Blog - LOST IN HISTORY

The Donora Death Fog of 1948

Donora Death Fog of 1948 Pennsylvania — **Donora Death Fog of 1948, Donora, Pennsylvania**

In 1948, a little-remembered environmental disaster occurred in the U.S. that shocked the entire world. It may sound like something from a Steven King horror novel, but it was the real thing. Over 7,000 townspeople fell ill and twenty-six lost their lives. How did this happen? The Donora Death Fog began innocently enough.

On Tuesday, October 26, 1948 the people of Donora, Pennsylvania woke to a blanket of smoke and fog filling their cold streets. Fog was common there when cold Allegheny Mountain air hit the warm water from the Monongahela River that ran in an oxbow bend around the town. Plus the town’s steel mill and zinc works factories ran three solid shifts. They belched out endless pillars of smoke, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

People went off to work that Tuesday morning, kids went off to school. But the smog on the morning of October 26th turned out to be … different somehow. As the day wore on, the fog didn’t lift, as it usually did when the sun rose. All the streetlights were still blazing at Noon! Plus the smog became slowly thicker as the day progressed. Townsfolk began to gag and cough, tasting the vile pollution in their mouths.

‘The smog burned your throat, eyes and nose, but we thought it was just another day in Donora.’
Donora Death Fog survivor

Donora is a small U.S. town, about 27 miles south of Pittsburgh. It sits on a tight, horseshoe bend in the Monongahela River, in a deep mountain valley surrounded by steep Appalachian hillsides. It was also the home of the US Steel Zinc Works AND American Steel & Wire Mill. A combined 30 smoke stacks lining the riverfront like a steampunk forest. The two factories employed most of the men in town as laborers. Everyone else, in one way or another supported, or profited off, the two large mills.

Folks in Pennsylvania and Ohio steel towns were used to smog. This was three years after World War II. The GI’s were home and back to work in the mills and factories. But memories of the Great Depression still lingered, and smog, for better or worse, meant prosperity and jobs. Smog meant men were working, bills were being paid, and families were fed. Sure, it was a daily nuisance. It stunted the growth of trees in the valley, mothers washed their curtains as frequently as towels, and it caused hacking coughs amongst the workers. But, that was the price you paid for a part of living the new American Dream, right?

The Donora smog continued to worsen as the week went one, getting thicker and thicker … and thicker for 5 straight days. Most residents hid in their homes except to go out to work. It darkening the valley like an industrial solar eclipse. That didn’t stop the Halloween parade on Friday though, when little kids in costumes walked the streets like real-life specters, coughing and hacking themselves in the foggy gloom. Or the high school football game on Saturday, when no passes were thrown because receivers couldn’t see the ball in the air!

The smog was so thick the fans could barely see the football players on the field.

What the town didn’t know was that a layer of cold autumn air had trapped the two mills’ toxic soup of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and zinc/lead dust on the floor of their mountain valley. It was a rare Atmospheric Inversion that stopped the air from circulating out of the town. The dangerous combination of toxic smoke and weather would yield deadly effects. The thickening, poisonous air began causing uncontrollable hacking coughs and asthma-like symptoms in the townspeople.

Donora’s eight family doctors rushed from house to house and case to case. They ordered those having trouble breathing to abandon the town and head in any direction. This became harder and harder as driving visibility was reduced to just a few feet, even with headlights on. Firefighters carried oxygen tanks through the dark streets to help children and elderly citizens get from place to place. The police were deluged with desperate phone calls for oxygen and masks.

The ambulances could only creep through the smog at 5 mph, with one paramedic walking in front – to check if the road was clear of stuck cars, shouting back to the driver. Driving soon became out of the question. Firefighters were forced to abandon attempts to help their suffering citizens when they were unable to navigate their fire trucks IN MIDDAY!

“The smog was so bad I couldn’t see my own two feet!”
Donora Death Fog survivor

The mayor and town leaders begged the mills’ owners to shut down … but they flatly refused. It would cost too much money to halt production, even for a day. The first deaths began to occur four days in, on Friday. The doctors had made the small Donora Hotel an emergency clinic, because the small local hospital could not handle all the sick, coughing and gasping patients.

By Saturday, the three funeral homes quickly had more corpses than they could handle. The Community Center basement became a spare morgue when the undertakers were overwhelmed. Towns people listening to the local radio station were shocked to learn the toxic smog had now turned lethal! Twenty of their fellow Donorans had died so far! And half the town was getting sicker.

Donora, PA - US Steel Zinc Works, 1948 — **Donora, PA – smoke stacks of the U.S. Steel Zinc Works, 1948**

On Sunday morning, October 30th, when church services had to be canceled, the mills’ owners finally ceased operation. It was arguably because most of their workers were out sick and the two large mills were half empty. The next day, on Halloween no less, wind and rain finally came and the smog finally began to dissipate, but not before leaving many Donorians with permanent lung damage.

Twenty-six townspeople would die in all.

All the dead had been 50 or over, some with heart or lung problems. 7,000 people had become violently ill, half the town’s population. While expressing sympathy for the victims, the mill owners disclaimed responsibility! After all, they could not control the weather, could they? Nevertheless, the Donora Death Fog made national news across the U.S.

Over the next months, state and federal investigators descended on small Donora. They set up air monitoring sites and medical clinics in the valley. U.S. Steel and American Wire insisted the weather was to blame, certainly not the mills that had been operating for decades. The two influential and powerful companies made sure the official report exonerated the plants. Most residents were outraged when investigators failed to blame the two mills. Much like the nearby Johnstown, PA Flood victims, lawsuits were filed, and later settled, but without naming any blame.

‘It was murder! The owners of U.S. Steel should have gone to jail.’
Donora Death Fog survivor

Humans were not the only victims – all of the crops in the surrounding valley withered, as well as many backyard vegetable and flower gardens. Many family pets would suffer the same fate as their owners. It became the worst air pollution disaster in US history. It let the U.S. public know that smog was more than just a nuisance, it could kill!

The two mills reopened the very next week. But the “Donora Death Fog,” was in all the national newspapers and made air pollution a new national concern. The next year, President Harry Truman called for the 1st national Air Pollution Conference, citing Donora, PA by name. A similar, larger disaster occurred in London, England in 1952, called The Great London Smog killing thousands. The U.S. Steel Zinc Works closed in 1957, the American Steel and Wire Mill a few years later. The abandoned mills were eventually torn down and Donora became a classic Rust Belt town. Other industries came to town over the years and built on the riverfront sites.

Republican President Richard Nixon created the U.S .Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, leading to the passage of the The Clean Air Act the same year. Nonetheless, air pollution in eastern industrial cities and towns, like Pittsburgh and Cleveland, remained a problem for decades more. Add the steel mills of Illinois, Ohio and Indiana and air pollution precipitated down upon the northeastern states as Acid Rain, in the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s, killing lake and river fish populations all the way from Lake Erie to New England and Canada.

**Names of the 1948 Donora Death Fog victims.**

Once the mills closed, the population of Donora dwindled to less than 6,000, with over one-third mill retirees. Some residents blame the government regulators for destroying jobs in their town, though arguably saving their family’s lives in the process. The Donora Death Fog is the pivotal moment leading to the slow adoption of clean air quality regulations in the U.S. years later in 1970. Today, it almost sounds like a 1950’s science fiction movie. But if you have never heard of Donora, PA you owe the victims and their families a debt of gratitude. The Donora dead gave their lives, so many others would later live.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。

Lost in History

The Mahanoy Plane – the Mother of all Inclined Railroads

The Mahanoy Plane inclined railroad, Frackville, PA

In the Coal Mining Region of eastern Pennsylvania, Appalachian valleys from Harrisburg to Scranton contain prized veins of hard, black Anthracite coal. From the Civil War to the 1940’s, coal was the undisputed King of Fuels in the United States and the world. For Schuylkill County, there was one big problem, getting all that precious black coal, from 48 separate mines, up and over the long Broad Mountain that separated it from the southern parts of the state. From there, it would feed hungry steel mills and factories in places like Allentown, Reading and Philadelphia. Their solution was to construct the Mahanoy Plane

The Coal Barons’ constructed a massive Inclined Railroad in the town of Frackville.

