MISSISSIPPI RIVER TOUR AS A FAMOUS AUTHOR
April - May 1882 |
In April and May 1882 Clemens revisited the Mississippi River
to gather information, facts and thoughts for a book that would be titled
Life on the Mississippi. Clemens wrote:
After twenty-one years' absence, I felt a very strong desire
to see the river again, and the steamboats, and such of the boys as might
be left; so I resolved to go out there. I enlisted a poet for company, and
a stenographer to 'take him down,' and started westward about the middle of
April.
- Life on the Mississippi
Clemens was recognized on some of the boats on which he traveled
and some of their pilot's offered him a turn at the wheel. The boats Clemens
traveled on are described below. Also see:
During his tour around the world in 1895, Clemens delivered
at least one speech in Australia recalling his 1882 tour. (See
the text of the Yorick Club speech available at this site.)
Steamboat: GOLD DUST
Built: 1877
Clemens as passenger: 20 - 25 April 1882
Pilot: Lem Gray
Captain: John T. McCord
Second Mate: "Dad" Dunham
Fate: lost in explosion at Hickman, KY on 7 August 1882 with loss of
17 lives.
Clemens wrote about the explosion and loss of the GOLD DUST in
Chapter
37 of Life on the Mississippi
According to Clemens, Pilot Lem Gray died of his injuries.
Clemens' comments: I take a trick at the wheel occasionally,
& find the mechanical work of steering a steamboat as familiar as if I
had never ceased from it.
- Letter to Olivia Clemens, 22 April 1882 reprinted in The Love Letters
of Mark Twain
When we got down below Cairo, and there was a big, full river--for
it was high-water season and there was no danger of the boat hitting anything
so long as she kept in the river--I had her most of the time on his [Lem Gray's]
watch. He would lie down and sleep, and leave me there to dream that the years
had not slipped away; that there had been no war, no mining days, no literary
adventures; that I was still a pilot, happy and care-free as I had been twenty
years before.
- quote in Mark Twain, A Biography, Albert B. Paine
Steamboat: CHARLES MORGAN
Built: 1873
Clemens as passenger: 26 - 28 April 1882
Fate: burned while laid up at the foot of Niagara Street in Cincinnati
4 December 1886
Photo courtesy of Ralph DuPae, Murphy
Library
Steamboat: CITY OF BATON ROUGE
Built: 1881
Tonnage:
Clemens as passenger: 6 - 12 May 1882
Pilot: Horace Bixby
Fate: 12 December 1890 snagged and sunk at Hermitage, Louisiana
photo from the Dave Thomson collection
Clemens' comments: May 8--Got up at 4 A.M. in a roasting-room--some
idiot had closed the transoms & I was over the boilers--& went on
watch. Fog--Geo. Ritchie steered the watch out by compass, using his &
Bixby's patented chart for the crossings & occasionally blowing the whistle.
The chart is a great thing--many pilots use it, now.
- Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, Vol. II, 1877-1883
On this leg of the trip Clemens spotted another steamboat which
bore his name, the Mark Twain. Recalling the incident, he wrote:
Far along in the day we saw one steamboat; just one, and no
more. She was lying at rest in the shade, within the wooded mouth of the Obion
River. The spy-glass revealed the fact that she was named for me - or he was
named for me, whichever you prefer. As this was the first time I had ever
encountered this species of honor, it seems excusable to mention it, and at
the same time call the attention of the authorities to the tardiness of my
recognition of it.
- Life on the Mississippi
Bill of lading
from steamer MARK TWAIN from the Kevin
Mac Donnell collection.
According to Mac Donnell, the MARK TWAIN was
a 70 ton wooden hull sternwheel packet ship first put in service in 1872 at
Jeffersonville, Indiana. From 1877 to 1882, the boat operated out of Memphis
under Captain W. P. Hall whose name appears in this masthead.
Steamboat: GEM CITY
Built: 1881
Clemens as passenger: 13- 14 May 1882
Fate: burned at the foot of Barton Street, St. Louis 22 September 1883
Clemens' comments: I couldn't sleep in 46--hog chain
making intermittent thumping noise. Moved to 58 but no use. Got up at 2.30
& went on watch below draw of Louisiana bridge.
- Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, Vol. II, 1877-1883
Steamboat: MINNEAPOLIS
Built: 1869
Clemens as passenger: 17- 21 May 1882
Photo courtesy of Ralph DuPae, Murphy
Library
Clemens' comments: 8 years ago boats
like the Minneapolis used to go into St. Paul with 150 people. Man used
to say "Got 28 cars of wheat, Captain."
"I'll take 2 of 'em."
Now the Captain inquires "What you got for us?" "Nuth'n."
The RR has done it.
- Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, Vol. II, 1877-1883 |
Interior cabin of the Minneapolis.
Photo from the Dave Thomson collection.
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