SULTANA: Titanic of the Mississippi (27 April 1865)

This is a modestly updated old video.

While ocean liners were in their infancy American steamboats were in their prime. They moved people and cargo throughout the interior of the American South; a land where railroads were sparse and often of different gauges. At the end of the American Civil War masses of soldiers and POWs were eager to return home. The SULTANA, a two year old vessel, arrived in Vicksburg, Mississippi to transport waiting Union soldiers. Eager for yankee dollars those in charge allowed over 2,000 men on board. There were so many passengers that she was at risk of capsizing. The weight of her passengers combined with a strong current meant her engines needed every bit of steam she could make. Days earlier a faulty boiler had been patched when it should have been replaced. On 27 April 1865 the boiler exploded, ripping apart much of her center structure. The ensuring blaze would destroy what the initial explosion did not. Her giant smokestacks came crashing down. Those poor souls not consumed by the inferno were left to the ice cold waters of the Mississippi.