Episode 7 examines the deadliest maritime disaster in American history—a tragedy that killed more people than the Titanic, but one you've probably never heard of. The explosion and sinking of the steamboat Sultana on April 27, 1865 claimed between eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred lives. Nearly all of them were Union soldiers who'd survived the war, survived Confederate prison camps, only to be killed by the greed and corruption of their own side.

This is the story of how bureaucratic greed turned a rescue mission into a mass grave. 

This is the story of the Sultana.

Catastrophic Calamities is a creation of Richard O Jones and Pulpular Media. 

We invite you to tune in to our flagship podcast TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN with tales of the scandals, scoundrels, and scourges of the past told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism.

If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.


This episode includes AI-generated content.