American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-03-13
LEARNING TO BE A RIVER PILOT.

Monthly for March, the following anus
ing account of a portion of his expert
ences when trying to master the intricate
calling of river pilot on the Mississippi
River:
At the end of what seemed tedious
while l had managed to pack my head
full of islands, towns, bars, points" and
bends; and a curiously inanima:e mass
of lumber it was, too. However, mas.
much as could shut my eyes and reel
off good long string of these names
without leaving out more than ten miles
of river in every fifty, l began to feel
that / could take boat down to New
Orleans If l could make her skip these
little gaps. But of course my compla-
cency could hardly get start enough to
lift my nose a trifie into the air before
Mr.. B. would think of something to
fetch it down again. One day he turned
TO me suddenly with this settler:
ssWhat is the shape of Walnut Bend: ~
He might as well have asked me my
grandmother's opinion of protoplasm.
reflected respectfully, and then said
didn't know 1t had any particular shape
My gunpowdery chief went off with q
bang, Of course, and then went on load
ing and firing until he was out of adjec-
tives.
had learned long ago that he only
carried Just SO many rounds of ammuni-
ton, and was sure to subside into a very
peaceable and even remorseless old
sm0oth-bore as sosn as they were all
gone. That word old" is merely affec-
tionate; he was not more than thirty
four. waited. By and by he said:
My boy, you've got to know the shape
of the river perfectly. It's all there is
Everything else is blOtted out and gone.
But, mind you, it hasn't the same shape
in the night that it has in the day time"
How on earth am ! ever going to
learn it, them"
"How do you follow hall at home in
the dark. Because you know the shape
of it you can't see it."
Do you mean to say that I've got to
know all the million trifiing variations of
shape in the banks of this interminable
river as well as know the shape of the
front hall at homer"
"On my honor, you've got to know
them better than any man ever did know
the shapes to the halls IN his own
house."
81 wish 1 was deadr'
"Now don't want to discourage you,
but"
"Well. pile it on me; might as well
have it now as another time"
"You see, this has got to be learned
snCIC isu any getting dlouuu IT, "a
clear, starlight night throws such heavy
shadows that if you didn't know the
shape of a shore perfectly you would
take the black shadow of it for solid
cape; and you see you would be getting
scared to death every fifteen minutes by
the watch. You would be fifty yards
from shore sill the time when you ought
to be within twenty feet of it. You can't
see a snag in one of these shadows, but
you know exactly where it is, and the
shape of the river tells GU when you are
coming to it. Then there's your pitch
dark night; the river is very different
shape ON q pitch-dark night from what it
is on q starlight night. All shores seem
to be straight lines then, and mighty dim
ones too; and you'd run them for straight
lines only you know better. You boldly
drive your boat right into what seems to
be q solid, straight wall you know very
well that in reality there is a curve
there), and that wall falls back and
makes way for you. Then there's your
gray mist. You take n night when
there's one of these grizzly, drizzly, gray
nists and then there isn't any particular
shape to shore. A gray mist would
tangle the head of the Oldest man that
ever lived. Well, then different kinds of
moonlil ht change the shape of the river
in different ways. You sec"
"Oh, don't say any more, please. Have
1 got to learn the shape of the river &C.
cording to these 500. 900 different wayss
If tried to carry all that cargo in my
head it would make me stoop-shoul-
dered."
mo! you only learn the shape of the
river; and you learn it with such absO-
lutte certainty that you can always steer
by the shape that's in your head, and
never mind the one that's before your
eyes"
have learned it can depend on it:
Will it keep the same form and not go
fooling round?"
Before Mr. b could answer, Mr..
W came in to take the watch, and
he said:
"B7, you'll have to look out for
Presidents Island and all that country
clear away up above the Old Hen and
Chickens The banks are caving in and
the shores changing like everything.
Why, you wouldn't know the point above
Forty. You can go up inside the old
tween the quay and the shore.)
So that question was answered. Here
were leagues of shore changing shape.
My spirits were down in the mud again.
Two things seemed pretty apparent to
me. One WAS, that in order to be a pilot
a man had got to learn more than any
one man ought to be allowed to know;
and the other was, that he must learn it
all over again IN different way every
twenty-four hours.
That night we had the watch until
twelve. Now it was an ancient river
custom for the two pilots to chat bit
when the watch changed. While the re-
lieviDg pilot put on his gloves and lit his
cigar his partner. the retiring pilot, would
say something like this:
:" judge the upper bar is making
down "a little at Hale's Point; had quar-
ter twain with the lower lead and mark
twain with the other" Mark twain,
two fathoms. Quarter twain is three
and one-fourtb fathoms, thirteen and
one-half feet. Mark three is three
fathoms)
YES, / thought it was making down a
little. last trip. Meet any boats?"
"Met one abreast the head of Twenty
one, but she was away over hugging the
bar and couldn't make her out entirely.
] took her for the Sunny South-hadn't
any skyIights forward of the chImneys."
And so on. And as the relieving pilot
took the wheel his partner technical for
the other pilot would mention that we
were IN such-and-such a bend, and say
we were abreast of such-and-such a
mans woodward or plantation. This
was courtesy; L supposed it was neces-
sity. But Mr.. W came on watch
full twelve minutes late on this particu-
lar night-a tremendous breach of Ell
9uette; IN fact, it is the objectionable
sin among pilots. So Mr. b gave
him no greeting whatever but simply sur
rendered the wheel and marched out of
tie pilot-bouse without word | was
appalled,; it was villainous night for
blackness; we were in a particularly