Clearing the forest and laying tracks up the mountain was the easy part. Tons of power would be needed to hoist the heavy, laden coal cars up the steep mountainside, too steep for a locomotive to pull. The vertical rise was a daunting 525 feet in elevation to the top of the ridge, 28 degrees inclination at its steepest. So they installed the most powerful steam engines in the world (at the time) at the summit, at the very edge of Frackville. The 500 ton engines were part of a massive complex that would be known as The Mahanoy Plane after the valley far below.

The Plane was constructed during the Civil War in 1861, primarily by Italian immigrants, and paid for by the READING RAILROAD (of Monopoly fame). It was a true Engineering Marvel with two 6,000 horsepower steam engines hoisting coal cars 2,500 feet up from the Mahanoy valley to Frackville at the top. The engines held that “Most Powerful Engine” distinction for over 50 years, until surpassed by the large steam engines that moved the locks of the Panama Canal.

Cheap immigrant labor toiled and died in the hundreds of deep mines that dotted the Appalachian valleys of eastern Pennsylvania. Immigrants were from Ireland, Poland, Russia, Italy, Lithuania, and Ukraine. It was an exhausting, thankless, dangerous life, long before the days of organized labor unions. Men would come out of the mines each day with black faces and black lungs. They were paid not in dollars, but company currency, which they could then used to pay their rent for company owned houses, and buy food in company owned stores.

During its heyday, the Mahanoy Plane hoisted over 1.4 Billion, that’s with a B, tons of shiny, black coal up the steep slope of Broad Mountain. Up to 900 railroad cars passed up and down the steep plane every single day, a trip that took a little under five minutes. The main hoisting cables alone were made of 3 inch thick cast-steel that could pull 3 coal cars up at once. The Mahanoy Plane was so complex it required a team of over 60 men to work it.

Sadly, the Mahanoy Plane shut it engines in 1932, due to other easier routes built out of the valley.

Mahanoy Plane Engine Room, Frackville, PA

The owners had the mighty steam engines dismantled, sold the long cables for scrap, and demolished the historic buildings in the 1950s – what a loss. Eventually, Mother Nature overtook the full length of the Mahanoy Plane site with a forest of slender white birch trees. Today, the famous site is all but forgotten … except for a few loyal locals who refuse to let its once famous memory die. Currently, hikers can visit the heavily overgrown site at the north end of Frackville by following a path just beyond High Street. You can inspect its thick, deep foundations, massive, three-story high stone trestles, and creepy underground, cave-like rooms.

The Mahanoy Plane provided coal for the westward expansion of the United States, fueling railroads from the Mississippi River to the coast of California. Polish, Russian, Italian, German and Irish immigrants mined the coal that powered factories, steel mills, and locomotives across the entire growing nation. That same coal powered the steam ships that carried American soldiers across the Atlantic during World War I in 1917. For 50 years, the Mahanoy Plane, in a small Pennsylvania mountain town, contained the largest steam engines in the world!

Mahanoy Plane Historical Marker, Frackville, PA

In 2007, the Pennsylvania Historical Commission installed a small Historical Marker along nearby highway 924, just outside of Frackville. It gives a brief, 3 sentence description, stating at the end that ‘partial ruins remain nearby.‘ But that hardly seems sufficient for such a once legendary site.

Sadly, there are no Pennsylvania state plans to restore or even preserve the once famous historical site. The forest has completely taken over and reclaimed the land. To visit there in summertime, when the trees’ leaves are thick, you might trudge right past it, and miss the ruins completely. Only in the cold of winter, with the trees bare of leaves, is the site fully revealed to the curious, along with a spectacular view of the Mahanoy valley below. White wind turbines dot the mountaintop opposite Frackville.

The once mighty Mahanoy Plane, and the men who ran it, deserves far more remembrance than an overgrown plot of crumbling ruins and a sad, forgotten place in American history.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。

Lost in History

6 Forgotten Secrets of Michelangelo’s David

Michelangelo's David backside in Florence, Italy — Michelangelo’s David less seen backside in Florence, Italy

How much do you know about Michelangelo’s David? You have no doubt seen countless pictures of the famous naked statue on the internet, television or in books. You recognize the handsome, muscular nude male, standing with his feet apart, staring off into the distance. But did you know the statue was originally commissioned to sit atop the roof of an Italian cathedral? That the version standing outside Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio is actually just an inferior bronze replica? How about that Michelangelo was only 26 years old when he sculpted it?

The statue of David was commissioned in 1501 during the reign of the famous Medici ruler, Lorenzo the Magnificent. The cathedral guild hired the up-and-coming artist to create a statue of King David to stand atop the roof the famous Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence/Firenze. Though quite young, Michelangelo Buonarroti, was already famous for sculpting The Pieta in Rome – the famous statue of Mary cradling the body of a crucified Jesus in her lap. He was provided a 6 ton rectangle of white Tuscan marble from the Carrara quarry that two prior sculptures, including the famous Donatello, had rejected as too flawed to use. It had sat untouched for over 10 years. Michelangelo however, saw beyond the flaws and took on the challenge. David would not be life-sized, but rather 17 feet (5.2 meters) tall!

It took him two painstaking years to complete what Firenze dubbed ‘il Gigante’ (the Giant).

1) The marble stone sat in a small courtyard behind the Duomo cathedral, so he worked year round, outside in the rain, heat and cold. Rarely stopping to eat, Michelangelo often slept on the spot, where he dropped from sheer exhaustion at day’s end. Rather than a robed & bearded King David, he chose instead a young man on the day that made him famous. The day in the Book of Samuel when David was the only person to step forward and accept King Saul’s challenge for anyone to face down the Philistine giant, Goliath. A simple shepherd boy, naked yet toned, armed only with a rock, sling and fierce determination.

2) Michelangelo dissected corpses to learn the intricacies of human muscles, and put that knowledge to great use. David stands with his legs apart in a fencing-like (or baseball pitcher) pose, left heel slightly raised, looking over his left shoulder at Goliath. The sling is draped over the same shoulder, across his back to his clenched right hand where he conceals the small yet deadly stone. Though David at first appears relaxed, on closer examination one sees the tension in his legs, the glare in his eyes, the bulging veins in his hands. His head is slightly larger and out of proportion, so that when viewed from below it would appear a normal size. His right hand, gripping the stone, is also slightly larger – a nod to David’s nickname manu fortis.

When finally completed, the reviews in Tuscany were beyond positive, they were ecstatic!

David replica outside the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy — David replica outside the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

3) His benefactors indeed proclaimed in ‘Perfect!” Too perfect in fact to sit so far away atop the Duomo roof. So a commission was formed, which included none other than an aging Leonardo da Vinci, to choose a ground level location somewhere in Florence. Oh to be a fly on the wall, overhearing those conversations between Michelangelo and Leonardo. The chosen site was atop a pedestal outside the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria. It took 40 men, four nerve wracking days to slowly transport the 12,000 pound “Giant” through the narrow streets. Even the orientation was taken into account, with David facing Rome, as if the Medici Giant was staring down the Pope himself.

4) Michelangelo’s David’s exposed manhood caused quite a bit of consternation when Britain’s Queen Victoria was presented a replica in London, in the 19^th century, by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. So much so that a plaster fig leaf was made and hung on his curly public hair so that the queen might not faint from the vapors in his naked masculine presence. It was an amusing bit of history mimicked in a Simpson’s TV show episode a century later. It’s also curious to note Michelangelo chose to not make David circumcised, which was of course the Jewish custom.

