Surviving Savannah presents a fictionalized version of the Pulaski disaster. On the morning of June 13, 1838, the steam packet Pulaski set sail from Savannah heading to Baltimore. The ship was advertised as having only one night at sea in its itinerary, providing a faster and safer journey than previous steamships. However, at night an untrained engineer poured cold water into the ship’s boiler, leading to an explosion that killed 128 people, leaving 59 survivors. The disaster’s effects were felt across the South, especially in Georgia. Many of the people aboard the ship were from upper-class Savannah families that had a major influence on the economy and community.

While many of the characters are fictitious, Lamar and Charles Longstreet are based on real people: Gazaway Bugg Lamar and his son Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar. The other characters’ stories are speculative, based on the facts of who was on the ship and the disaster itself. Callahan shows how Charles Lamar (as “Charles Longstreet”) turned into the Red Devil. Charles Lamar was infamous for repurposing a luxury yacht in 1858 to traffic over 400 Africans to the US, forcing them into slavery, 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed by Congress.