SS Sultana 1865
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | SS Sultana | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1865 | Wikidata P576 dissolved/abolished/demolished date |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | steamboat, packet boat | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Fire or explosion | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 35.1906, -90.1144 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
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 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. The steamer registered 1,719 tons 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 and 85 crewmembers, she was carrying 2,127 when three of the boat's four boilers exploded and caused her 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.
Diving & visiting
In 2015, on the 150th anniversary of the disaster, an interim Sultana Disaster Museum was opened in Marion, Arkansas, the closest town to the buried remains of the steamboat, across the Mississippi River from Memphis. The museum is only a temporary museum featuring a number of relics from Sultana such as shaker plates from the boat's furnace, furnace bricks, a few pieces of wood, and some small metal pieces. The museum also features many artifacts from the Sultana Survivors' Association, as well as a 14-foot (4.3 m) model replica of the boat. One wall is decorated with the names of every soldier, crewmember, and passenger on the boat on April 27, 1865.
Location
- Recorded position: 35.1906, -90.1144 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Sultana (steamboat) (revision 1381071705), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Museum”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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