5) The perfect statue stood outdoors for over 350 years, exposed to the Italian elements – rain, sun, snow and pigeons. Only in 1873, over concerns that the weather was eroding the marble masterpiece, was it finally transferred indoors to the Galleria dell Accademia. David’s sling and the tree stump were originally gilded in gold, but has long since wore off over time. In the Galleria, one of the toes on his left foot was once hammered off in 1991 by a zealous Italian spectator! It was thankfully reattached. A bronze replica was put in the Palazzo Vecchio for the tourists (and Italian pigeons), to mark the spot it once stood.

The years have taken their toll on the great masterpiece, as micro-fractures have appeared from centuries of vibrations.

6) Unfortunately, Michelangelo’s David is actually oriented the wrong way in the Galleria dell Accademia for the best public viewing. As visitors approach down a long hallway, they see the often photographed angle facing his hips and chest. David almost looks relaxed. But the view Michelangelo intended was facing him from the Right. There you see the brave David as Goliath would have – eyes glaring, muscles tense, ready to load his sling for that fateful throw. If you visit him in the Galleria, step down into the corridor on the right for the best view.

Michelangelo’s David’s face as Goliath would have seen it

Michelangelo’s fame grew beyond David and the Pieta when was he was next commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the vaulted ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in Rome. That task, which is actually 52 separate frescoes, took him four long years to complete. Michelangelo never married or had any children, leading to theories he may have been secretly gay. He certainly had a keen appreciation for the male form. He lived a solitary life, well known for his short temper and lack of personal hygiene. Michelangelo lived to a ripe old age of 88, the aged and bearded figure often depicted in many of his portraits. He is buried in the Basilica Santa Croce in Florence.

Such artist perfection as the masterpiece of David is not just a piece of sculpture for the Renaissance or even Italy, but Michelangelo’s eternal gift to the entire world, and all its descendants. If you are ever in Italy, a trip to Firenze is highly recommended. Skip the long tourist lines at the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore and go instead to the Galleria dell Accademia and experience for yourself, THE GIANT in person.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。

Lost in History

The Deadly 1900 Galveston Hurricane

For the audio Podcast: Click Here

**The 1900 Galveston Hurricane Memorial**, **Galveston, TX**

If you approached Galveston, Texas from the gulf in 1900, it looked like an American Venice. Barely 8 feet above sea level – hotels, mansions, and church steeples rose from the placid waters as if it were Atlantis itself. Its long harbor and numerous warehouses made it a more important port than its inland cousin, Houston. Over 1,000 steam ships docked at the harbor every year. Its busy business district was dubbed the ‘Wall Street of the West.’ Over 37,000 souls crowded into the picturesque barrier island, linked to the mainland by no less than 3 railroad bridges. The popular, flat beachfront boasted numerous hotels, restaurants and shops along its famous Midway. All that changed when the Category 4 Galveston Hurricane, the “1900 STORM,” arrived from the Gulf.

As far back as locals could remember, Galveston had been spared the arrival of any major hurricane, or ‘Cyclones’ as they called them back then. Only two tropical storms had hit Texas in recent memory, but much farther south. Galvestonians considered them freak incidents and that a major hurricane would NEVER breach the Florida Straits, let alone hit Texas. Why even the U.S. Weather Bureau agreed the shallow Gulf waters made it virtually immune to hurricanes.

Talks of building a sea wall were discussed by city leaders, then tossed aside as sheer folly. Why bother? In the meantime, the bustling city continued to fill up and grow. The protective dunes were destroyed and their sand used to fill in wetlands for new construction and even more souls on the island.

Saturday, September 8th, 1900 began with few hints of impending doom.

**Galveston Chief Meteorologist Isaac Cline**

The U.S. Weather Bureau knew a tropical storm had passed Cuba two day earlier, but thought it turned to the north and was heading for Florida. In the days before satellites, eye witnesses and telegraphs had to suffice … and they were not enough. Isaac Cline, Galveston’s chief meteorologist, went to the beach that morning and reported partly cloudy skies with only “unusually high swells in the gulf.” There was not the brick-red dawn usually associated with foul weather. Other than the raising of a storm warning flag atop the weather bureau building downtown, there would be no call for evacuation. By that time, it was too late anyway.

By the lunch hour, dark clouds had brought heavy rains. They were fed by an unusually high tide, flooding all streets nearest the beach hip-deep in seawater. Fierce, crashing waves destroyed the beloved Midway and trolley tracks that ran parallel to the beach. Some families began to pack their wagons with valuables and head to the center of the island. Others, believing it was just a bad storm, stayed put and moved to the upper floor of their homes.

By four o’clock, winds were blowing at hurricane strength, flipping slate shingles off roof tops, sending them flying through the air like scimitars. Rising waters were already chest-deep in the streets. Store front windows downtown were shattered by the winds. Families realized they had but two options now, risk wading downtown to slightly higher ground (a mere 8 feet above sea level), or ride out the storm in the upper floors of their wooden homes. Isaac Cline had watched his barometer drop all day to a record low and waded home to his own family. Schools, convents and hospitals became emergency shelters.

By 6 PM, what we today call a Category 4 Hurricane hit an unsuspecting Galveston.

A 15 FOOT STORM SURGE rose in a matter of minutes, flooding the island from beach to bay. All the bridges leaving the island were destroyed. Two hours later, the Eye itself plowed over the city, punching it with 140 mile per hour winds. In the dark of night, street after street of houses were crushed by the massive storm surge. Broken homes were lifted off their foundations. They crashed into the next street, only to repeat the cycle of destruction. Residents who were not killed instantly were quite literally thrown into the heart of the cyclone’s dark swirling waters, to either survive clinging to wreckage, or die.

St. Mary's Orphan Asylum, Galveston, TX, 1900 — **St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum, Galveston, TX, 1900**

St. Mary’s Orphanage sat on prime property, directly on the Gulf, just outside the city limits. The Sisters of Charity gathered the terrified children into the upper floors to escape the rising storm surge. They sang Mary, Queen of the Waves to pray and calm the orphans. The sisters even tied themselves to the children with ropes so they’d not be separated if blown out into the storm. Its two dormitories eventually collapsed with 90 young children and 10 nuns inside … only three teenage boys managed to survive.

By dawn, the killer storm has passed. The dazed and lucky survivors crawled from the wreckage to find half their city flattened to rubble and littered with corpses. Due to the large number of bodies washed out to sea, it will never be known exactly how many truly died in the Galveston Hurricane. 3,600 buildings were completely destroyed and up to 8,000 lives lost. Isaac Cline managed to save his 3 daughters when their home collapsed, but lost his wife. The bodies of the dead were first loaded onto barges and dumped in the Gulf of Mexico, but the Gulf dumped them back on the beach the next day. Funeral pyres became the only way to dispose of so many dead.

Galveston learned its lesson, oh yes, it certainly did.

In the years following, the Gulf of Mexico sand was dredged and the entire city raised up 17 FEET. Then a massive, curved concrete seawall was constructed. Galveston has since been hit many more times by tropical storms, most recently directs hits by Hurricane Alicia in 1983 and Hurricane Ike in September 2008. Though given ample days to evacuate from Ike, over 100,000 residents chose to stay on the skinny barrier island and ride out the storm … just like their ancestors a hundred years earlier.

Given the uncertainty around global Climate Change, we can only assume Hurricane Ike will not be the last cyclone to attack the vulnerable Texas coast, and the city of Galveston.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。

Source: https://www.1900storm.com/

失落的历史

The Forgotten Sultana Riverboat Disaster

For an audio podcast Click Here

The Riverboat Sultana ablaze on the Mississippi River near Memphis — **The Sultana Disaster on the Mississippi River near Memphis**, **TN, April 1865**

More souls died on the Riverboat Sultana than the RMS Titanic.

