How Much of Sultana Disaster was due to Union Officers' Graft?

Specster

Sergeant Major
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Mass.
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Is this a quote, or are you using an older style font?
There's a number of things in the paragraph that just don't fit. Example: there were survivors, Lee had just surrendered a week or so prior to the sinking of the ship, and Lincoln had just been assassinated, which is probably the major reason the loss of the ship went ignored as far as an investigation as to why.
There was payoff involved, with the result that the vessel was overloaded, and this compounded the the poor maintenance of and repair to the boiler, (the vessel was built in 1863, but with a faulty boiler design), which was overworked due to the heavy spring run off. The owner/pilot of the boat was heavily in debt The whole thing screams of a cover up, and that's usually due to money and CYA.
 
The wording of the question is odd but there may be a good question there. I mean how do you say 50% was caused by greed and 40% was caused by poor maintenance and 10% was caused by the depth of the River.
When analyzing an accident, you may find more than one contributing factors. The flight crew hadn't gotten enough sleep, the altimeter had failed, their charts were out of date and the air traffic controller told them to turn the wrong direction. Usually it comes down to 1 or 2 causes.

The original post was a screen capture of an article.

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This was not an article. I wrote the piece and I knew that there where misspelled words and they were not staying highlighted and I could not find a spell check key. I coped what I wrote and put it on a WP program, corrected the misspelled words and inserted into the box I was originally writing in. If I remember correctly there were a number of reasons why she sank. The riverboats were anticipated to have a short life. The best of raw materials and equipment was not a great consideration at the time of construction. The iron used in her boiler construction was poor quality but it was close to the best available in that day. Steel was not being used extensively at the time of Sultana's construction (January 3, 1861 launch). It was known that a fissure existed on a plate and a mechanic was asked to fix the seam in a day when he estimated that it might take as many as three days. The fear was that the men on the Saltana would debark and the owners would earn less money. One of the Owners was also the Captain, James Cass Mason. Instead of cutting the faulty seam out the mechanic patched it with a slimmer plate. It mattered little - many of the plates were compromised. Steam water on the boat was made directly from the river water without adding chemicals to slow corrosion. The vessel was badly overloaded in part due to miscalculation by a Union Captain. On April 26, 1865 Sultana stopped at Memphis and unloaded 200 tons of sugar from the lower holds. This destabilized the vessel since 2/3 of the weight of the vessel should have been below the waterline and no compensation was made for ballast. Regardless, so many people were crowded on the upper decks of the vessel stabilizing her would have been very difficult. The upper decks had to be shored up with heavy timbers to prevent again a deck collapse. When she left Memphis she was running against a strong current from the spring thaw. She was probably using more steam pressure than she could handle. If something had attracted the passage to either side of the upper decks of the vessel she would have listed quickly. When she listed she may have exposed the tubes to further overheating as the outboard boilers on the side opposite the list may have been exposed. If one boiler exploded other boilers could have easily ruptured. It has also been suggested that a Southern Agent planted an exploding piece of fake coal. It is suspected that the Confederates had done something similar at City Point at an ammunition depot. Yet, between the iron used on the boiler, their ill state of repair, the overloading of the boat, and the velocity of the current it is likely all the ingridents were present for a boiler explosion. Some of those possibly guilty of Graft Quartermaster Hatch, Captain Williams, Captain Mason and others but at the end of the day there is little proof.
 
Graft, Confederate spies, poor boiler design, heavy rain, too many people on board, (mostly evil Yankees I imagine) not enough lifeboats, bad food, little proof?
Call out law offices today!
 
Do you think Mason, really? I just don't see him as culpable. For one thing his wife was on board, you don't see him exposing her to those wildly overcrowded conditions- read somewhere he was both baffled and angry at the number of passengers. He was carrying the full load of regular passengers, too, including women and children.

Wasn't Sultana contracted, as in part of a government contract to get men home? If by graft you mean crowning off the war by yet more gouging of the government by unscrupulous contractors, it'd be 100%. Those boiler explosions were not uncommon, there was always a steamship disaster. Whomever patched that one may have had no idea her weight would be increased so crazily- patch could have held without it. You tend to read about that patch as some sloppy job and bet it wasn't. Tradesmen knew their stuff, it's what they did. Patch just wasn't the problem, the weakened boiler was.

That Confederate thing, about planting something that caused it is and was too handy. I mean, for one thing why would they, war was over. Besides, there were Confederate prisoners on board ( en route somewhere, I forget ), enough of them it would be unlikely to be unknown- they were marched on board under guard.

Maybe greed, not graft, and 100%?
 
Do you think Mason, really? I just don't see him as culpable. For one thing his wife was on board, you don't see him exposing her to those wildly overcrowded conditions- read somewhere he was both baffled and angry at the number of passengers. He was carrying the full load of regular passengers, too, including women and children.

Wasn't Sultana contracted, as in part of a government contract to get men home? If by graft you mean crowning off the war by yet more gouging of the government by unscrupulous contractors, it'd be 100%. Those boiler explosions were not uncommon, there was always a steamship disaster. Whomever patched that one may have had no idea her weight would be increased so crazily- patch could have held without it. You tend to read about that patch as some sloppy job and bet it wasn't. Tradesmen knew their stuff, it's what they did. Patch just wasn't the problem, the weakened boiler was.

That Confederate thing, about planting something that caused it is and was too handy. I mean, for one thing why would they, war was over. Besides, there were Confederate prisoners on board ( en route somewhere, I forget ), enough of them it would be unlikely to be unknown- they were marched on board under guard.

Maybe greed, not graft, and 100%?

