&sq=&lang=&file=File:Ill-fated_Sultana,_Helena,_Arkansas,_April_27,_1865.jpg) Sultana at Helena, Arkansas, on April 26, 1865, the day before her destruction. A crowd of paroled prisoners covers her decks.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Sultana |
| Owner | Initially Capt. Preston Lodwick, then a consortium including Capt. James Cass Mason |
| Port of registry |  United States |
| Route | St. Louis, Missouri, to New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Builder | John Litherbury Boatyard, Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Launched | January 3, 1863 |
| In service | 1863 |
| Fate | Exploded and sank, April 27, 1865, on Mississippi River seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. 35°11′26″N 90°6′52″W / 35.19056°N 90.11444°W |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 1,719 GRT |
| Length | 260 feet |
| Beam | 42 feet |
| Decks | Four decks (including pilothouse) |
| Propulsion | 34 ft (10 m) diameter paddlewheels |
| Capacity | 376 passengers and cargo |
| Crew | 85 |
Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,164 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. The steamer registered 1,719 tons[2] and normally carried a crew of 85. For two years, she ran a regular route between St. Louis and New Orleans and was frequently commissioned to carry troops during the American Civil War. Although designed with a capacity of only 376 passengers, she was carrying 2,127 when three of the boat's four boilers exploded and caused it to sink near Memphis, Tennessee. The disaster was overshadowed in the press by events surrounding the end of the Civil War, including the killing of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth just the day before. No one was ever held accountable for the disaster.