The Sultana disaster is in fact, the worst maritime disaster in United States history with 1,860 lost. So why is it such a forgotten piece of American history, with just a few books written? Why no epic Hollywood films? Everyone remembers the Battle of Gettysburg, or the Fall of the Alamo, so why not the Sultana Disaster? A lot had to do with timing and how the U.S. Civil War ended. April 1865 was a very eventful month for both the United States and Confederate States of America.

General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox in Virginia on April 9^th. After five bloody years, pitting brothers against brothers, the U.S. Civil War was finally over. Barely a week later, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14^th while attending a performance at Ford Theater in Washington D.C. The manhunt for his assassin, the actor John Wilkes Booth, ended on April 26th. He was fatally shot by Union troops in a remote Maryland barn.

The very next day, April 27th, 1865 the riverboat exploded in the dead of night on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis, Tennessee. It sank with over 2,400 souls aboard. They were primarily haggard Union soldiers, prisoners of war happily returning home to the north. By comparison, 1,517 would die on the Titanic decades later in 1912.

Regardless of the scope of the disaster, Americans were too wrapped up in the end of the War Between the States and the death of their beloved President Lincoln. They took little notice of a Mississippi river boat sinking, no matter how many Union soldiers were on board. Few newspapers gave it more than a quick paragraph of mention, and not even on the front page.

The Riverboat Sultana more than just sank in the Mississippi River, it exploded first.

Its four steam boilers exploded violently in the dead of night, quickly engulfing the rest of the wooden boat in a wave of hungry flames. Survivors not killed instantly by the blast were faced with the terrible choice of burning to death or risk drowning in the dark, cold Mississippi. And these travelers were no ordinary passengers. The ship was filled far beyond its legal capacity with over 2,400 people. Most were former Union Prisoners of War who after 4 long years, wanted nothing more than to return home to their loved ones up north.

Sultana’s legal capacity was only 376 passengers and crew! Union officers squeezed 2,400 bodies into every square inch of the riveboat’s 4 decks. Worst still, these poor men had survived the worst POW camps in all the South, the infamous Andersonville and Cahaba Confederate prison camps. For the last two years of the war, these poor soldiers endured horrific conditions at the hands of the Confederates. They lived in rags, subsisting on scraps, wasting away of starvation, and dying of dreadful diseases like cholera and scurvy. Now, not only were the survivors rescued, they were going home back north.

Why on earth was the Sultana so overcrowded? It was due to a shady deal between the Sultana’s greedy Captain James Cass Mason and some equally greedy Union officers in Vicksburg including chief quartermaster Captain Reuben Hatch. The officers ignored other riverboats in favor of filling the Sultana. Captain Mason was also part owner of the riverboat. He would be paid $2.75 for each soldier and $8.00 for each officer, so do the math. The more soldiers he could transport, the richer he would get.

The newly released prisoners, weakened from disease and malnutrition, were all loaded and squeezed together on the riverboat like hogs in a slaughterhouse. But remarkably, they were still in good spirits! After all, the War was finally over and they were finally headed home. Even an overcrowded riverboat was better than a Confederate POW camp.

The only photo of the overloaded Sultana Riverboat, taken the 2 days before in Arkansas — **The only existing photo of the overloaded Sultana Riverboat, taken in Helena, Arkansas, April 1865**

The Riverboat Sultana left Vicksburg, Mississippi in late April 1865 and traveled north up the twisting, muddy river, already swollen with heavy Spring rains. The former POWs made the best of their cramped situation. A newspaper photographer in Helena, Arkansas managed to take the only photo of the ridiculously crowded decks when it docked there the next day.

Unfortunately, just prior to leaving Vicksburg, Captain Mason had one of the Sultana’s cracked boilers quickly and cheaply patched with just a small plate. Mason wanted nothing to interfere with his big pay-off of transporting thousands of troops back north. This amounted to a ticking time bomb under the poor soldiers’ feet. Two days later, April 27th, 1865, while the tired men slept, the Sultana‘s cracked boiler exploded at 2 o’clock in the morning at an isolated bend in the Mississippi River, just north of Memphis.

Only 600 of the 2,400 souls aboard managed to survive the hell that followed.

There were no modern lifeboats and few cork life preservers. There was no wireless telegraph to call for help. The boiler explosions blew apart the center of the riverboat. The blast killed hundreds instantly, and the hungry fire spread rapidly. Those that did not burn to death, jumped into the cold, dark river. The Mississippi was turned it into a frothing chaos of weak, drowning men grasping for debris.

**Four Union soldiers, victims of the Sultana Riverboat disaster**

The burning hulk of the Sultana slowly drifted downriver, finally sinking in an angry cloud of steam. It was 2 hours before a southbound riverboat came upon and rescued the floundering survivors floating in the river. Captain Mason died on board the Sultana. Shockingly, no Vicksburg officers, included Captain Hatch, who resigned to avoid court-martial, were ever held accountable for the terrible overcrowding.

Countless Americans have never heard of the Sultana Disaster. These poor men were all but forgotten in history. A few of their ancestors, members of the Sultana Descendants Association, faithfully meet in the Spring each year to keep the memory of their ancestors alive. A new Sultana Disaster Museum opened in nearby Marion, Arkansas in 2026. An excellent documentary of the tragedy, Remember the Sultana, was released in 2018, and is now available on Prime. The wreck of the Sultana was discovered in 1982 in an Arkansas soybean field, two miles from the current river.

Thanks to the nonfiction books by Jerry Potter and Gene Salecker, I thoroughly researched the Sultana disaster and wrote a historical novel, SULTANA AWAITS to do my part in making sure those brave men, who sacrificed so much, are never forgotten. It follows two young Indiana brothers who volunteer to fight for the Union army, and end up prisoners of war in Andersonville and Cahaba. Then at the close of the Civil War, they end up in Vicksburg, Mississippi and board the doomed riverboat Sultana.

Read the historical novel SULTANA AWAITS by Paul Andrews.

失落的历史

5 Reasons the 1889 Johnstown Flood Should Never Have Happened

Experience the Johnston Flood in the young adult historical novel SWEPT AWAY.

Depiction of the Johnstown Flood at the Stone Bridge — **Depiction of the Johnstown Flood and Fire at the Stone Bridge, 1889**

The Johnstown Flood of 1889 was more a man-made Tsunami than a flood by Mother Nature. Yes, there was flooding first, when a torrential storm arrived on Memorial Day 1889. The two rivers that flanked the steel mill town, the Stoney Creek and Little Conemaugh Rivers, swelled and flooded the riverfront. But this was normal for a river town. The residents thought nothing of rolling up their carpets and carrying them upstairs. It wasn’t until the aging dam burst upriver that the real, staggering tragedy and loss of life occurred.

The South Fork Dam was completed 37 years earlier in 1852. Lake Conemaugh sat for twenty-two years in an isolated, forested valley, 14 miles upriver from Johnstown. An investor named Benjamin Ruff later bought the lake. He turned it into a mountain retreat for the wealthy elite of Pittsburgh. The “SOUTH FORK FISHING & HUNTING CLUB” was born with millionaires like Henry Frick, Andrew Carnegie, and Andrew Mellon as its charter members. For ten years, it was THE summer retreat of choice for the millionaires of Pennsylvania and their families. When the lake was full, the pristine water stretched three miles long and over a mile across. A large clubhouse and numerous luxury cottage dotted the shoreline.

FIVE key mistakes were made with the South Fork Dam that doomed it to its fateful collapse.

**Sketch of Lake Conemaugh and the South Fork Club, 1889**

FIRST – Large cast iron pipes were originally built into a culvert at the base of the breast to control the level of the lake when needed. A prior owner removed them and sold the pipes for scrap metal! In an effort to avoid costly repairs, the new South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club did not replace them. Though the dam did have a spillway for overflow, this still left no means to ever drain the lake when badly needed repairs were necessary.

SECOND – The South Fork Club added a screen of cast iron bars across the spillway to prevent their precious bass and trout from escaping. Sport fishing was one of the draws for wealthy gentlemen, along with small game hunting along the shores. Unfortunately, it also caught all the branches and forest leaves that fell each season. There was no longer any way for them to simply float out. This decreased the spillway’s effectiveness in times of high rains.

