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Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,167 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history. Constructed of wood in 1863 by the John Litherbury Boatyard [1] in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade.
Apr 27, 2015 · On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and sank while transporting Union soldiers up the Mississippi. An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this...
Jul 21, 2014 · In the early hours of April 27, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River.
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THE DISASTER. THE STEAMBOAT. The Sultana was a privately owned sidewheel steamboat built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in February 1863. A relatively large boat, the Sultana stood three decks tall and measured 260 feet long and approximately 70 feet wide – a little shorter than a football field and about half as wide.
Sep 28, 2017 · In fact, the disastrous Sultana explosion in April 1865 was the United States’ worst maritime disaster—but Potter had never run across the Memphis-area tragedy despite years of study.
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Of the approximately 2,400 people on board, about 1,700 died. The Sultana remains the worst maritime disaster in American history — more people died than with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. There are reasons why the Sultana disaster is not well-known.
On April 24, 1865, a steamboat named Sultana left Vicksburg, Mississippi, bound for Cairo, Illinois. On board were 2,300 Union soldiers who had just been released from southern prisons during the Civil War. These soldiers were in poor physical health due to the conditions they suffered in the prisons. Many were malnourished and too sick to eat.
