Sultana explosion - April 27, 1865

On this day in 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded, killing an estimate of nearly 2,000 people.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. What's Up? Everyone? Welcome to this Day in
History Class, where we bring you a new tidbit from
history every day. Today is April. The day was a

(00:26):
eighteen sixty five. Just weeks after the Civil War ended
and President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, a steamboat called the
Sultana exploded while it traveled along the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee.
The incident was largely overshadowed by all the news related
to the war, but around eighteen hundred people die because

(00:49):
of the explosion, making it the deadliest maritime disaster and
United States history. The two hundred and sixty foot long
Sultana was the side will steamboat built in Cincinnati, Ohio,
in eighteen sixty three. The boat's main route was from St.
Louis to New Orleans, and it began its career on

(01:09):
February third, eighteen sixty three, when it launched from Cincinnati.
The Sultana was supposed to be used in the cotton trade,
but it was often contracted for cargo and troop transport
during the Civil War. On a eighteen sixty five, the
Sultana left New Orleans found for St. Louis. At this point,

(01:31):
the ship was carrying over a hundred passengers plus livestock.
Two days later, the Sultana docked in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to
deal with issues one of its boilers was having. While there,
the steamboat was contracted to carry Union prisoners of war
from Confederate prisons like those at Andersonville and Cahaba into

(01:51):
the North. Union Army. Captain George Williams, who was in
charge of the operation, worried the prisoners were going to
be transfer to other boats, so he ordered that all
the POWs at the parole camp in hospital in Vicksburg
we put on the Sultana. Captain Mason decided to do
a quick repair on the boiler, even though the mechanics

(02:13):
that the boiler was not safe and needed more extensive repairs,
but Mason had to keep the boat moving and fulfill
the government contract. Even though the boat had a carrying
capacity of only three hundred and seventy six passengers and
eight five crew members, more than two thousand people were
stuffed onto the boat. That's because the government was paying

(02:35):
per head for troops that made the trip. Each enlisted
man was worth five dollars, and each officer was worth
ten dollars. The more people on board, the more money
army officials and the captain, Jay cass Mason would get.
As the Sultana went north in the Mississippi, the boat's
large load and the river's fast current caused by melted snow,

(02:58):
made the boilers work overtime on a The boat docked
at Memphis to get more cold, and between midnight and
one am the next day. The Sultana left the port.
At two in the morning, when the boat was only
several miles north of Memphis, the shadily repaired boiler blew up.

(03:18):
Soon two of the other three boilers also exploded. Soldiers
from Kentucky and Tennessee were some of the first to
die because they were so close to the boilers. The
Sultana burst into flames, and the destruction continued from there.
The boat's twin smokestacks gave way, killing people. As the
fire spread, people jumped into the river. A lot of

(03:42):
the people who did jump could not swim or were
too weak to do so, and they died in the water.
Many died of hypothermia. Many people who survived the fire
died later from their burns. After a survivor reached Memphis
and alerted centuries to the disaster, rescue vessel were sent
to the scene. The steamer at Bostonia two got to

(04:03):
the Sultana around three am, and more vessels showed up
after that. Some of the people on the Sultana managed
to survive, but the death toll is estimated at about
one thousand, eight hundred people. Military commissions were formed to
investigate the disaster, and it was found that the faulty
boilers and overcrowding were the main causes of the explosion.

(04:27):
Rumors popped up that the explosion was sabotage due to
a bomb. Are still called cold torpedo and iron casting
filled with explosives and covered in coal dust, but these
stories are not verifiable. Captain Mason died in the disaster,
but Captain Frederick Speed was charged with putting too many

(04:47):
troops on the boat at Vicksburg and found the guilty
of neglect, though that verdict was later overturned. Ultimately, no
one was held responsible for the catastrophe. I'm Eve Jeff Coo,
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you want to learn more

(05:08):
about the Sultana explosion, listen to the episode of Stuff
You Missed in History Class called the SS Sultana. If
there are any upcoming days in history that you'd really
like me to cover on the show, give us a
shout on social media at t D I h C podcast.
We'll be back with more history tomorrow. For more podcasts

(05:38):
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