Shoes visiting station w you uom in michigan public libraries. On april the ninth, 1865, general robert e. Lee surrendered and the sultana sank in the Mississippi River. It remains the worst maritime disaster in American History. Alan huffman tells us overlooked story. Thank you so much for joining us. We will be opening a phones a later on in the program, and comments to alan at our email address. Rshow wmu. Org. Lets start by describing what you have on the front of your book, a picture of the sultana. Describe it to the audience. Alan the boat in the painting is in flames in the middle of the river, and you see a lot of rescue boats and it is night and you see people drifting down the river clinging to debris. Obviously it is that it was painting but it does obviously it is a stylized voteing but it does the evoke what was going on. The river was full of people. There were 2400 people aboard a boat that was supposed to carry 375, roughly. After it exploded and caught higher, you had people and horses swimming in the river channel, and in some cases, there may have been eight or nine guys hanging onto a horse was swimming down the channel, trying to get to the banks. People drowning each other, people floating on debris, there was a lot going on in the river that night. Katty and the boat itself, tell us about the sultana. Alan the vote itself was a that was designed for transferring cargo up and down the river, but during the war, most of the steamboats, there wasnt a lot of commerce, most of the steamboats were used for troop transports, there were contracts with the federal government, and in this case, that was how this disaster came about. The owners of the sultana and the captain of the sultana were to have negotiated to bringing these soldiers home from the war. Thats what was happening, they were being paid by head and they d to fit 2400 on. Katty so that was how this happened, they were getting paid by head . Alan yes, and you can imagine there were already 100 passengers on the boat when the soldiers were marched aboard, so i am sure that recorded i am sure they were quite bemused as they watched the overloading of the boat in vicksburg. The boat has three or four levels, if you count the pilot house. Had the an you open deck and then you had then the state rooms, you know, that ran down the center of the boat. Katty where the richer passengers would have been . Alan right, and then coming you had steerage, where the rest of the lowerclass citizens were done with the members of the crew of the bow, and if you have a state room, the officers would have been crowded into that area, and the decks were completely covered with men. Katty was it a luxurious boat, the sultana . Alan from the accounts that i read, it was not the topoftheline, it was just a typical steamboat that was meant primarily for cargo and also for passengers. Katty so it also had a dining room, that kind of thing . Alan right, and it would have had nice touches in the state rooms and had its own china, probably. Most steamboats did, and chandeliers hanging in the hallways and that sort of thing. By our standards today, it would has been a very nice boat. There were more lavish boats of the era. Katty and when it took that fateful journey that night, in april, was it still a fairly new boat, had it been around for a while . What condition was it in . Alan it was a good condition, it was only a couple of years old. And so but it had a couple of problems. One was the overcrowding, which was causing the decks to sag, and the crew of the boat were very concerned about that, so they actually had hastily reinforced the decks with beams to support them because there were so many men standing there. The other was that there were problems with the boats boilers, the boilers were fired by coal furnaces. The boilers of the sultana had already exhibited problems. Katty even though they were only a couple of years old . Alan right, it was a new design, and innovative design that was lighter weight, and it was later discontinued. And so it was known at that boilers, the boilers were fired there were problems with this type of boiler, and in fact, the boilers had sprung a leak on the way from new orleans to vicksburg had been hastily patched even though the consensus was that they had needed more work. Katty now when you take an airplane, and there is the tiniest maintenance problems, it delays you for hours and you usually have to change planes. It seems that there was a potentially dangerous problem on board this boat, but she sailed anyway. Alan they absolutely new and bsolutely knew and they kept it secret. Some of the people on board the boat, some who were more curious, they heard hammering going on down in the engine room and they checked it out. They came down and they saw them working on this patch on the floor. If you try to get off the boat. Some perhaps did, but some moved to other sections of the boat because they perceived that there might be problems around the boiler. Exploding boilers was not new. The steamboat travel in the Mississippi River was very dangerous by nature. Katty it was known to be dangerous . Alan yes, absolutely, the average lifespan of a boat on the river was about 10 years. They were dangerous. So these guys saw that work that was going on with the boilers and they moved to the other side of the boat. They knew. They tried to keep it secret because they wanted to get these passengers. And two other boats actually left vicksburg the same day empty because they were unable to get passengers while the sultana was overloaded. Katty set the scene, while the sultana was there, what did the Mississippi River look like in the mid1800s . Alan well, it looks similar to what it looks like now, but there is more along the river is the result of loads. Floods. Result of log there is not as Much Development right on the river down there. That at this particular moment, the city of vicksburg would have been ravaged by the war from continual bombardment in 1863, and there would have been a lot of boats tied to the wharf and the river, which was at flood stage, was very high. It would have been full of logs and debris that was bumping up against the boat. When the river reached flood stage, it was just insane. There were whirlpools coming up everywhere, there is the image of the river, old man river, it is this lazy river, but