THIRD – A minor break in the breast during the Civil War left the dam badly in need of repairs. The owners of the South Fork Club had only the exposed side of the breast repaired in 1881, since the lake could no longer be drained. They had their workers only patch it haphazardly with rocks, hemlock, mud, hay, and even cow manure! Plus they chose a gentleman from Pittsburgh with no engineering credentials to lead the repair.

This led, over the years, to a gradual sagging of the dam’s center!

By 1889, the middle of the breast had dipped by about two feet lower than either end.

FORTH – Around the same time, the South Fork Club owners actually had the entire breast of the dam lowered three feet to accommodate a wider carriage road across the top. You see, the owners wanted it wide enough for two carriages to be able to pass each other going either to or from the Clubhouse. This would be so as not make their wealthy guests have wait in line at either end of the dam. Heaven forbid there be such an inconvenience to their wealthy guests!

FIFTH and finally – the South Fork Club owners had two unqualified steel mill inspectors come to Lake Conemaugh and examine the dam a few years before the collapse. This was because local witnesses were increasingly alarmed the dam’s shoddy state. The ‘inspectors’ stated that “The South Fork Dam was perfectly safe to withstand all the pressure that can be brought to bear on it by the waters of Lake Conemaugh.” Well, history tells us how inaccurate those 2 men were.

That spring, the lake was already full from a heavy winter snow melt coming off the Allegheny Mountains. Heavy rains that weekend, from a mid-west ‘Storm of the Century,’ finally brought the waters up and over the breast. It was only a matter of time before disaster struck. Men feverishly tried to add more fill to the top of the dam, but it was a wasted effort. The aged dam finally burst on Memorial Day, 1889, releasing 20 million tons of water in a matter of minutes. John Parke, the Hunting Club’s young engineer galloped his horse to the nearby village of South Fork to warn the residents.

At 4:00 pm on May 31st ,1889, a tsunami of lake water 35 FEET HIGH travelling 45 MPH rushed down the narrow South Fork River valley like a runaway train. It collected miles of deadly debris along the way, wiping away a stone railroad trestle and four smaller villages. Just before Johnstown, it took away a large rail yard and even a barbed wire steel mill in Woodvale. Then the wall of water finally slammed brutally into the city and its unsuspecting citizens, loaded with debris.

The poor souls had no warning other than an unearthly roar coming from up the river valley.

The wave hit Johnstown hard. It destroyed hundreds of homes, killing thousands of residents, and wiped entire city blocks off the map. Those who didn’t die instantly, drowned in the rising floodwaters, laced with the remains of the bridge, steel mill and railyard. A mountain of wreckage jammed like a second dam at the thick arches of the Stone Bridge over the Conemaugh River just outside of town. The wooden debris eventually caught fire due to numerous gas leaks. Whirlpools formed due to the steep mountainsides surrounding the city. Johnstown became in essence a second, swirling Lake Conemaugh.

Some of the destruction following the Johnstown Flood of 1889

By the time waters drained and the sun rose the next morning, the dazed survivors discovered a mangled city covered in mud, debris and corpses. Over 2,200 souls lost their lives, including 400 children and 100 complete families. Clara Barton and the newly formed Red Cross rushed in by train to help the hungry, homeless survivors. Reporters swarmed to the scene. The entire nation was in shock over the sheer cope of the disaster. Bodies were found downriver as far as Cincinnati, Ohio. A haunting poem by Isaac Reed sums it up.

Many thousand human lives-
Butchered husbands, slaughtered wives
Mangled daughters, bleeding sons,
Hosts of martyred little ones,
Worse than Herod’s awful crime
Sent to heaven before their time;
Lovers burnt and sweethearts drowned,
Darlings lost but never found!
All the horrors that hell could wish,
Such was the price that was paid for fish

And what of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club and its wealthy Pittsburgh owners? Surely their part in the failed dam and the Johnstown Flood led to them paying a heavy price. Well, think again. Thanks to some high-priced Pittsburgh lawyers, Benjamin Ruff and his wealthy investors were never held accountable. Not for the deaths, or damages, by what was legally deemed by judges in the courts “An Act of God.” Pennsylvanian citizens considered them Robber Barons who had gotten away with murder.

The remains of the South Fork Dam still exist today. The flanking sides of the old breast are a carefully preserved Johnstown Flood National Memorial managed by the U.S. Parks Service. Railroad tracks next to the quiet South Fork River now run through the quiet valley that once held the Lake Conemaugh. If you are ever in the Pittsburgh area, take time to visit both the memorial and the rebuilt, modern city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Johnstown Flood Museum preserves the memory of the victims, so that we might never forget the consequences of man’s folly.

Experience the Johnston Flood in the young adult historical novel SWEPT AWAY.

Lost in History

Was the Great Chicago Fire Started by a Cow?

Experience the Great Chicago Fire in the historical novel FIREBRANDS

Chicagoans flee THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE of 1871 — **Chicagoans flee the GREAT CHICAGO FIRE of 1871**

It is true the infamous Great Chicago Fire started in the barn of Catherine O’Leary on Sunday night, October 8^th, 1871. They lived in a small lot at 137 DeKoven Street on Chicago’s West Side. But poor Kate O’Leary was not milking a cow at the time, as was later popularized by the relentless press. They were looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame. She and her husband were instead fast asleep in their bedroom after a long day of work. They were morning laborers, up at the crack of dawn to milk their 5 cows and make deliveries to their neighbors. By 8:30 PM, after feeding both their barn animals and their 5 children, they were legitimately exhausted.

Some also blamed Daniel “Peg Leg” Sullivan for starting the blaze. He was the first person to shout “FIRE! FIRE!” in the dark streets that fateful night. But no, Daniel was simply strolling by the O’Leary place. He was listening to fiddle music drifting from a neighbor’s house, who were hosting a party. He noticed the first lick of flames shooting out of the O’Leary’s barn roof. The loft was packed with 3 tons of hay for the winter and went up like a bone-dry tinder box. Peg Leg Sullivan in fact risked his life to free the O’Leary’s terrified animals. A shed next door unfortunately held 2 tons of coal, also stockpiled by a neighbor for the winter. That quickly ignited next.

Once the barn and shed began to burn, there would be no controlling the blaze.

Across Chicago, a fierce, gusting prairie wind blew from the southwest all night long. In between the tightly packed wooden houses were lines of wooden fences and wooden sidewalks. By the time Patrick and Kate O’Leary emerged sleepily from their home, two of their neighbors’ houses were already ablaze. Chicago had been experiencing a terribly hot drought that autumn. The winds would eagerly thrust the fire from house to house … and then street to street, throughout the long night. Desperate neighbors would first try bucket brigades, but it would be all for naught.

Due to fire signal confusion by the Chicago Fire Department that Sunday night, the first Firehouse Steamers would not arrive at the West Side street for OVER AN HOUR! Even when a dozen steamers arrived, entire city blocks were now on fire. It was too late to contain it just to the rural West Side. You see back in the 1800’s, nearly every structure, including those sidewalks, was made of wood, not brick or stone.

**The 1871 Great Chicago Fire reaches Lake Michigan**

The winds freely tossed huge firebrands the size of livestock clear across the dark Chicago River to the South Side. There, huge warehouses and the large business district waited. The wind-fed inferno charged along, consuming dozens of factories and lumber yards. Then it swept into city center, burning luxury hotels, banks, department stores, and even the Opera House and the cupola’d City Hall. At 1:30 AM, prisoners were let out of the jail to save their lives.

Tall grain silos lining the edge of Lake Michigan burnt like monstrous Roman candles. Panicked residents crowded onto bridges across the Chicago River trying to escape. Everywhere, buildings collapsed into heaps of burning rubble. City officials convinced the Fire Marshal to make a feeble attempt at a fire break by dynamiting a few South Side buildings. Unfortunately, it had little effect. Only the waters of Lake Michigan halted its ravenous eastward march.

