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26. [Pilot's Memoranda]
30 August 1860
The impulse to burlesque evident in almost every detail of Clemens' “River Intelligence”
(no. 24) is present more subtly in “Pilot's Memoranda,” published over a year later
in the St. Louis Missouri Republican. A typical pilot's memoranda1 of the time might record the main events of a steamboat's trip: when and where other
boats were met or passed and observations of noteworthy river occurrences and conditions.
In May 1860, for instance, a memoranda signed by Clemens and Wesley Jacobs, copilots
of the City of Memphis, appeared under “River News” in the Missouri Republican. Although the memoranda is brief and limited mainly to one kind of information, in
tone and style it is not uncharacteristic of many others:
From the Western Boatmen's Benevolent Association. Memoranda—Steamer City of Memphis left St. Louis, Thursday, the 14th at 3 p.m., 7½ feet; found 10½ feet at Barrack's crossing, 12 do at Marramee, 9½ do at Bridgewater,
8 do at Crawfords, 8 do scant at Tea Table, 8 do at Vancil's, 8 do at Devil's Island;
took on 1,000 bbls of lime at Cape Girardeau, which made us draw 7 feet 9 inches;
had 7 feet at Power's Island—rubbed very hard; 8 feet at Goose Island—rubbed very
hard; 10½ feet at Buffalo Island; 12 feet at head of Dog Tooth Bend.
Wesley Jacobs,
Sam'l Clemens, Pilots2
Clemens left the City of Memphis and joined the new “tramp” steamer Arago on 28 July 1860. His burlesque memoranda, also signed by his copilot, J. W. Hood,
appeared one month later. It gives highlights of the Arago's
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trip from New Orleans to Cairo between August 22 and 28, mentioning landmarks and
islands passed on the voyage up river. But unlike ordinary memoranda, this one interlaces
facts with comic inventions, real landmarks and steamers with fictitious ones. Indeed,
“Pilot's Memoranda” anticipates the more subtle blend of fact and fiction that Clemens
would achieve in his correspondence with Nevada and California newspapers. But because
he wrote it almost exclusively for his fellow pilots, the humor depends heavily on
their intimate technical knowledge of the river and its hazards. The explanatory notes
to this sketch are therefore essential in following the rather private joke he published
for their benefit.3
Editorial Notes
1 In contemporary usage there was no singular “memorandum.”
2 “River News,” St. Louis
Missouri Republican, 27 May 1860, p. 4; quoted by Dewey Ganzel in “Samuel Clemens' Correspondence in
the St. Louis
Missouri Republican,” Anglia 85 (1967): 393.
3 For a detailed consideration of the
Arago burlesque memoranda and Clemens' service on that steamer, see Allan Bates, “Sam Clemens,
Pilot-Humorist of a Tramp Steamboat,”
American Literature 39 (March 1967): 102–109.
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[Pilot's Memoranda]
A curly brace appears to the right of the two-line place and date.
Steamer Arago,
Cairo,Ⓐ August 28th
Pilot's Memoranda—Steamer AragoⒺ left New Orleans on Wednesday, August 22, at 3 p. m. In port and loading for St Louis, steamers SovereignⒺ and Great Western. 23d—Met Minne-ha ha at Port HudsonⒺ, Wm. M. Morrison at Palmetto Point;Ⓐ passed the Tommy-whack at Dead MareⒺ, and the Yahoo at the Cotton Gin. 24th—Met John Walsh at Rodney, Sky Lark at Vicksburg;
passed the Skylight and the Twilight and the Daylight at Mud Bar. These boats are
said to be fast, and so they may be, under ordinary circumstances. 25th—Met Dan'l G. Taylor at Lake ProvidenceⒺ, Planet at No. 76, South Wester at NapoleonⒺ; found the Saltpetre hard aground at Seven-UpⒶ, North Wester pulling at her; passed the Don Cæsar de BazanⒺ at the Wood PileⒺ. 26th—Met J. C. Swon at Old Town, D. A. January and Emma at Friar's Point; found
the Tycoon aground at BoomerangⒺ; they were lighting her offⒺ by removing her cargo, consisting of railroad iron, from the main deck to the hurricane
deck.Ⓐ
Capt. BladdersⒺ intimated to the pilots of this boat confidentially, that in his opinion if he did
not stay there long, he would probably get off shortly. Capt. is an experienced steamboatman,
and what he even intimates may be depended on. Passed the Grand Duke of KihoⒺ at John Battese's. 27th—Met City of Memphis at Greenock, John H. Dickey at No. 36,
J. D. Perry at Ashport, Edw. J. Gay at Forked Deer. Also, met the Gladiator above
New MadridⒺ, with the “pilot factory” in full operationⒺ. Passed the Kangaroo Belle at Blackjack.
