnote in the history of the Nation. Many of those recovered could

not be identified, and the names of others initially identified were lost in the confusion of the

burial relocation process that occurred in the late 1860s, to the Memphis National Veterans

Cemetery, which holds the second largest number of unknown soldiers of any national cemetery,

and is the final resting place for hundreds of casualties of the SS Sultana disaster.

Some of the wreckage of the Sultana was recovered and sold for salvage, the rest of the

ship lies buried in a field in Arkansas, which resulted from the movement of the river away from

the location of the sinking. One final note of interest involves the unknown whereabouts of the

Sultana’s safe that reportedly contained over $32,000, much of it in gold, which was

mysteriously never recovered.

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References

Ambrose, S. (2001, May 1). Remembering Sultana. Retrieved from National Geographic News: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0501_river5.html

Dennis, B. (2015, March 27). The sinking of the Sultana: A disaster lost in the lingering fog of the Civil War. Retrieved from The Washington Post: The fortunate ones clung to debris in the river, or to horses and mules that had escaped the boat, hoping to make it to shore, which they could not see because it was dark and the flooded river was at that point almost five miles wide.

Ham, W. (2017, January 10). Army Engineers, Coast Guard Partner to Chart U.S. Water Navigation’s Future. Retrieved from Department of Defense: https://www.defense.gov/ News/Article/Article/1046239/army-engineers-coast-guard-partner-to-chart-us-water- navigations-future/

Huffman, A. (2009). Sultana. New York: Harper.

Larson, C. A. (1955, October). DEATH on the DARK RIVER, The Story of the Sultana Disaster in 1865. Retrieved from American Heritage: http://www.americanheritage.com/content/ death-dark-river

Madden, D. (2015, April 27). The Sinking of the Sultana. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/the-sinking-of-the-sultana/?_r=0

McElreath, D. H., Doss, D. A., Jensen, C. J., Wigginton, M. P., Nations, R., Van Slyke, J., & Nations, J. (2014). Foundations of Emergency Management. Debuque: Kendall Hunt.

McElreath, D. H., Jensen, C. J., Wigginton, M. P., Doss, D. A., Nations, R., & Van Slyke, J. (2014). Introduction to Homeland Security. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Potter, J. O. (2006, June 12). Sultana: A Tragic Postscript to the Civil War. Retrieved from HistoryNet : http://www.historynet.com/sultana-a-tragic-postscript-to-the-civil-war.htm

Thorsen, L. (2017, February 6). River commerce depends on aging, often broken Coast Guard cutters for navigation. Retrieved from St Louis Post Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com/ business/local/river-commerce-depends-on-aging-often-broken-coast-guard-cutters/ article_a89d9b6e-7ab1-54c4-8ad9-7c1c5191388c.html

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