Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-05-05
Incidents or the sultana catastrophe

Incidents OF the sultana Catastrophe
Il We extract from the st Louis RepaG6-
dean, the following incidents Of the loss
Of the sultans, with the testimony Of
two of her officers: aW as gaa
One soldier made q noble attempt to
save two little children. He got them
on a plank and foated down opposite
Memphis, where rope was throRn from
q boat, and, attempting to grab the rope,
bis exhausted arms let his precious
charge fall into the river. He plunged
from the plank at the peril of HIS life
and attempted to rescue them, bnt failed,
and the brave young man was picked up
when nearly drowned.
Mrs. Hardin, whose husband 10 mem
Der Of the firm Of Cushman, Hardin 4
Co, of Chicago, who was returning from
a wedding tour, was lost. Mr.. Hardin
was saved He was formerly Adiutant
of the SD Illinois Ea
A woman was rescued opposite Mem
phis, clinging 10 plank, with child in
her arms, but the child was dead when
taken out. a9iaf A't aelt Rn' W
~ An officer Of a gun boat and bis wife,
his two children aud sister were aboard ;
his wife only was saved. The officers OF
the gunboat Essex made up purse Of q
thousand dollars for her 81
There was no baggage saved '''t
The greater portion of those rescued
were more or less wounded or scalded;
some had the cuticle taken entirely from
their bodies by the hot steam.
The steamer Bostona merits great
praise for her exertions to save the
drowning. '
As soon as Capt. Watson, Of the Bos-
tons, discovered the burning wreck, he
put on all steam, and he and his crew
did oil that men could do by lowering
boats and rescning all that they could
reach in time, aud by throwing over
board bales Of hay, planks, staging, or
anything that the sufferers could float
on. In some cases three or four would
cling to bale and berescued. In many
cases the unfortunate people were found
dead on planks Three dead men were
taken from trees 10 which they had swan
and climed up. Those found dead and
floating are supposed to have been so
long weakened by imprisonment, that
they chilled to death. seAl4 .A
= The Bostona saved about 200 lives.
The body Of cabin passenger was
picked up at Memphis. he wore two
fine shirts, on which were the marks
81. ID. Fontaiue, Dallas City, Ill" A
little girl was seen by three men, who
we're in a skiff, struggling in the water.
She had on life-preserver, but was so
low down that IL forced her head under
the water The men in the skiff tried to
save her, but the swift current carried
her by. zia =
Mr.. Bowberry, chief mate OF the Sui
tana, testified before the Commission /:
At the time Of the accident, had charge
of the boat, and was in the pilot house
with Mr.. Cayton. We were about seven
miles up the river when the boiler ex.
ploded, and found myself in the river
with FIVE others; we got hold Of a plank,
and were picked up By the Bostona,
The boiler was tubed in st. Louis on her
last trip, and pronounced good, aud the
boat had her usual certificates Mr..
Schaffer, at St. Louis, was the inspector
There was little patch put on the boil
err at Yicksburg I believe that the
patch was put on the larboard side of
the starboard side of the boiler The
patch was made necessary By the leak
age of the boiler. There was not to my
knowledge any fears expressed BY either
che crew or the passengers as to the
safety of the boat + have been on the
Sultana about FIVE months, and have
been on the river with Capt Mason, the
Master of the Sultans, for about five
years He was a perfect gentleman.
There was no csrousing on the boat
among the crew or passengers. Capt
Mason was in his stateroom; also the LIST
Engineer was in his, and the I'd Engi-
neer was on watch The boat was rum
ming as usual, about 9 or 10 miles per
hour. She was not running against
time, and no boat left with us. The
boiler leaked some IL hours before we
reached Vicksburg, and the. Engineer
declared he would go no farther untilit
was repaired. We laid at Vicksburg
about 80 hours Most of the time was
taken up in repairing the boiler, and the
Engineer said il was good job IL was
done byregular mechanics at Ficksburg.
We had no trouble with the boiler after
leaving Vicksburg