[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H3308]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 MARKING ANNIVERSARY OF SINKING OF THE ``SULTANA'', AMERICA'S GREATEST 
                           MARITIME DISASTER

  (Mr. SNYDER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SNYDER. Mr. Speaker, during our Easter recess, we will pass the 
anniversary of a tragic historic event in America. We are all familiar 
with the sinking of the Titanic and its loss of 1,522 lives. In fact 
the greatest American maritime disaster, April 27, 1865, was the 
sinking of the Sultana in a photograph here shown loaded with former 
POWs on the Mississippi River. One of the boilers on the Sultana blew, 
it sank and lost probably 1,800 mostly Union soldiers that had been 
released from prisoner of war camps deep in the South.
  This tragedy was combined with illegality. This ship was supposed to 
hold less than 400 people. It was overloaded in violation of law. It 
pushed out of the Mississippi River at 2 a.m., a boiler blew, it caught 
on fire as shown in this drawing, and experienced tremendous winds 
shortly thereafter. Here we can see the thing flips around and the fire 
pushes people off the other end of the boat. These men were all 
emaciated former POWs. It was with great, great loss of life. There are 
two books on the subject, ``Disaster on the Mississippi'' and ``The 
Sultana Tragedy.''
  Its anniversary was April 27, 1865.

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