arrived in Vicksburg the morning of 24 April. With Mason and the Line's agent convinced the Sultana could carry the expected 1,400 passengers, the second vessel was ordered to leave Vicksburg that day without a single released prisoner on board. Similarly, the Pauline Carroll of the Atlantic and Mississippi Line steamed north on 24 April as well, with only 17 passengers. Surrounding these events were the persistent allegations of bribery. During investigations that followed the loss of the Sultana one army officer informed the court that he had taken a bribe. He suggested that bribery was widespread throughout the loading of the Sultana. It was public knowledge that competing lines were offering 15 to 50 cents per head to agents for the Army's contract to carry prisoners. As the last detachment of men boarded the Sultana, the major who was in command of the soldiers on board complained that there were too many men on the boat. Captain Mason replied that he could not help it, all the men had to go on the Sultana, and insisted that his boat had carried more men in the past. Another officer later rationalized it by saying "there was great interest in expediting the departure of these brave fellows to their homes." With its human cargo extending as far as the forecastle, conditions were appalling. There was no room to lie down, nor a place to attend to the call of nature. Men were packed on the main, boiler and hurricane decks as thick as they could stand. The hurricane deck was sagging despite the extra supports that had been installed in many places. After all troops had been loaded, the major in charge was shocked at the terribly overcrowded conditions. When he approached Mason to voice his concerns, Mason assured him that the men "would go through comfortably and safely." The actual number of passengers on board will never be known; the best estimate has it at over 2,400 soldiers, 100 citizen passengers and a crew of SO. At 9PM on 24 April, Sultana slowly backed away from the wharf at Vicksburg, her passengers thankful to be on board. In Harm's Way The prisoners aboard the Sultana were more than willing to suffer the crowded conditions, believi ng they were out of harm 's way. Ahead lay families, homes and finally good food. The excitement generated by the prisoners, however, could not 34
alleviate the hardships endured on board. Chronic diarrhea, scurvy, malnutrition and a host of other diseases plagued the troops. On the main deck and between the waterwheels lay a battery of four boilers. On the port inboard boiler was the small patch Wintringer had eyed closely. He must have been aware that this patch could fail at any moment, especially in view of the fact that the patch was of thinner metal than the boiler plate it covered. His concern was justified. On the morning of 27
Captain]. Cass Mason went down with his ship. This photo was discovered in a private collection in 1994 and was published in an article about Mason by Gene Eric Salecker in The Egregious Steamboat Journal, No. 27
door those who werefortunate enough to live, though worse than a dozen deaths in the "damnable death pens" at Andersonville. We had faced death day by day while incarcerated there, but this was far more appalling than any scene through which we hadpassed From all accounts the explosion ripped through the decks above the boilers, spraying hot coals and splintered timber into the night. Huge chunks of the superstructure, including the pilothouse, were propelled clear of the boat. Smoke and steam were everywhere like a thick fog. Scores of passengers were hurled into the air. Most estimates indicate that the entire boat was in flames within 20 minutes of the explosion. By 3AM the steamboat Bostonia II had arrived on the scene and began rescuing as many as possible from the water. The Sultana carried only 76 life jackets, one yawl and one lifeboat. Some passengers, clinging to floating objects, drifted safely to the riverfront, which by this time was teeming with people anxious to help. On the levee, scores of men lay suffering from injuries; many fell victim to hypothermia or exposure before dawn that day. Shortly before sunrise the Sultana scraped bottom at Chicken Island just north of Mound Ciry, Arkansas. Finally, flames engulfed the forecastle area. Soon thereafter the hull disappeared into the river in a cloud of steam approximately one hour and 15 minutes after the explosion. The exact number of deaths will never be known. The best and most recognized estimate has it at more than 1,700 soldiers, civilians and crew.
April, with the Sultana steaming north at her normal speed of eight to nine knots, these four boilers were generating steam at 135psi. Without warning at about 2AM three of the four boilers exploded. AccordHow Could It Happen? ing to most reports the patched port in- Shortly after the incident two military board boiler blew first. The impact of that boards of inquiry were commissioned to explosion caused shrapnel to puncture the investigate the loss. Both commissions conadjacent boilers (outboard port and in- cluded that insufficient water in the boiler board starboard) causing them to explode was the primary cause of the explosion. However, while the exact cause was never immediately after the initial explosion. Of all the accounts I have read in re- fully determined, further investigation consearching this tragedy, the following by cluded that one or more of the following Arthur A. Jones of the 115th Ohio Volun- may have contributed to the explosion: • Sultana was fitted with newly introduced teer Infantry best describes the horror: tubular boilers. While more compact and What a crash! My God! My blood curdles efficient, they also needed frequent cleanwhile I write and words are inadequate; no ing to remove scale that rapidly formed tongue or writer's pen can describe it. Such with the use ofsilt- and mud-laden water. hissing of steam, the crash of the different Lack of proper cleaning and the resultant decks as they came together with the tons of scale formations may have caused tube living fteight. The falling of the massive smoke stacks, the death cry ofstrong-hearted overheating and rupture. men caught in every conceivable manner. • In efforts to maintain maximum speed, the boilers were being pushed to their The red-tonguedflames bursting up through pressure limits and perhaps beyond. The the mass ofhumanity and driving to death's
SEA HISTORY 92, SPRING 2000