Within hours, the fire jumped the river again to the heavily populated North Side residential area. The Fire Brigades, with their tiny steamer engines, were not equipped to handle such a massive conflagration. Dozens of city blocks, filled with ornate mansions, homes, schools and church steeples all went up in flames. All Chicagoans could do was run and watch in horror. They dashed away in panic, ahead of the advancing front of flames. Even ships docked in the Chicago River and the wooden bridges that crossed it, eventually caught fire and were consumed. In the middle of the night, dazed refugees huddled in Lincoln Park, or waded into the cold waters of Lake Michigan, praying to God for deliverance.

The Great Chicago Fire burned to Lake Michigan. An early morning rain finally extinguished the hungry monster.

What was left of the city resembled Hiroshima after the atomic blast. Over 300 souls perished and 2,000 acres were consumed in the mighty blaze. Thousands of survivors were left homeless. The entire nation was shocked that one of their largest cities could literally go up in smoke. The city would be rebuilt, of course, this time in brick and stone.

In the weeks to come, Irish immigrant Kate O’Leary and her famous cow, were merely made unfortunate scapegoats. The papers went so far as to publish a now infamous sketch of her milking a cow that kicks a lantern into the straw. They drew her as an old, witch-like hag when in fact she was only thirty-five, with five young children to take care of. She and her family eventually had to flee the city due to numerous death threats.

**Destruction following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871**

So who Really started the famous fire that consumed a bustling American city? Historians today believe that it was not Catherine O’Leary or Peg Leg Sullivan. The most likely, though never proven culprit, was one of the O’Leary’s neighbors, the McLaughlins, from that rowdy party next door. If you had no cow, it was common to steal free milk from your neighbor’s barn under the cover of night. The drunken thief from the party likely had a candle that tipped over and fell into the hay. It starting the barn’s brittle, dry straw to blaze, and the shocked robber fled into the night.

After that, the rest is history. It would indeed be a “Hot Time in the Ole Town Tonight!“

Experience the Great Chicago Fire in the historical novel, FIREBRANDS

Lost in History

Source: https://greatchicagofire.org/

The Lusitania Sank in Just 18 Minutes, Beating Titanic!

RMS Lusitania sinking off the Irish coast, 1915

The ocean liner Lusitania was struck by a German torpedo in 1915 and sunk within sight of the Irish coast in just 18 Minutes! Compare that to the rather luxurious sinking of the Titanic three years earlier in 1912 that lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. We have all seen the popular movie, so just imagine our protagonists Rose and Jack having just 18 minutes to escape the sinking ship.

In 1915, World War I was not even a year old in Europe. In response to Great Britain’s naval blockade, Germany announced that it would begin ‘UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE.’ In other words, U-boats would torpedo ANY ship in the Atlantic war zone. Brits and Americans boarding the Lusitania in New York City saw advertisements in city newspapers, posted by the German embassy, warning them of that risk:

Vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her Allies, are liable to destruction in the war zone, and travelers sailing on such ships DO SO AT THEIR OWN RISK!
German Embassy newspaper advertisement

Passengers ignored the warning since surely Germany would not target a civilian ocean liner. Also, they were told by the Cunard line that, with a top speed of 21 knots, far faster than any submarine, the Lusitania could easily outrun any German U-boat. Dubbed the “Greyhound of the Seas,” she had won the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing.

With 1,257 passengers and 702 crew aboard, the RMS Lusitania left New York City harbor on 1 May 1915 bound for Liverpool, England. Unknown to her passengers, she also carried a large, secret cargo of munitions and contraband destined for the British war effort.

Tensions finally grew onboard Lusitania once the Atlantic crossing neared its end and they entered British waters on 7 May 1915. They had good reason to be worried. German submarines had already sunk 2 steamers off the coast of Ireland that week. Nevertheless, the British Admiralty never sent a destroyer to escort Lusitania! Instead, they instructed Captain William Turner to avoid the Irish coast at top speed and in a zigzag pattern, making it difficult for a U-boat to score a torpedo hit.

But with visibility obscured by thick coastal fog and wanting to save coal, Captain Turner reduced speed to only 15 knots. He sailed Lusitania in a straight line, just 11 miles off the south Irish coast, within sight of Old Head Lighthouse. Turner was ignoring every one of the Admiralty’s directives. Whether or not the Captain’s decision was justified, it doomed his ship, passengers and crew.

Lurking beneath the Irish waters was U-20, led by Kapitänleutnant Walter Schwieger.

U-20 had already sank a few smaller vessels and now, at 2 o’clock in the early afternoon, he spotted a four stack ocean liner through his periscope. What a prize for the Kaiser! he thought. Knowing full well it contained hundreds of civilians, at 2:09 pm in the afternoon, Schwieger gave the command to load and fire a single torpedo at the ship. He then watched anxiously through his periscope.

View of the Lusitania from German U-Boat U-20 periscope

At 2:10 p.m., Lusitania’s lookouts spotted a torpedo streaking rapidly towards them, a white, frothy line in its wake. “Torpedo off the starboard bow!” they told the bridge. By that time, it was too late for the large ship to avoid. The captain barked out orders “Hard to Starboard!” The German torpedo struck the Lusitania on the starboard side between mid-ship and the bow.

The detonation sent a low rumble through the ship. Passengers reacted with mild concern. After all, it could just be trouble with the ship’s large steam engine. They continued their reading or conversations. 30 seconds later however, a 2nd, much large explosion erupted from deep within the vessel’s belly, sending out clouds of black smoke. The Lusitania immediately began a tilt to starboard.

It was not a 2nd torpedo, however. Captain Schwieger always maintained that he fired only one. The source of the 2^nd explosion is Lusitania’s greatest mystery. What had caused it? The bridge crew discovered the Lusitania no longer responded to the ship’s wheel. The captain ordered an immediate wireless SOS sent out and to reverse all engines. When the engine room could not comply to his orders, he knew they were finished. The ship‘s tilt to starboard continued to worsen. He immediately ordered all passengers to life boats.

At 2:14 PM, electricity failed and the interior of the ship plunged into darkness.

Unlike the Titanic, the Lusitania had enough lifeboats for all. However, with the decks tilting wildly, a manic chaos set in, with passengers racing to find life jackets and then life boats. One survivor described it as a swarm of mad bees without the queen. Parents were separated from children in the rush of bodies. The electric lifts stopped working, trapping people between decks! Water began rapidly flooding the lower decks faster than people could escape them. The hallways and staircases became jammed with humanity.

Within 5 minutes, the Lusitania’s list was already 15 degrees to starboard, then 20, then 25! by 2:25 pm. Crewmembers attempted to launch the lifeboats, but the tilt of the sinking ship made this near impossible. On the port side, many boats swung back over the deck rather than the sea. Those that were released over the railing splintered against the riveted hull on their way down, or capsized completely on the way down, killing all those inside.

Things were no better on the starboard side. Those lifeboats that were released, swung out far away from the railing, too far for people to board. Those that reached the water overturned or went in nose first because of the sinking bow. Some flipped over, either in the air, or when they hit the water, dumping screaming passengers into the frigid Irish sea.

When it became apparent the lifeboats were failing, passengers jumped into the ocean.

On the starboard side, they began sliding down the steep decks into the churning water. Once in the sea, they fought to hold onto any piece of floating wreckage they could find. Most never had a chance. The ship’s massive propellers at the stern rose out of the water as the pointed bow sank beneath the sea. Once the bow went under, the sinking accelerated. Further explosions blew below decks as cold seawater hit the red-hot boilers.

On submarine U-20, Captain Schwieger watched through his periscope and noted the result in his log, “The ship stops immediately and heals over to starboard quickly, immersing at the bow. Great confusion is rife on board; the boats are made ready and some lowered into the water. In connection therewith, great panic reigns; some boats, full to capacity are rushed from above, touch the water with either stem or stern first and founder immediately.”