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Mem—The agents in New Orleans informed the pilots of this boat that “they considered the fact that freights were not so rotten property, as pretty well
establishedⒺ.” Amen! Nothing doing at Natchez—provisions and things scarce, at least the pilots
of this boat were told so. Plenty new crop cotton on the banks. A heavy rise is reported
in the Arkansas river—so the everlasting pilots of this boat were informed at Napoleon.
Notice to Pilots—Run the crossing at HelenaⒺ lower. Steamer Choctaw still broken in two at Island 34Ⓔ,Ⓐ and pretty much sunk. A great part of her freight had been put ashore and covered
with tarpaulins. A diving bell boat was along side of her, and somebody informed the
pilots of this boat that “they'll raise her if nothing but the bottom's knocked of herⒶ,” and we cheerfully indorse the sentiment.
P. S.—Found Edward Walsh loading at Cairo.
P. S. No. 2—We have not mentioned all the boats we passedⒺ—we only take “cognizance” of the fast ones.
P. S. No. 3.—We, the pilots of this boat, saw on board the Ed. J. Gay our distinguished
fellow-citizen, Major General Sobeisky Jolly, on his way to JapanⒺ. Col. Joseph Bryant and several other members of CongressⒺ were also on boardⒶ the same boat, going out to “look at the river.”
P. S. No. 4—“Adoo.”
Respectfully submitted.
Sam. L. Clemens,
J. W. Hood,
Pilots of this boat.
Explanatory Notes [Pilot's Memoranda]
Ⓔ Arago] A new transient, or roving, steamer of only 268 tons which Clemens piloted
from 28 July until 9 September 1860, when it sank near Goose Island. The
Arago was notably less prestigious than the
City of Memphis or the
Alonzo Child, the boats which Clemens piloted before and after he piloted the
Arago (
MTMR
, p. 147; Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,” pp. 102–103).
Ⓔ Sovereign] The first of twenty-one real steamboats mentioned in the memoranda. The
others are the
Great Western, Minnehaha, William M. Morrison, John Walsh, Skylark, Twilight, Daniel
G. Taylor, Planet, South Wester, J. C. Swon, D. A. January, Emma, Tycoon, City of
Memphis, John H. Dickey, John D. Perry, Edward J. Gay, Gladiator, Choctaw, and
Edward Walsh (William M. Lytle,
Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States: 1807–1868 [Mystic, Conn.: The Steamship Historical Society of America, 1952]). Bates reports
that a real memoranda from the
Alonzo Child, which made the same trip on the same days, mentioned all these boats (Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,”
pp. 105–106).
Ⓔ Port Hudson] Clemens mentioned this small town at the end of chapter 39 in
Life on the Mississippi as the scene of two important Civil War battles. The following actual landmarks are
mentioned in the sketch in the order in which they would have been encountered on
a trip up river: Port Hudson (La.), Palmetto Point (Miss.), Rodney (Miss.), Lake Providence
(La.), Island 76 at Bolivar Landing (Miss.), Napoleon (Ark.), Old Town (Ark.), Friar's
Point (Ark.), Greenock (Ark.), Island 36 at the Third Chickasaw Bluff (Tenn.), Ashport
(Tenn.), Forked Deer River (Tenn.), and New Madrid (Mo.). See James'
River Guide, Conclin's
New River Guide, and Cummings'
Western Pilot for more detailed identifications.
Ⓔ Tommy-whack at Dead Mare] Both the name of the steamboat and the place name are invented.
Eight other fictitious steamers are named in the sketch, always in conjunction with
fictitious place names: the
Yahoo at Cotton Gin, the
Skylight and
Daylight (in conjunction with the real
Twilight) at Mud Bar, the
Saltpetre and
North Wester at Seven-Up, the
Don Cœsar de Bazan at Wood Pile, the
Grand Duke of Kiho at John Battese's, and the
Kangaroo Belle at Blackjack. One real steamboat, the
Tycoon, is sighted at an imaginary place, Boomerang.
Ⓔ Lake Providence] In chapter 34 of
Life on the Mississippi Clemens characterized Lake Providence as “the first distinctly Southern-looking town
you come to, downward-bound.”
Ⓔ Napoleon] In
Life on the Mississippi Clemens mentioned Napoleon as the site of the buried treasure in Karl Ritter's narrative
(chapter 31); later he discovered that it had been inundated by the river and completely
destroyed (chapter 32). The last sentence of chapter 32 suggests the personal significance
of Napoleon to Clemens: it was a “town where I had used to know the prettiest girl,
and the most accomplished in the whole Mississippi Valley; town where we were handed
the first printed news of the ‘Pennsylvania's’ mournful disaster a quarter of a century
ago; a town no more—swallowed up, vanished.” Toward the end of chapter 2 Clemens also
mentioned the town's historical significance when discussing the explorations of Marquette,
Joliet, and De Soto.
