Steamboating colleagues:
'Today in Steamboat History' 2:00 A.M., April 27, 1865, marks the 140th anniversary of the explosion/burning of the Str. SULTANA near a desolate group of Mississippi River islands known as 'Hen and Chickens' with a loss of 1,547 lives. The body of Abraham Lincoln was reposing in the East Room of the Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C.
The story of the SULTANA, and the earlier disastrous explosion of the Str. MOSELLE, April 25, 1838, have been uncovered in manuscript/archival sources here in Cincinnati. Both accounts are complete and gristly in all details. The SULTANA'S Clerk, William Gamble, tabulated and reported that if the SULTANA reached Cairo safely, it would be the greatest trip of a boat to date on the rivers. There were 2,400 soldiers, 100 civilian passengers and a crew of about 80--over 2,500 'souls' aboard. Her legal load was 376 persons plus crew. We can only wonder at the dismal creature comforts, feeding and sanitary needs for so many aboard; many already having suffered so much from the war and incarceration in the horrors of the Andersonville Prison Camp and Camp Fisk. Way's Packet Directory Entry No: 5216 conveys the complete story of the boat from her building in Cincinnati, 1863 to her tragic end.
But what of the poetic name SULTANA itself? There are two possible sources. One is the wife, mother, sister or daughter of a sultan. Another is the term applied to the mistress of king or prince. One possibility, depending on the intent of the original builder, is the Sultana marshbird found in the West Indies and the southern part of the United States bearing bright blue and green feathers. The SULTANA was the third act of a tragic period: the decisively bitter and bloody Civil War and the murder of President Lincoln in its final days. May they all rest in peace.
R. Dale Flick
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