On April 21, 1865 the Sultana left New Orleans headed to St. Louis with 400 passengers and crew. She stopped at Vicksburg and take 2000 POWs from the Civil War home. But on April 27, 1865 at 2:00 A.M. just seven miles north of Memphis, the boilers on the Sultana EXPLODED and set the Sultana on fire. The Sultana sank in the Mississippi River and there were only 500 survivors while 1900 people were killed (including the captain) making it the worst maritime disaster in American History.
Sultana Disaster