SS Sultana

Boiler, or bomb, the Sultana sank on April 27, eighteen sixty five Taking down with her, a good rounded off number of 1,800 lives Carrying Union soldiers, who were ex-prisoners of war, up north From Vicksburg heading high up the Mississippi river, it set forth The weather was not so good as the Mississippi river was flooded So the Mississippi river waters was deep, cold, dark, and mudded A boat meant to carry 3 hundred and 76 passengers, and its crew Now carrying over 2,000 passengers, anxiety to its load as be due There were two other boats in dock that day, they as sailed empty Had all the boats been used, the space would have been be plenty Worse to come is the tale of Reuben Hatch, and, Captain J Mason What was going through their minds, to the task they were facing Capt. James Mason was way more than just a little bit complacent And knowing of a cracked boiler, had the repair job on it hastened Protests was given, but chief engineer Wintringer chose to ignore Capt. George Williams there as, ushers the ex-prisoners on board The weight of so many men, caused deck floor boards, as to bend Beams were then hastily erected to take this so overbearing trend It was said the boiler blew, taking out the 2 others, on either side In that one blast; it is said, a total of a few hundred instantly died And with it the pilot house, the captain of the boat was now gone As the steam shot up they all would have been cooked like prawns Then the two stacks then fell, taking along, a whole host of others Men now as already ill, tired, or injured from the war, all brothers Hundreds upon hundreds jumped into the water, or left to be fried As none swimmers; clung together, because of this, in groups died Even, before the day was over, investigation of the sinking started With unhidden facts that were disgracefully hid being disregarded Where the facts of Reuben Hatch, were to say more than a bit odd Because from 1861, really shouldn’t have been round to do the job But; his brother Ozias Hatch who had the links to President Lincoln And this link, was no other than as corrupted, and was left stinking Hatch was a man who would sell his soul, if he can make some cash Who quickly retired to save himself from taking any of the backlash This history is forgotten, or buried, did anyone out there really care When over 2,000 odd passengers aboard, only 500, were as spared And, maybe more so died, as stowaways upon the Sultana were rife So we can never really know how many unknowns also lost their life Was it an accident, incompetence, or worse still, of a deliberate act It was unhealthily pointing to a faulty steam boiler that had cracked As belief was held, it was the confederates that blew up the Sultana But; folk would say this was just pure speculation, thus propaganda Sympathy was given to all of the remaining survivors as to them due But; with no accountability, all the victims lost aboard were screwed