New artifacts make their way to Sultana Museum

New artifacts make their way to Sultana Museum

Period fire buckets a piece of ill- fated steamboat’s history

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When the steamboat Sultana exploded into a fiery inferno on the Mississippi River in April 1865, the crew scrambling to keep the blaze under control could not find the fire buckets to keep the flames from spreading.

The soldiers who had been crammed aboard the Sultana had such a hard time getting water from the lower decks that they had taken them from the racks, tied ropes to them, and threw them into the river to get drinking water.

The round bottomed fire buckets were stored in racks placed around the decks and were supposed to be for fire only.

“So when the explosion came, the fire buckets were not in their racks,” said historian Gene Salecker.

“They could not be found.

So it was impossible to put out the fire. In this regard, the soldiers actually added to their own demise.”

Salecker, a retired middle school social studies teacher and author of Disaster on the Mississippi, recently donated three original steamboat fire buckets similar to the ones on the Sultana to the Sultana Museum in Marion.

The Sultana was a Mississippi River paddlewheel steamboat that exploded about seven miles north of Memphis in the early morning hours of April 26, 1865, killing over 1,700.

Most of the passengers were Union soldiers who had survived major battles and captivity in southern prisoner of war camps and were on their way home from the war.

The Sultana is the greatest maritime disaster in American history. The remains of the boat are buried under a soybean field in Marion.

Marion opened a museum on Washington Street near the county courthouse to commemorate the event in 2015 to coincide with the 150th anniversary, and is working on designing and building a permanent museum. Marion Advertising and Promotions Commission has committed $400,000 as seed money to help jump-start efforts to build the museum on land next to the Woolfolk Li- brary.

Salecker, who owns the majority of the artifacts in the museum which he is loaning to the city, said he regularly scours Civil War swap meets for artifacts.

He said the fire buckets will be a nice addition to the museum because people will be able to handle them and see how they fit into the story of the Sultana.

“I think this will add to the museum because the Sultana had a number of round-bottomed fire buckets that were supposed to be only used for fire,” Salecker said. “That is why they had a round bottom, so they can not be used as a mopping bucket. They won’t sit up straight on the deck. (Museum volunteers) Roz (O’Neal) or Norman (Vickers) or anyone else at the museum can use the third bucket to show people how they will not stand up outside of the rack. If there are any kids in the audience you can have kid put the bucket down to see what happens. Hands on. Just what kids (and adults too) like.”

Salecker is also donating a hogshead barrel to the museum. A hogshead was a large wooden cask used to hold liquids such as wine or cider or other food commodities for transport.

The hogshead barrels were an important part of the Sultana story. The boat had about 240,000 pounds of sugar in over 200 hogshead barrels in her hold when the soldiers were loaded at

Vicksburg.

Salecker said the hogsheads acted as ballast for the trip upriver to Memphis. The hogsheads were removed at Memphis and caused the boat to careen back and forth against the river current and the water in the boilers to slosh around which caused the explosion.

“I felt the hogshead was a much needed part of our display,” Salecker said.

“And again, it is something that people can see and touch.”

Salecker also has three different postcards made and magnets to be sold in the gift shop.

“People go a museum wanting to bring something home,” Salecker said. “We won’t get rich. But it

should help a little and let people bring home a little memento of the museum.”

By Mark Randall