Topic starter
24/08/2006 4:25 am
Does anyone know which company built Sultana II, the vessel whose boilers exploded just north of Memphis in 1865? Also, is it possible to obtain a plan of the vessel? A report of the last days of the vessel suggests that the boilers were in need of serious repair, yet they had only been in service for two years. How could this have happened?
24/08/2006 11:12 am
Sultana V
There were actually four previous Sultanas, according to Way's Packet Directory. The one to which you refer was built at the John Litherbury yard, with machinery by Moore and Richardson. She had four tubular boilers, each 46" by 18 ft., having 24 5" flues. See Way #5216 and the S&D Reflector June 1965 pp. 10-12 for more.
25/08/2006 12:38 am
David,
Ralph Lossing built a model of the SULTANA, plans from David J. Meagher, Alan Bates has the address on his site ( see model plans on this site). Go to http://www.steamboats.com/museum/models1.html for viewing photos.
25/08/2006 1:20 pm
David,
Maybe the best book is "The Sultana Tragedy - America´s Greatest Maritime Disaster" by Jerry O. Potter. It should be available on amazon.com.
Carmen
28/01/2007 8:52 pm
Keep in mind that Sultana utilized fire tube boilers, rather than the more common return flue type. The 24 five-inch flues per boiler transfered heat much more efficiently, but the design also required far more rivets and seams to assemble.
Rivet holes were punched, rather than drilled, because it was cheaper and quicker. This punching, together with the use of driftpins to align the holes, created invisible microscopic cracks that potentially could leak. Even without a leak, the overall effect was to weaken the integrity of the boilers.
So, a combination of a hundred or more extra rivet holes (which necessitated a temporary patch on Sultana), an extremely overloaded upbound boat, lower boiler water level to create more steaming capacity, a list caused by a nearly square channel crossing and the movement of many passengers to view the approaching shoreline probably caused the unwatering of several flues.
When the boat righted, the water in the boilers again covered the now red hot flues. The water supersteamed and in an instant three of the boilers burst.
29/01/2007 10:40 am
David Meagher has recently moved. His new address is:
171 Whitfield Drive
Toney, AL 35773.
David just keeps on with his Civil War (excuse me - in Alabama it's The War Between the States) vessels and recently sent me several new ones of ironclads and an ice-breaker/tug. He does not explain why an ice-breaker was needed in the South.