The Wayne County Historical Society, in conjunction with the Wooster High School Video Department, is excited for the unveiling on our newest video, “The Sinking of the Sultana”. The video will be premiered on Monday, May 11th at 3:00pm at the Wayne County Historical Society and includes stories of survivors and victims of this deadly accident.
The last video piece regarding Civil War Hero Michael Silver was a great success. This is a not to be missed event! We hope to see you there.
From Wikipedia:
“SS Sultana was a Mississippi River side-wheel steamboat that exploded on April 27, 1865 in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,800 of its 2,427 passengers died when three of the ship’s four boilers exploded and it sank near Memphis.[1] This disaster was overshadowed in the press by other recent events. John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln’s assassin, was killed the day before. The wooden steamship was constructed in 1863 by the John Litherbury Shipyard in Cincinnati, and intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. Registering 1,719 tons,[2] the steamer normally carried a crew of 85. For two years, it ran a regular route between St. Louis and New Orleans, frequently commissioned to carry troops.”
