Wiki - Steamboats

The power of steam energy brought with it risks. So the steamboats that transformed industrial-age travel, were also inherently dangerous. The tragic stories of the Sultana (1,164), the Henry Clay (50-80) and the General Slocum (1,021 lost) each capture different dimensions of their times. The Henry Clay took Andrew Jackson Downing from us. The General Slocum tragedy is mentioned in both James Joyce's Ulysses and a recent Dean Koontz novel. At least eight different cities have erected monuments to the Sultana.