The sinking of the Sultana

People tend to think of the RMS Titanic whenever they think of the worst disaster on any major body of water. White Star Line’s RMS Titanic sank into the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. Supposedly, the ship was unsinkable. The ship struck an iceberg and sank, proving this false. Over 1,500 people are estimated to have died.

However, there was a major disaster almost 50 years before the RMS Titanic. It was the sinking of a large steamboat called the Sultana. It was built in a Cincinnati boatyard.

In total, the Sultana was 260 feet long and over 40 feet wide. More than 70 cabin passengers could travel on the second deck of the large steamboat, while 300 passengers could travel on the main deck. Additionally, 85 crew members could be accommodated. Captain Preston Lodwick paid $60,000 for the boat’s construction and named it the Sultana.

On February 3, 1863, the boat made its inaugural voyage to Pittsburgh. The Sultana traveled along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Captain Lodwick made a fortune transporting Union soldiers. For each passenger, the government paid up to $10. The venture was so lucrative that Lodwick doubled his investment within a year. Eventually, Lodwick sold the Sultan to an ownership group.

The Sultan then began transporting troops home as the Civil War wound down.

It departed Vicksburg, Mississippi on April 25, 1865, after completing some maintenance. Afterward, it traveled to Memphis carrying somewhere between 2,000 and 2,400 passengers (the actual number is unknown). However, the boat was only built to carry just over 400 passengers. Overcrowding probably took a backseat to greed.

As you can imagine, the boat was standing room only. The passengers were crammed into the boat like sardines. But they were so eager to get home that they were fine with less-than-ideal traveling conditions.

Around 2 a.m. on April 27, a boiler exploded. Two more exploded soon after. As debris and boiling water shot into the air, many passengers were scalded. Fire then engulfed the Sultan. There were no lifeboats, so passengers jumped into the water. They didn’t have much choice. Either burn to death or leap to safety.

The Sultana sank into the Mississippi River.

Approximately 1,800 people died and 500 survived. Actual numbers are unknown. It is also believed that 50 of the victims came from Cincinnati. Following the horrific incident, authorities tried to figure out what happened to the Sultan. It’s believed that overcrowding led to the Sultan’s destruction. Unfortunately, this incident isn’t well known outside of Cincinnati. Most likely, this is because President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated two weeks before the Sultan sank. As a result, the news was dominated by the murder of a president. In honor of those who died on the Sultan, a marker can be found at Sawyer Point along the Ohio River.

The description reads as follows:

In 1862, less than a mile upriver from this marker, the John Lithoberry Shipyard in Cincinnati constructed the Sultana, a 260-foot, wooden steam transport. At the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Government contracted the Sultana to transport recently freed Federal prisoners north from Confederate stockades. During the night of April 27, 1865, while carrying over 2,300 Union soldiers – over six times its capacity of 376 passengers – a steam boiler aboard the Sultana exploded. The ship erupted in a massive fireball and sank in the cold, flood-swollen Mississippi River ten miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. Over 1,700 individuals died – some 200 more than those lost aboard the Titanic in 1912 – in what remains the worst maritime disaster in American history. Of the total casualties, Ohio lost the most of any state, with 791 dead. Indiana lost 491 persons, with Kentucky suffering 194 dead. It is estimated that, of the Ohio casualties, over fifty were Cincinnatians.

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his twitter account @themarcabe. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.