all it takes is to stand on the bank during a flood and watching it and the last thing you think of is an old man. Katty which makes it more dangerous. Alan absolutely. Very Dangerous River at any stage, but especially at flood stage. And the people on this boat were the last people you wanted to subject to this kind of situation. Many had to be carried on board. Because of injuries or weaknesses. Katty tell us about that night, in april. The sultana leaves vicksburg very crowded. What happened . Alan it stops en route to memphis in helena, arkansas, and at that point, the only known photograph of the sultana is taken by a photographer named t. W. Banks. Katty so it is still daylight . Alan it is a twoday trip, essentially. This is the day after it left vicksburg, it docked there to i presume a take on more coal, because that is usually why steamboats stop, to pick up passengers or discharge cargo. Because even at this point, the sultana did have cargo that it was bringing up river from new orleans. You mentioned lincolns assassination, this was part of the cargo we carry downriver, cargo it carry downriver, cargo it carried downriver, the news of the lincoln assassination, and that was one of the ways a news traveled during that time period. It stopped in helena, arkansas, and the men rushed to one side of the boat to be in this photograph, everybody wanted to be in this photograph. Then it headed up north. It got to memphis around sunset. The men were told to stay on the boat, but nobody was going to these guys have been imprisoned, they had been in war, this was the first minute that they had had in any city of any size, and they were getting off the boat. And so they did. They went to saloons and going down the river in memphis and they actually had a hard time to get some of them back on the boat. An interesting little aside, they didnt get all of the men back on the boat. They missed the boat. One tragic little side story is that this guy at miss the boat and when the sultana docked on the other side of the river to take on more coal, he paid of boatman to take him across the river and he was very proud. Katty and they were all eager to get back home. Alan exactly. Katty the just get out of prison. Alan exactly, they thought you just got out of prison. Alan exactly, they thought they just got out of prison. Alan exactly, they thought their troubles were behind men. The thing that interested me the most about this story was that the disaster was just the climax of basically a staged experiment in human survival. These guys at them through the war, they had been through these terrible prison camps, they had been through train reqs on the way to the prison to the docks, and then many died in basically Holding Camps waiting to get on the boat. They thought at this moment they were home free, their troubles were behind them. So by the time they departed memphis, the boat pulled away at about midnight, they went to sleep, you know, feeling like they were on their way. Katty alan hoffman is the author of sultana surviving the civil war, prison, and the worst maritime disaster in American History, and we will be opening the phones later on in the program, we have the phone number or you can send us an email with your questions and comments for alan. We are going to take a quick break. Stay listening. Katty amazing. Poor things. Alan yeah, you know, the guy that got the man to row him across the river, to the boat, he died. Katty yeah, yeah. And he paid money. He should have stayed drunk in a saloon. A very good argument for staying drunk in a saloon. [laughter] katty did you know if sandra managed to get through . To my babysitter . I think she did. Katty great. [indiscernible] katty she must be out. I emailed the school and tell them that and told them i would be out at 12 30. Thank you for trying. Standby. Katty welcome back, i am katty kay of the bbc. I am sitting in for diane rehm. Im joined by alan huffman, the author of sultana, actually, i should give the full title, which is sultana surviving the civil war, prison, and the worst maritime disaster in American History. Because you were speaking just before we went to break about this being not just the story of this terrible accident where all of the lives that were lost, but this is also the story of the people on the boat before, during, and after. Alan thats right, the most interesting thing that hit me about this was that these guys were on their way home when this disaster had occurred. They had already been through the mill and had fought through the war and had seen friends and compatriots going down around them, and managing to survive that and then being imprisoned in a squalid prison camp were people died of disease and injuries and starvation, thousands died of starvation in these prisons, and these guys survived that. And then they are loaded on these trains, and there were three train wrecks are along the way, and they were finally released. Men killed in the train wrecks. It just goes on and on. Finally, all they could think about was that they just wanted to get home and then they could finally get on the boat and it is just taking them home and they have no idea that the worst is ahead. So the idea that i had basically followed a few, just a small group of soldiers, that you could just get to know and follow them all through these series of trials. And what i did not foresee going in was that living the rest of their lives was going to be its own survival trial, and that the book was going to lengthen in that direction as well. I idea is that i was going back to the original opening of the story and building up towards the climax aboard the sultana. But there was so much that happened after the boat that was also interesting, you know, i ended up following these three guys to the rest of their lives. Katty we are going to talk about those three guys for just a second, but i want to backtrack to the actual moment where those boilers explode. Those boilers on the sultana. Alan ok. What happened was it was a terrific explosion that sent many, many people flying through the air, hundreds of feet into the air, many people were killed by the explosion. Some guys survived and didnt know what was happening, even after they hit the water. They would try to swim back to the boat, but when they did, they saw that the boat was on fire. So basically