Steamergreat republic.

JohnSmith master

Pilots, John Jones and Thomas brown.

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|   Crossings.   |   Soundings.   |   Marks.   |   Remarks.   |

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These blanks were filled up, day by day, as the voyage progressed, and deposited in the several wharf-boat boxes.  For instance, as soon as the first crossing, out from St. Louis, was completed, the items would be entered upon the blank, under the appropriate headings, thus—­

’St. Louis.  Nine and a half (feet).  Stern on court-house, head on dead cottonwood above wood-yard, until you raise the first reef, then pull up square.’  Then under head of Remarks:  ’Go just outside the wrecks; this is important.  New snag just where you straighten down; go above it.’

The pilot who deposited that blank in the Cairo box (after adding to it the details of every crossing all the way down from St. Louis) took out and read half a dozen fresh reports (from upward-bound steamers) concerning the river between Cairo and Memphis, posted himself thoroughly, returned them to the box, and went back aboard his boat again so armed against accident that he could not possibly get his boat into trouble without bringing the most ingenious carelessness to his aid.

Imagine the benefits of so admirable a system in a piece of river twelve or thirteen hundred miles long, whose channel was shifting every day!  The pilot who had formerly been obliged to put up with seeing a shoal place once or possibly twice a month, had a hundred sharp eyes to watch it for him, now, and bushels of intelligent brains to tell him how to run it.  His information about it was seldom twenty-four hours old.  If the reports in the last box chanced to leave any misgivings on his mind concerning a treacherous crossing, he had his remedy; he blew his steam-whistle in a peculiar way as soon as he saw a boat approaching; the signal was answered in a peculiar way if that boat’s pilots were association men; and then the two steamers ranged alongside and all uncertainties were swept away by fresh information furnished to the inquirer by word of mouth and in minute detail.

The first thing a pilot did when he reached New Orleans or St. Louis was to take his final and elaborate report to the association parlors and hang it up there,—­after which he was free to visit his family.  In these parlors a crowd was always gathered together, discussing changes in the channel, and the moment there was a fresh arrival, everybody stopped talking till this witness had told the newest news and settled the latest uncertainty.  Other craftsmen can ‘sink the shop,’ sometimes, and interest themselves in other matters.  Not so with a pilot; he must devote himself wholly to his profession and talk of nothing else; for it would be small gain to be perfect one day and imperfect the next.  He has no time or words to waste if he would keep ‘posted.’