The SS St. Nicholas was a Mississippi River steamboat that suffered a catastrophic boiler explosion on April 24, 1859, near Island 60 [1] or St. Francis Island. [2] The death toll was believed to be between 45 [3] and 75. [4]
In January 1859, a sidewheeler steamboat called St. Nicholas may have transported captives from the Wanderer (illegal slave ship) from Montgomery down the Alabama River. [5]