The Complete Non-Fiction Writings of Mark Twain: Old Times on the Mississippi + Life on the Mississippi + Christian Science + Queen Victoria's Jubilee + My Platonic Sweetheart + Editorial Wild Oats. Mark Twain
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has become of that wood.
Two nicely matched steamers will stay in sight of each other day after day. They might even stay side by side, but for the fact that pilots are not all alike, and the smartest pilots will win the race. If one of the boats has a ‘lightning’ pilot, whose ‘partner’ is a trifle his inferior, you can tell which one is on watch by noting whether that boat has gained ground or lost some during each four-hour stretch. The shrewdest pilot can delay a boat if he has not a fine genius for steering. Steering is a very high art. One must not keep a rudder dragging across a boat’s stem if he wants to get up the river fast.
There is a great difference in boats, of course. For a long time I was on a boat that was so slow we used to forget what year it was we left port in. But of course this was at rare intervals. Ferryboats used to lose valuable trips because their passengers grew old and died, waiting for us to get by. This was at still rarer intervals. I had the documents for these occurrences, but through carelessness they have been mislaid. This boat, the ‘John J. Roe,’ was so slow that when she finally sunk in Madrid Bend, it was five years before the owners heard of it. That was always a confusing fact to me, but it is according to the record, any way. She was dismally slow; still, we often had pretty exciting times racing with islands, and rafts, and such things. One trip, however, we did rather well. We went to St. Louis in sixteen days. But even at this rattling gait I think we changed watches three times in Fort Adams reach, which is five miles long. A ‘reach’ is a piece of straight river, and of course the current drives through such a place in a pretty lively way.
That trip we went to Grand Gulf, from New Orleans, in four days (three hundred and forty miles); the ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Shotwell’ did it in one. We were nine days out, in the chute of 63 (seven hundred miles); the ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Shotwell’ went there in two days. Something over a generation ago, a boat called the ‘J. M. White’ went from New Orleans to Cairo in three days, six hours, and forty-four minutes. In 1853 the ‘Eclipse’ made the same trip in three days, three hours, and twenty minutes.{footnote [Time disputed. Some authorities add 1 hour and 16 minutes to this.]} In 1870 the ‘R. E. Lee’ did it in three days and ONE hour. This last is called the fastest trip on record. I will try to show that it was not. For this reason: the distance between New Orleans and Cairo, when the ‘J. M. White’ ran it, was about eleven hundred and six miles; consequently her average speed was a trifle over fourteen miles per hour. In the ‘Eclipse’s’ day the distance between the two ports had become reduced to one thousand and eighty miles; consequently her average speed was a shade under fourteen and three-eighths miles per hour. In the ‘R. E. Lee’s’ time the distance had diminished to about one thousand and thirty miles; consequently her average was about fourteen and one-eighth miles per hour. Therefore the ‘Eclipse’s’ was conspicuously the fastest time that has ever been made.
THE RECORD OF SOME FAMOUS
TRIPS
(From Commodore Rollingpin’s Almanack.)
FAST TIME ON THE WESTERN WATERS
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO NATCHEZ — 268 MILES
D. H. M. 1814 Orleans made the run in 6 6 40 1814 Comet “ “ 5 10 1815 Enterprise “ “ 4 11 20 1817 Washington “ “ 4 1817 Shelby “ “ 3 20 1818 Paragon “ “ 3 8 1828 Tecumseh “ “ 3 1 20 1834 Tuscarora “ “ 1 21 1838 Natchez “ “ 1 17 1840 Ed. Shippen “ “ 1 8 1842 Belle of the West “ 1 18 1844 Sultana “ “ 19 45 1851 Magnolia “ “ 19 50 1853 A. L. Shotwell “ “ 19 49 1853 Southern Belle “ “ 20 3 1853 Princess (No. 4) “ 20 26 1853 Eclipse “ “ 19 47 1855 Princess (New) “ “ 18 53 1855 Natchez (New) “ “ 17 30 1856 Princess (New) “ “ 17 30 1870 Natchez “ “ 17 17 1870 R. E. Lee “ “ 17 11