Onboard the Lusitania, Captain Turner ordered his men to abandon ship as well and remained on the bridge until it too was submerged beneath him. He was somehow washed clear of the bow as the ship sank. He survived after spending 3 hours in the cold water, atop a deck chair. He was pulled from the sea unconscious.

At 2:28 PM, within 18 minutes the giant ship slipped beneath the sea.

It left a bubbling, swirling, frothy whirlpool in its wake. 1,198 of the 1,924 aboard died, including 128 Americans, 59 children and 35 infants. Lusitania sank in a mere 90 meters (300 feet) of water. Kapitänleutnant Schwieger lowered his periscope and ordered his submarine back out to sea. He was lauded as a war hero in Germany, and later died in 1917 when his U-boat hit a mine off the British coast.

Rescue ships were dispatched from the Irish port of Queenstown and arrived within 2 hours. They managed to pick up only 761 survivors. Some were in such a state of shock their hair began to turn grey and fall out. Local authorities set up makeshift morgues to handle the hundreds of floating corpses being collected on the sea. Mass burials were made onshore in the days to come.

The killing of U.S. citizens enraged Americans. President Woodrow Wilson protested loudly, and public opinion in the U.S. began to turn against Germany. It would still be another 2 years however, 1917, before the U.S. finally joined the Allies in the trenches of France. At a Board of Trade Inquiry, Captain Turner, the Cunard Company, and the Royal Navy were all absolved of any negligence. All blame was placed on the German government.

So what had caused the mysterious 2nd explosion?

Lusitania had been carrying 173 tons of ammunition. The Germans maintained this made her a legitimate target and caused the 2^nd explosion. The British continued to deny it. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic, explored the Lusitania in 1993, hoping to finally solve the mystery. The sad wreck lies in just 295 feet of water on her starboard side, obscuring the area where the torpedo hit.

Wreck of the RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

Conspiracy theorists claim the Brits deliberately sank the ship to hasten America’s entry into the war. Ballard found no evidence of this. Nor was there any evidence of an explosion in the hold where munitions were stowed. No boiler room explosion was reported by the surviving crew at the time the torpedo hit. Ballard concluded the torpedo ripped open a coal bunker, causing the huge 2nd explosion. The blast ripped open a much larger hole and doomed the ship to its rapid death.

So ended the life of the once proud Lusitania, grand rival of the Titanic in both size, luxury ,and tragedy. It sits today on the bottom of the murky cold Irish Sea, within tantalizing sight of the coast of Ireland.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。

Lost in History

The Tragic Fate of the SS St. Louis Jewish Refugees

FOR THE AUDIO VERSION 点击此处

SS St. Louis in Havana Harbor, Cuba, 1939 unable to disembark. — **SS St. Louis in Havana Harbor, Cuba, 1939, unable to disembark passengers.**

In May 1939, just before World War II began, 937 anxious Jewish refugees fled Nazi Germany aboard an ocean liner named the SS St. Louis. Most were German citizens, though a few were from other countries like Poland and Austria. The passengers planned to reach Cuba first, then ultimately travel to and seek asylum in the United States.

Ever since Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) in 1938, the Nazi’s had begun burning synagogues and confiscating Jewish property.

Adolf Hitler had launched an intense propaganda campaign against German Jews. By 1939, Hitler and the Nazis had already annexed Austria and planned to close the German borders in advance of invading Poland. Many countries around the world, including the U.S., began imposing quotas, limiting the number of Jewish refugees they would allow in. Havana, Cuba was still open and seen as a safe, temporary port, until trying for the U.S.

At the Hamburg docks, tearful relatives waved to their loved ones aboard decks of the St. Louis. Given Hitler’s escalating anti-Jewish campaign, they didn’t know when or IF they might see each other again. Those on the ship knew they were the lucky ones, managing to get out in time. The fate of their Jewish family and friends left behind was uncertain. Still unknown to the world, the Jewish Holocaust had begun.

For many passengers, the anxiety they felt in Germany soon faded as the St Louis left port and began a quiet 2 week voyage across the calm Atlantic Ocean. On board was a swimming pool, dance band in the evenings, and even a motion picture theater. There were regular meals with rich foods the passengers rarely ate given the pre-war rationing in Germany.

Under Captain Gustav Schroder, the German crew was ordered to treat the passengers with respect, a sharp contrast to the open hatred Jews received in their hometowns under Hitler. Children were told by relieved parents that they were finally safe and the Nazis would not be coming to get them. They were going far away and didn’t have to look over their shoulders ever again.

When the ocean liner reached Havana two weeks later in May, that sense of relief soon evaporated, replaced by fear and a growing dread. Passengers were up on deck, their suitcases packed and ready to disembark, when Cuban officials came aboard to speak to the officers … and nothing happened!

It quickly became clear the ship was not going to be allowed to dock and no-one would be allowed off.

They kept hearing the words “Manana, Manana” from the Cuban officials. For 7 nerve-wracking days, Captain Schroder tried in vain to persuade the Cuban authorities to allow his Jewish passengers to disembark. The Cuban officials declined their visas out of fear of being seen as a sanctuary and then inundated with even more Jewish refugees. Only 28 passengers with valid US visas were allowed to disembark.

SS St. Louis in Havana Harbor with children aboard, May 1939

Even before the ship sailed, Cuban newspapers demanded their government stop admitting Jews. The Cuban President had issued a decree a week before the ship left Germany that invalidated all landing certificates. Like the US, Cuba still suffered from the Great Depression. Many resented the refugees already admitted, as they competed for scarce Cuban jobs. The owners of the St. Louis knew before the ship sailed that its paying passengers might have trouble disembarking, but told none of them.

The plight of the SS St. Louis attracted a great deal of media attention around the globe. After Cuba denied entry to the refugees, the press in Europe and the US broke the story to millions around the world. Though US newspapers were sympathetic to the refugees’ plight, only a few editors suggested the US actually admit them. Hostility toward all immigrants had fueled xenophobia and isolationism in the US as well.

After 5 days, Captain Schroder had no choice but to leave Havana and sail to Florida.

Unfortunately, when they got there, US authorities also refused to allow it to dock. Sailing so close to Florida they could see the night lights of Miami, passengers telegraphed the President himself, pleading for refuge. Roosevelt never responded directly. The State Department sent a telegram to the ship stating that passengers must wait their turns, and qualify for visas before they could be admitted.

SS St.. Louis Captain Gustav Schroder — **SS St. Louis Captain Gustav Schroder**

After decades of Ellis Island freely admitting any immigrant, quotas established in the 1920’s strictly limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted each year. In 1939, due to the unrest caused by Hitler and the Nazis, the annual German immigration quota was quickly filled, with a long waiting list of several years.

U.S. public opinion, though critical of Hitler and sympathetic to the refugees, favored the immigration restrictions. Like Cuba, the Great Depression left millions without work and fearful of foreign competition for scarce jobs. President Franklin D Roosevelt could have issued an Executive Order to allow the St. Louis to dock, but public hostility to immigrants and a forthcoming election were among his considerations. One final request to land in Halifax, Nova Scotia was also denied by the Canadian Prime Minister.

By June, Captain Schroder had no option but to turn the ocean liner back to Europe.

The joy the Jewish passengers had felt in May was replaced by utter desperation. What was to happen to them now? No-one dared speak about what vengeance the Nazis would inflict upon them once they returned to Germany. People were openly weeping as they wandered the ship’s decks – one passenger even committed suicide by slitting his wrists and jumping overboard.

As it turned out, the Jews did not have to return to Nazi Germany. Instead, much to the relief of the passengers, 4 European countries agreed to split up the refugees. In June, the SS St. Louis docked at Antwerp, Belgium, over a month after it left Germany. Four governments agreed to secure visas for the passengers: Great Britain took 288; the Netherlands 181, Belgium 214 and France 224.

