The Ghost Ship of the Eliza Battle, Alabama

OCTOBER 29 2021- The death toll is never the same. Some say 30, some as many as 90. As with many historical occurrences, we many never know exactly how many people lost their lives the night the Elize Battle steamboat went down in March 1858. But most agree her sinking was "one of the greatest calamities," in Alabama History, according to author Rufus Ward in his 2010 book, "The Tombigee River Steamboats."  

"The event horrified people everywhere and received extensive newspaper coverage from New York to New Zealand. However, as with any story told and retold for 150 years, fact and fiction have merged," Ward wrote. 

The scale of the tragedy has resulted in numerous legends about the ship, which is often listed as a "ghost ship" alongside the Mary Celeste and Flying Dutchman. 

The Eliza Battle, a side-wheel paddle steamer, launched in 1852 and began a route carrying people and cargo between Columbus, Miss., and Mobile, Ala., Ward wrote. On her last trip to Mobile, The Eliza Battle was carrying 60 passengers, 45 crewmen and a load of cotton bales. An article published on March 4, 1858, in the New York Times says a fire was spotted by the crew at about 2 a.m. The cause was unknown. 

"The fire had its origins among the cotton bales on the afterdeck under the cabin," the New York Times reported. The newspaper account explained that Captain S. Graham Stone attempted to steer the boat to shore but visibility was poor in the dark night and some of the landing ropes had burned, Ward said.

The raging fire also made it impossible for passengers and crew to reach the lifeboat, so many of them jumped into the frigid waters in their nightclothes. 

Local residents hopped into boats and set out to rescue those in the water, as did the Magnolia, which responded to the disaster. 

Eventually, the Eliza Battle stopped about 32 miles downriver from Demopolis, near what is now at Albama Highway 114 close to Pennington. The ship sank near the river bridge and its hull remains there to this day, according to Ward. 

Ward quoted survivor Charles McKay in his book: "And when morning at last dawned upon their sufferings, it was found by the sad survivors, on counting their numbers, that twenty-eight were missing, and had only escaped the fearful but quick death of fire to perish by the still more feared, because more lingering, death of cold." 

From the remains of the Eliza battle's wreckage deep beneath the waters of the Tombigbee, legends grew. On legend reported in a 1942 article by the Birmingham News claims that 30 years after the tragedy, a man on his death bed in New York confessed that he and a friend set the fire aboard the Eliza Battle, although his account was never proven. Another said there were professional gamblers aboard who started the fire as revenge when they were caught in illegal activities by the captain.

The most prominent tale was recounted by author Kathryn Tucker Windham in her book; "Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey." In her telling, the Eliza Battle can still be spotted on dark nights, floating along the Tombigbee, engulfed in phantom flames. Sometimes, music can be heard drifting across the river. The presence of the ship, she writes, is a bad omen that purports to foretell impending doom. 

Article Source: www.al.com/life/2021/10/the-ghost-ship-of-the-eliza-battle.html

Author: Kelly Kazek