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO CAIRO — 1,024 MILES
D. H. M. 1844 J. M. White made the run in 3 6 44 1852 Reindeer “ “ 3 12 45 1853 Eclipse “ “ 3 4 4 1853 A. L. Shotwell “ “ 3 3 40 1869 Dexter “ “ 3 6 20 1870 Natchez “ “ 3 4 34 1870 R. E. Lee “ “ 3 1
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO LOUISVILLE — 1,440 MILES
D. H. M. 1815 Enterprise made the run in 25 2 40 1817 Washington “ “ 25 1817. Shelby “ “ 20 4 20 1818 Paragon “ “ 18 10 1828 Tecumseh “ “ 8 4 1834 Tuscarora “ “ 7 16 1837 Gen. Brown “ “ 6 22 1837 Randolph “ “ 6 22 1837 Empress “ “ 6 17 1837 Sultana “ “ 6 15 1840 Ed. Shippen “ “ 5 14 1842 Belle of the West “ 6 14 1843 Duke of Orleans” “ 5 23 1844 Sultana “ “ 5 12 1849 Bostona “ “ 5 8 1851 Belle Key “ “ 3 4 23 1852 Reindeer “ “ 4 20 45 1852 Eclipse “ “ 4 19 1853 A. L. Shotwell “ “ 4 10 20 1853 Eclipse “ “ 4 9 30
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO DONALDSONVILLE — 78 MILES
H. M. 1852 A. L. Shotwell made the run in 5 42 1852 Eclipse “ “ 5 42 1854 Sultana “ “ 4 51 1860 Atlantic “ “ 5 11 1860 Gen. Quitman “ “ 5 6 1865 Ruth “ “ 4 43 1870 R. E. Lee “ “ 4 59
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO ST. LOUIS — 1,218 MILES
D. H. M. 1844 J. M. White made the run in 3 23 9 1849 Missouri “ “ 4 19 1869 Dexter “ “ 4 9 1870 Natchez “ “ 3 21 58 1870 R. E. Lee “ “ 3 18 14
FROM LOUISVILLE TO CINCINNATI — 141 MILES
D. H. M. 1819 Gen. Pike made the run in 1 16 1819 Paragon “ “ 1 14 20 1822 Wheeling Packet “ “ 1 10 1837 Moselle “ “ 12 1843 Duke of Orleans “ “ 12 1843 Congress “ “ 12 20 1846 Ben Franklin (No. 6) “ 11 45 1852 Alleghaney “ “ 10 38 1852 Pittsburgh “ “ 10 23 1853 Telegraph No. 3 “ “ 9 52
FROM LOUISVILLE TO ST. LOUIS — 750 MILES
D. H. M. 1843 Congress made the run in 2 1 1854 Pike “ “ 1 23 1854 Northerner “ “ 1 22 30 1855 Southemer “ “ 1 19
FROM CINCINNATI TO PITTSBURGH — 490 MILES
D. H. 1850 Telegraph No. 2 made the run in 1 17 1851 Buckeye State “ “ 1 16 1852 Pittsburgh “ “ 1 15
FROM ST. LOUIS TO ALTON — 30 MILES
D. M. 1853 Altona made the run in 1 35 1876 Golden Eagle “ “ 1 37 1876 War Eagle “ “ 1 37
MISCELLANEOUS RUNS
In June, 1859, the St. Louis and Keokuk Packet, City of Louisiana, made the run from St. Louis to Keokuk (214 miles) in 16 hours and 20 minutes, the best time on record.
In 1868 the steamer Hawkeye State, of the Northern Packet Company, made the run from St. Louis to St. Paul (800 miles) in 2 days and 20 hours. Never was beaten.
In 1853 the steamer Polar Star made the run from St. Louis to St. Joseph, on the Missouri River, in 64 hours. In July, 1856, the steamer Jas. H. Lucas, Andy Wineland, Master, made the same run in 60 hours and 57 minutes. The distance between the ports is 600 miles, and when the difficulties of navigating the turbulent Missouri are taken into consideration, the performance of the Lucas deserves especial mention.
THE RUN OF THE ROBERT E. LEE
The time made by the R. E. Lee from New Orleans to St. Louis in 1870, in her famous race with the Natchez, is the best on record, and, inasmuch as the race created a national interest, we give below her time table from port to port.
Left New Orleans, Thursday, June 30th, 1870, at 4 o’clock and 55 minutes, p.m.; reached
D. H. M. Carrollton 27{half} Harry Hills 1 00{half} Red Church 1 39 Bonnet Carre 2 38 College Point 3 50{half} Donaldsonville 4 59 Plaquemine 7 05{half} Baton Rouge 8 25 Bayou Sara 10 26 Red River 12 56 Stamps 13 56 Bryaro 15 51{half} Hinderson’s 16 29 Natchez 17 11 Cole’s Creek 19 21 Waterproof 18 53 Rodney 20 45 St. Joseph 21 02 Grand Gulf 22 06 Hard Times 22 18 Half Mile below Warrenton 1 Vicksburg 1 38 Milliken’s Bend 1 2 37 Bailey’s 1 3 48 Lake Providence 1 5 47 Greenville 1 10 55 Napoleon 1 16 22 White River 1 16 56 Australia 1 19 Helena 1 23 25 Half Mile Below St. Francis 2 Memphis 2 6 9 Foot of Island 37 2 9 Foot of Island 26 2 13 30 Towhead, Island 14 2 17 23 New Madrid 2 19 50 Dry Bar No. 10