when the boat when the boilers exploded, it sent, you know, embers raining down all over the boat, so there were little fires that were just spreading all over the boat in every direction, so there was no sense in swimming back to the boat at that point. Katty and what caused those boilers to explode . Alan well of course katty was it what you mentioned earlier . Alan that was the consensus. There were inquiries into it, they boilers were salvaged after the boat went down when the boat was exposed, and i think the consensus today i mean, there were certainly conspiracy theorists who believed the boat was sabotaged but the consensus is the type of boilers condusiveconducive to having sedimentation. The river water had mud that would flow through them and it could cause a blockage and make one of the tubes overheat. Not to get too technical for you, but there were flaws in the design of these particular boilers, that in all likelihood, were exacerbated by the extreme careening of the boat, and caused the waters to go to one side. Katty not to interrupt, but how did most die . Alan most died from exposure, a human being cannot last long in water below 70 degrees which sounds warm. It drains heat out of the body very fast, and swimming does that more. Katty and how wide with the river have been at that time . Would it have been possible for people to swim to the banks at that side . Alan yes, and many did. It was about five miles wide,. Katty 20 swim up. Swim. Te a alan yes, and you had the currents to deal with and the darkness. So if you are flying through the air and landed and you dont really know where you are in relation to anything except a burning boat, it was a very difficult swim. It would have been under the best of circumstances. These guys were very weak, again, and many of them did not know how to swim. Of course, even if you knew how to swim, and everyone around you did not know how to swim, then you are going down, too. Katty they are going to pull you down. You said that you focus earlier about some of the people in the book. Lets focus on romulus tolbert. Alan romulus i really feel like i became friends with in the course of this book. He, you know, one of the things you have to keep reminding yourself about is that most of these guys, what they had been through, this drama that would be enough for 100 lifetimes, were not yet 21. They were young. That had been through all of this. And romulus, that was the case with romulus. He was 20 years old. The thing that attracted me about romulus was that he and his buddy, just another farm boy from down the road had enlisted together, and they fought together, and they fought in the cavalry drew, were captured in in thee incidents, cavalry together, were captured and sent incidents in separate incidents, and they ended up in the same prison camp. So their stories just unfolded in tandem. Then they both were loaded onto the sultana, and they both survived, and they both went home, back to their family farms, and tried their best to create a normal life. Katty when romulus signed up and it listed for the union army, he had already lost relation to it, hadnt he . One of his brothers had been killed. Alan thats correct, he had five brothers who it served in the union army, and one was killed in kentucky. So he enlisted soon after. And you know, it is easy to imagine that maybe that had something to do with his decision to do that. Maddox, you know, his friend, maddox, i think they decided to do that together. Katty and maddox was just 17 . Alan thats right. And there were raiders in that area in the same time to really period and that prompted a lot of young men to join the military. Katty so they joined the military thinking they were protecting their homesteads. Do you think that was a motivating factor . Alan it was certainly the case for people who were joining, there were bounties to be paid for people who join the military as well, so their individual motivations, i would like to think that, based on what i know about romulus, that it was more personal. Katty did he have a bit of a swagger about him . Alan yes, definitely. And, you know, he was obviously a very driven guy to be so young. He never had experienced any of this beforehand, being shot at by a person or being denied food or medical treatment, all of the things he was about to go through, but he honestly has what it takes. It is one of the reasons that i wanted to explore these guys stories, because you are always somebody isf subjected to all of what the world can throw at you and they continue to survive, because you want to know how. Katty what was it about these characters, romulus in particular, that made you want to follow them made them able to survive . Alan i think that romulus was able to obtain focus. Threat is a big problem when you are thrown into a survival situation, and anyone who panics is going to make bad decisions. Sometimes people who dont panic make bad decisions. There is no template for surviving that will guarantee you every step of the way, but romulus had a very even temper, and based on everything that i saw, and eventempered people tended to size up the situation around them and Pay Attention to how others were reacting and take that into account. And romulus, i think it was his eventempered disposition that helped him more than everything. There is no discounting luck. You know, if you were sleeping above the boilers on the sultana, the odds are that you were not going to survive. Or if the sniper had focused on you, or anything that was beyond anyones control. But what i saw again and again was that there were people who were able to recognize the situation around them and that it had changed and they were able to adapt to that, and i think romulus was a very adaptable person, and that had to have helped him. Katty another person who survived was jay Walter Elliott. Alan yes, jay Walter Elliott was another person from louisiana. Was that there were people who were able to recognize the situation around them and that it had changed and they were able to adapt to that, and i think romulus was a very and have a completely different reaction. Katty he grew up not far from romulus . Alan thats right, he was almost right on the road. He was a couple of years older. Elliott was a captain and he earned his last promotion when he agreed to take an appointment over the u.