It’s the one indelible image associated with the Sultana saga: The photo of the overcrowded boat at the Helena waterfront, taken the day before the disaster.
The photo has been much-reproduced in books and on the web. The Library of Congress has a copy, which is attributed to an “unknown photographer.”
Credit goes to Gene Eric Salecker for identifying the photographer in his book and noting that the original is housed at the Cincinnati library. Herewith, some gleanings about the photographer from the web:
T.W. Bankes, a native of England, arrived in Arkansas with federal troops in 1864 to photograph the Civil War. Though he is not well-known today, he was an accomplished photographer who managed to be on hand for a rare spectacle: The docking of the Sultana, with more than 2,400 people crowded aboard.
Recognizing the oddity of the scene, Bankes preserved the only known image of the boat, which, as most readers of this website know, sank less than 24 hours later a few miles north of Memphis, taking with it an estimated 1,700 lives. Though the sinking of the Sultana remains the worst maritime disaster in American history, Bankes’ photo was eventually relegated to the status of an obscure historical footnote. Yet the original, housed at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, depicts a scene freighted with momentous history.
The nature of the disaster did not lend itself to a preponderance of artifacts or mementos, and Bankes’ photo is undoubtedly the most telling that survives. In the photo, men crowd every corner of the decks, and according to some reports, nearly capsized the boat by rushing to the port side in an effort to be captured by Bankes’ lens (it is hard to imagine the crowds being capable of actually capsizing such a large boat, but they could easily have caused damage or resulted in men being trampled or thrown overboard). Bankes certainly knew he was recording a noteworthy moment, but he had no way of knowing just how rare and momentous the resulting image would be.
Bankes remained in Helena after the war ended. He eventually moved to Little Rock, where he set up a gallery and made his living primarily from popular carte de visites — small (2½ by 4 inches) albumen photo portraits. His photo clearly provided the inspiration for a good bit of later artwork depicting the Sultana, including a mural at the Vicksburg waterfront which is sometimes erroneously described as illustrating its loading there.
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A great website – I research persons from Hancock County Ohio that participated in the Civil War.
Thanks
Regarding the photo: Wikipedia has it captioned incorrectly in my judgment.
Their caption reads – Ill-fated Sultana, Helena, Arkansas, April 27, 1865
The date must be incorrect given that the photo was taken in the daylight and the ship exploded at 2:00 a.m. on the 27th and Helena is south of Memphis and the ship was steaming north. This is likely an April 26th photo.
Bill Webb