Of the 288 passengers admitted to the UK, all survived World War II unharmed. Of the 620 passengers who returned to the continent, 532 were trapped when the German military stormed through Western Europe in 1939, overthrowing their host nations Belgium, Holland, and ultimately France. Nearly all were captured and sent east to the Nazi Death Camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor. 278 managed to survive the deadly Holocaust … but 254 sadly did not.

The journey of the SS St. Louis and its ill-fated passengers was the subject of a 1974 nonfiction best seller, Voyage of the Damned. Then a subsequent 1976 award winning film on which it was based was made, Voyage of the Damned, starring Max von Sydow as the frustrated and helpless Captain Schroeder.

In 1993, Gustav Schröder was posthumously named as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。

Lost in History

10 Theories about the Never-Aging Count Saint Germain

Click here for an Audio Podcast

Who exactly was le Comte de Saint-Germain, this never-aging man of mystery who left us so few clues behind? We know he was an 18th century Alchemist, Composer, Diplomat, Raconteur, and Spy. He was handsome and wealthy, impressing gentlemen AND turning the heads of ladies. But how could he hobnob about all the European capitals throughout the 1700’s and Never appear to age? Count Saint Germain looked the same in London in 1743 as he did in St. Petersburg in 1762 as he did Paris in 1789. Was he a clever Charlatan, a skilled Alchemist, or perhaps … something more? The answer lies in which theory and which source you choose to trust.

He used a French title, but freely admitted he was not French, and never revealed his true identity. To confuse matters more, the Count employed other aliases throughout the 18th century to remain incognito. This should not cast undo suspicion upon him. Many aristocrats traveled under assumed names to avoid unwanted attention – whether to hide affairs of the state, or of the heart.

Add to that, the Count was comfortably wealthy, though no one could even figure out from where it came. He was handsome and charming, and moved about the courts of Europe with ease. He associated with the likes of Voltaire, Handel, Madame de Pompadour, and Russia’s Catherine the Great.

So let us review the 10 best Count Saint Germain theories – the Wild, the Wonderful … and the Weird:

1 – WANDERING JEW – Some believe him to be Cartaphilus, the legendary Wandering Jew. Cartaphilus was a Roman guard of the High Priest Caiaphas in Jerusalem in the year 33 AD. He slapped and mocked Jesus of Nazareth on the way to his crucifixion at Golgatha on Good Friday. The soldier was therefore cursed by the heavens to never die and walk the earth alone till the end of days, and Jesus’ second coming.

2 – MERLIN – Others think he was no less than Merlin Ambrosius, King Arthur’s wise and legendary Merlin the Magician, the world’s most famous wizard. He continued to dabble in magic, alchemy and intrigue centuries after the Knights of the Round Table. Only this time, spying for the likes of French King Louis XV in Paris at the Palace of Versailles, rather than a British monarch at England’s ancient court of Camelot.

3 – NICOLAS FLAMEL – Still others guess he was alchemist and alleged immortal Nicolas Flamel. The 14th century French scribe and bookseller supposedly discovered the Elixir of Eternal Youth at Santiago de Compostelo and lived for centuries. Flamel was of course later made even more famous in the J. K. Rowling bestseller and Warner Brothers movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

4 – FRANCIS BACON – Perhaps you prefer all the above! The reincarnation of all the above famous mystics in succession, including the 17th century’s Sir Francis Bacon, the famous statesman and scientist. He would thereby retain all the ancient secrets and knowledge from each of his previous lives. If that is the case, if he is still alive, who would the Count be today – a scientist, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist?

5 – ASCENDED MASTER – Maybe he is an immortal “Ascended Master,” chief architect of the Egyptian pharaohs’ pyramids, after living a hundred lives. He now exists on in another psychic plane as … the ‘Violet Flame.’ It is a belief still shared today by thousands of members of the international Theosophical Society. Not to mention the followers of the I AM Activity, the Summit Lighthouse, and the Church Universal and Triumphant. Don’t believe me? Just Google ‘violet flame.’

6 – ATLANTIS SURVIVOR – How about the last survivor of Plato’s Atlantis from 9,600 B.C., gifted by Zeus and the Gods on Mount Olympus with immortality? Why? So he could be saved from whatever disaster it was that finally tore apart Atlantis and plunged the city beneath the sea. He could then forever retain and be the keeper of all the ancient knowledge, science and culture of that famous, fallen empire of legend.

7 – WATCHER – Perhaps he is one of the Fallen Angels or Watchers, as from the Hebrew Book of Enoch. The Watchers were angels who succumbed to human sins. Cursed from Heaven by God himself – not to the fires of Hell – but rather to walk the Earth. They were doomed to wander the planet, still with angelic powers, spreading mischief amongst the all too willing humans, until the very end of time.

8- TIME TRAVELER – Maybe he was a Time Traveler from the not too distant future – subtly influencing past events, but only from the shadows and the sidelines. This would explain his encyclopedia knowledge of historical events and his ability to recount them at a moments notice. Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, and the popular Starz program of the same name, used the Count as the protagonist in book & season 2.

9 – ANCIENT ALIEN – For you Science Fiction fans out there, how about a lone Alien from a distant galaxy, crashed and stranded on our primitive planet centuries ago? Who, with his non-human longevity, quietly observes the earth’s chaos over the centuries. And occasionally steps in to help the hapless human race through its many wars, missteps, and mishaps. A pattern that continues today. Does the Count continue to help us?

10 – IMMORTAL VAMPIRE – Or, perhaps not surprisingly, a handsome, immortal Vampyre, bitten centuries ago and cursed to live forever, taking beautiful lovers in each continent and century. Here he is said to have haunted the streets of Paris, France and New Orleans’ French Quarter. The series of 27 novels written by Chelsea Quinn Yabro exploits this idea quite skillfully in over a two dozen very enjoyable stories.

BONUS POPULAR THEORY: Lastly, was he simply a mortal man? Historians believe he was the last son of exiled Hungarian Freedom Fighter, Prince Ferenc Rakoczi II? He is said to have admitted this once, and taken on aliases to elude the Hapsburg Emperors of Austria. If so, he would have been born around the year 1700. Then, with a lucky & youthful appearance that lasted for decades (long before the advent of Botox) he appeared to never age. It would explain his wealth and ability to move about the royal courts of Europe with ease.

Count Saint-Germain never married nor had any children, that we know of. He is supposed to have finally died of pneumonia in a Schleswig-Holstein castle in 1784. He died alone, as his patron at the time, Karl von Hesse-Kassel, was not present to witness it. At what age he passed, we do not know for sure. BUT, he was reportedly seen the very next year at a German Freemason Convention. Then seen again in Paris during the French Revolution of 1789! He supposedly tried to desperately warn Queen Marie Antoinette of her and her husband Louis XVI impending doom.

Looking for a purely scientific explanation? Today, modern science has thoroughly mapped the human genome and begun to unravel the genetic secrets of aging. We now understand that the ends of our chromosomes degrade over time and our cells lose their vitality with each replication. As the years pass, our skin sags, our brain fails us, our muscles grow weak, our bones more fragile. We as a society are certainly no less obsessed with staying young than Marie Antoinette and the French court was over 250 years ago. Perhaps the Count had a simple evolutionary gene alteration (my favorite theory) that somehow increased his longevity?

Whatever the case, factual or fantastical, Count Saint Germain was a real-life Count of Monte Cristo, living a life of secrets, mystery and intrigue. Or if you prefer, a real life Dr. Who, with a lifespan far beyond that of normal men. Is he still alive today? Who is to say? The Count remains to this day, a curious and puzzling enigma – a Man of Mystery, always worthy of further exploration. Check out the historical novels below for more.

The Man Who Would Not Die – Count Saint Germain novel (Book 1)

Count Saint Germain – Count of Saint Germain novel (Book 2)

失落的历史