S.S. Sultana 141 years ago

The above photo is from the Library of Congress

On April 27 1865 the steamship S.S. Sultana was sailing just above Memphis TN and experienced an explosion killing 1,547 people. The source was from a boiler that blew up and caused a rapidly spreading fire that engulfed the entire ship. The disaster is the #1 ranked sea-going vessel accident in US history, surpassing the more commonly known Titanic crash. No other single accident has resulted in more fatalities (war time sinkings not included).

The reason for the number of victims on this ship was due in most part to the fact that it was chartered to carry returning soliders from the confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville at the end of the Civil War. A large portion of the men were weak from starvation and disease and the deep dark waters swallowed them. The ship was launched in 1863 and was used to transport men and supplies for the war effort. The numbers exceeded 2,200 men, 60 horses, and 100 hogs and was supposed to only transport 376 people.

Two books on the disaster that are good to read on this are "The Sultana Tragedy: America's Greatest Maritime Disaster by Jerry O. Potter" and "Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865 by Gene Eric Salecker"