Whether the mechanic (from what I have read it was one man) was good at his craft, I think is a **** shoot not unlike getting your car fixed today. The steam leak was a problem which reared its head around the 25th of April, 1865. Im not so sure that a ship's Captain had much choice. The education system in the USA didnt have a ton of training options for boiler techs. It was a newer technology and Im sure many men wanted no part of it considering the possibility of getting scorched with super heated steam. It may seem like a pretty simple task but it is not. We are not talking about welding the leak shut. Im pretty sure this is a two man operation with the inside man taking the brunt of the abuse. Nor am I that sure that the Captain (Mason) was all that well trained in stability and trim. The better trained Captains went to sea, the lesser could work smaller vessels on rivers and such, if trouble occurred you could often ground the vessel. Counting the number of people entering and leaving a vessel- not easy either. At one point Williams goes to "lunch" (must have been like 10 courses) for a train pulls in by the Sultana and 700 additional souls enter the River boat. All tolled not easy to ascertain. People claiming to cause disasters or huge pranks are not uncommon. Confederate agents claiming they planted a bomb? Look at Booth's motivations. There was graft occurring regularly during the war. Grant had his own father thrown out of the area of his command because he sought to influence him in regards to trade. The infamous Special Order No. 11. Given the scope of the war and the state of record keeping, Im sure the unscrupulous could make a killing.
 
Im sure the unscrupulous could make a killing.

OH without a doubt. I caught a whiff somewhere ( and failed to save it or can't find it ) that Sultana was not the only boat loaded so extremely. Someone got away with a fortune doing the same thing on other chartered ships while everyone was looking at Sultana's disaster. There's also scandal after scandal after scandal in the papers where some scumbucket was caught making money from government contracts- one where horses were being passed as sound involved quite a few people. 30 dollar horses horses sold for 150, that kind of thing.

What did Mason say about it afterwards? Didn't he live and his wife perish? I'm not defending him ( at all, with a ship packed like that he never should have moved an inch ), just hadn't thought him involved. It does make sense though- wouldn't the man wonder why all of a sudden his ship was dripping passengers?

I've always doubted the Confederate thing. There was no report whatsoever about those Confederate prisoners on board- and they were marched on board in full view, with guards. It seems to have been easier to blame that cause than look around for why that ship was overloaded in the first place.If it had been reported those men were on board, who'd believe Confederates would kill their own men? I'd still like to know who they were, can't find a thing.
 
Whether the mechanic (from what I have read it was one man) was good at his craft, I think is a **** shoot not unlike getting your car fixed today. The steam leak was a problem which reared its head around the 25th of April, 1865. Im not so sure that a ship's Captain had much choice. The education system in the USA didnt have a ton of training options for boiler techs. It was a newer technology and Im sure many men wanted no part of it considering the possibility of getting scorched with super heated steam. It may seem like a pretty simple task but it is not. We are not talking about welding the leak shut. Im pretty sure this is a two man operation with the inside man taking the brunt of the abuse. Nor am I that sure that the Captain (Mason) was all that well trained in stability and trim. The better trained Captains went to sea, the lesser could work smaller vessels on rivers and such, if trouble occurred you could often ground the vessel. Counting the number of people entering and leaving a vessel- not easy either. At one point Williams goes to "lunch" (must have been like 10 courses) for a train pulls in by the Sultana and 700 additional souls enter the River boat. All tolled not easy to ascertain. People claiming to cause disasters or huge pranks are not uncommon. Confederate agents claiming they planted a bomb? Look at Booth's motivations. There was graft occurring regularly during the war. Grant had his own father thrown out of the area of his command because he sought to influence him in regards to trade. The infamous Special Order No. 11. Given the scope of the war and the state of record keeping, Im sure the unscrupulous could make a killing.
Patching the boiler - no easy task..as you said, very few trained in the craft and they are trying to patch iron of unknown quality, making the job very difficult. Not unlike a tire, the patch may have lasted a few hours, then as the environment imposed its will, and the pressure was increased to make way, it is not unlikely that it let go.

Grant's father was a bit of a piece of work IMO.
 
It seems to me that steam related accidents (whether ship or rail), were all too common in the mid-19th century. Part of the problem must be attributed to the developing technology and primitive safety measures of boilers and steam engines and part to a culture of corruption. That's a dangerous combination.
 
It seems to me that steam related accidents (whether ship or rail), were all too common in the mid-19th century. Part of the problem must be attributed to the developing technology and primitive safety measures of boilers and steam engines and part to a culture of corruption. That's a dangerous combination.
We would have to wait 105 years until a kind heart like Richard Nixon would establish OSHA (and the EPA). I like Nixon, I think history had been unkind but is now swinging around to objectivity....Oh I hope the Mods dont fry me for saying that......
 
It seems to me that steam related accidents (whether ship or rail), were all too common in the mid-19th century. Part of the problem must be attributed to the developing technology and primitive safety measures of boilers and steam engines and part to a culture of corruption. That's a dangerous combination.
The British used low pressure steam in their steamships, and these were slower, more expensive, and safer.
The Americans were willing to risk high pressure steam to save cost and time, at the known risk of disaster for a ship now and then.

I think it is a national characteristic to accept more or less risk, and it could well be that the immigrants who came to the US, taking that risk, may well have been more tolerant of risk in general.
 
As I understand it, legally, isn’t the ultimate responsibility for the safety aboard ship that of the Captain? I think there’s always a bit of a conflict of interest whenever you have an owner/operator situation, as was the case of the Sultana and most other steamboats of the day. There’s always that temptation to sail in an unsafe condition in the interest of making a profit.

As others have said, contracts with the government were very lucrative and quite corrupt during the war. It probably didn’t help in this case that the whole transport system was built for civilian not military levels of traffic so the whole system was getting overloaded.
 
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