|
This is perhaps the most frightful disaster
ever recorded in the annals of steam navigation. It is stated
that over fifteen hundred (1,500) lives were lost. The Sultana
was built at Cincinnati,
Ohio, in 1863. She was of 660
38-100 tons burden, (old measurement;) had accommodations for
seventy-six (76) cabin passengers, and three hundred (300) deck
passengers. She had four
high-pressure boilers, 18 feet long and 46 inches in diameter,
made of iron 17-48 of an inch in thickness; each boiler had 24
return flues, 5 inches in diameter, made of iron one-eighth of
an inch thick. The Sultana was inspected in St. Louis, on the 12th day of April, 1865, by
the local board of inspectors, composed of John Maguire and John
Shaffer. The boilers were subjected to a hydrostatic pressure of
two hundred and ten (210) pounds to the square inch. The working
steam pressure allowed was one hundred and forty-five (145)
pounds to the square inch. The Sultana had two engines, with
cylinders 25 inches in diameter and 8 feet stroke; had three
forcing pumps, six inches stroke, and respectively 5, 6 and 7
inches in diameter: two of them were worked by hand. The
explosion occurred on the 27th day of April, 1865, at about
seven miles above
Memphis, Tennessee. There was no local board at that
time at Memphis.
As soon as the news of the terrible occurrence reached St. Louis, by telegraph, I, as supervising
inspector of this, the fourth district, considered it my duty,
as prescribed by the 22d section of the act of Congress of 1852,
to repair immediately to the scene of the calamity. What urged
me to take immediate steps is, that on all such occasions the
surviving parties leave for parts unknown as soon as they can
procure the means to do so. This is especially the case with
those that are supposed to be best informed of the probable
cause of the accident. Arriving at
Memphis,
Tennessee, I found that Major General
Washburn had instituted a military commission to inquire into
the matter. They had made little progress, and had concluded to
go to Vicksburg,
where they had good ground to believe more information could be
gathered. I was invited by General Washburn to join the party,
and did so. At
Vicksburg, one of the first witnesses put
under oath was R. G. Taylor, an experienced boiler-maker. He
stated that he had, at the request of the first engineer,
examined and repaired the middle larboard boiler of the Sultana,
on her up trip to Memphis. He states that he
found, on examination of the larboard boiler, that two sheets
were badly bulged out. He was told by the captain that both
sheets would be cut out at St. Louis, and he (Taylor)
was to cut out only a piece 26 by 11 inches, which he did. He
was not permitted to force back the bulge, as he desired, but
had to fit his patch to the boiler as it was. The patch he
riveted on was only one-quarter of an inch thick. To all this
the first engineer consented. This was on the part of the
engineer a gross violation of the law, the body of the boiler
being made of iron 17-48 of one inch, and inspected, and the
safety-valves regulated for iron of that thickness, and the
pressure allowed was the extreme limit. Had the boiler been
inspected after the repairs, the pressure allowed by law would
have been 100. 43 pounds of
working pressure per square inch, as prescribed for boilers 46
inches in diameter, made of iron ¼ inch thick.
From
Vicksburg
to Memphis
the Sultana travelled at her usual speed, which shows that the
usual pressure of steam was used. The foregoing is sufficient to
explain the cause or causes of the explosion. Boilers of a
construction not adapted to the water of the Mississippi river,
the flues being set in zigzag,
which makes them very difficult to clean; the rapid accumulation
of sediment renders them easily subject to be burned, or at
least overheated; this seems to have been the case of the
Sultana. The boilers were imperfectly repaired at Vicksburg, for which the engineer alone can be
held responsible. There
is another feature in this disaster that deserves to be
mentioned — the large amount of human beings crowded on this
boat. The law limits the number of passengers that a vessel is
allowed to carry. That law, like many others, has
during the war been set
aside for military necessities. Civil officers had to be silent,
and large numbers of soldiers have frequently been crowded on
small crafts. This war was already ended when this inhuman
shipment was made, and nobody pretended that there was a
necessity. The Sultana left
New Orleans with about 250 passengers and
crew, and in the hold about 250 hogsheads of sugar.
At Vicksburg 2,000
released Union prisoners and 60 horses and mules were
shipped on her, while the
certificate allowed her only three hundred and seventy-six (376)
passengers, all told. The Pauline Carroll, a steamer of the same
size, was lying at the wharf at Vicksburg,
on her way to St. Louis.
Hit officers of the P.
Carroll were anxious to get one thousand (1,000) of those
passengers at the regular government rate. The agent of that
boat even offered a premium, as he declared himself, but to no
avail. It was decided that horse, mule and human freight must be
crowded in one heap.
J. J.
WITZIG, Supervising Inspector fourth District.
source:
Executive
Documents printed by Order of The House of Representatives,
During the First Session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, 1865–‘66,
published 1866
|
