C. T. Suddeth

The sidewheeler steamboat, Sultana, was built in 1863. Despite having boiler problems, she was carrying 2200 people, mostly Union soldiers. On April 27 1865, in the dark, she was on the Mississippi River 7 miles north of Memphis when the boilers exploded. About 1200 men died from drowning, explosion, hypothermia—estimates of the dead vary widely. 969 survived, making it the worst American maritime disaster. Like nowadays, all sorts of conspiracy theories abound, but the Captain had been advised not to travel without a boiler repair.