Ⓔ Don Cæsar de Bazan] Clemens was familiar with this character in Victor Hugo's play
Ruy Blas by at least 1856, when he mentioned him in his first Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass letter
(
TJS
, p. 14).
Ⓔ Wood Pile] The name is fictitious, or at least facetious.
Ⓔ Boomerang] The name is fictitious. Mark Twain would use “Boomerang” as the name of
the mining camp in the unpublished draft “The Only Reliable Account of the Celebrated
Jumping Frog . . . together with some reference to the decaying city of Boomerang”
(no. 117) and in the subsequent completed tale, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”
(no. 119), both written in October 1865. He used “Boomerang” again for the name of
the schooner
Emeline in his eighteenth letter from the Sandwich Islands (Sacramento
Daily Union, 18 August 1866, p. 1, reprinted in
MTH
, p. 365).
Ⓔ lighting her off] Clemens' readers would have recognized the absurdity of attempting
to lighten a boat by removing the cargo from the main deck to the hurricane deck above
it (Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,” p. 109).
Ⓔ Capt. Bladders] The brief characterization of Captain Bladders suggests that he, like
Sergeant Fathom in “River Intelligence” (no. 24), is a satirical portrait of Captain
Isaiah Sellers (Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,” pp. 108–109).
Ⓔ Grand Duke of Kiho] A fictional steamboat, bathetically named.
Grand Duke was a real steamboat. Kiho was a river landmark—an island or point near St. Louis—so
obscure that contemporary river guides do not identify it (see the explanatory note
to “River Intelligence,” no. 24).
Grand Duke of Kiho can therefore be compared with more prestigious steamboats named for their home ports,
like the
City of Memphis, mentioned next in the text.
Ⓔ New Madrid] Clemens found this town little changed in 1882 (see the end of chapter
26,
Life on the Mississippi).
Ⓔ “pilot factory” in full operation] An allusion to “a pilot or boat that (in the eyes
of the young pilot-author) was creating excessive professional competition by training
too many apprentice pilots” (Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,” p. 107).
Ⓔ they considered . . . well established] A statement of the obvious, facetiously offered
as news (Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,” p. 107).
Ⓔ Helena] Clemens revisited this Arkansas town in 1882 (see the end of chapter 30,
Life on the Mississippi). One river guide gives unusually explicit directions for the crossing below Helena,
as though it presented difficulties (Cummings,
Western Pilot, p. 99).
Ⓔ Island 34] Extremely careful navigation was mandatory from the head of this large
island along its right side (descending) until Randolph, Tennessee, was reached (Cummings,
Western Pilot, p. 94).
Ⓔ all the boats we passed] Of the eight boats “passed” seven were fictitious, and as
Clemens notes, he only took “ ‘cognizance’ of the fast ones.” The tall tale is aimed
at ridiculing the usual practice in memoranda of listing competitors that were “passed”
but never remarking on
being passed (Bates, “Pilot-Humorist,” p. 106).
Ⓔ Major General Sobeisky Jolly, on his way to Japan] For four months in the fall of
1857 Clemens had served as cub pilot on the
John J. Roe under Sobeisky (or Sobieski) Jolly, an impressive man and a prominent pilot (
MTB
, 1:128;
MTMR
, pp. 48, 50). Clemens' references to “Beck” Jolly in other writings always imply
a close and friendly relationship between the two men. The facetious remark here about
Jolly's visit to Japan and a later reference to him as “the distinguished traveler,
the mighty hunter of lions, the brilliant Chinese linguist & the dreaded scourge of
the nations of the Orient” (Clemens to William Bowen, 25 August 1866,
CL1
, letter 109) probably had a basis in fact which remains obscure. For a discussion
of Clemens' relationship with Jolly, see
MTMR
, pp. 51–52.
Ⓔ Col. Joseph Bryant . . . other members of Congress] Bryant has not been identified,
but he was probably a fellow pilot; no member of Congress bore that name. Pilots had
frequent occasion to “look at the river,” as Clemens explained in chapter 7 of
Life on the Mississippi, because it changed its channel “so constantly that the pilots used to always find
it necessary to run down to Cairo to take a fresh look, when their boats were to lie
in port a week.” Moreover, “a deal of this ‘looking at the river’ was done by poor
fellows who seldom had a berth. . . . And a good many of them constantly ran up and
down inspecting the river, not because they ever really hoped to get a berth, but
because (they being guests of the boat) it was cheaper to ‘look at the river’ than
stay ashore and pay board.” Bates suggests that Clemens called these pilots “members
of Congress” because “looking at the river” resembled congressional junketing (Bates,
“Pilot-Humorist,” p. 107).
The first printing appeared without title in the column “Cairo Correspondence” in the St. Louis Missouri Republican for 30 August 1860 (p. 4), which is copy-text. Copy: PH from Library of Congress. It is not known whether Clemens in any way supervised the printing.