My chief was presently hired to go on a big New Orleans boat, and I packed
my satchel and went with him. She was a grand affair. When I stood in her pilot-house
I was so far above the water that I seemed perched on a mountain; and her decks
stretched so far away, fore and aft, below me. . . the pilot house was a sumptuous
glass temple; room enough to have a dance in; showy red and gold window-curtains;
an imposing sofa; leather cushions and a back to the high bench where visiting
pilots sit, to spin yarns
and 'look at the river;' bright, fanciful 'cuspidors' instead of a broad wooden
box filled with sawdust; nice new oil-cloth on the floor; a hospitable big stove
for winter; a wheel as high as my head, costly with inlaid work; a wire tiller
rope; bright brass knobs for the bells; and a tidy, white aproned, black 'texas-tender,'
to bring up tarts and ices and coffee during mid-watch, day and night.
- Life on the Mississippi
Photo of a
river pilot aboard the MISSISSIPPI, a Corps of Engineers boat that took
Teddy Roosevelt during part of his trip on the Mississippi River.
Photo courtesy of Ralph DuPae, Murphy
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