IT was always the custom for the boats to leave New
Orleans between four and five o'clock in the afternoon.
From three o'clock onward they would be burning rosin and pitch pine
(the sign of preparation), and so one had the picturesque spectacle
of a rank, some two or three miles long, of tall, ascending columns
of coal-black smoke; a colonnade which supported a sable roof of
the same smoke blended together and spreading abroad over the city.
Every outward-bound boat had its flag flying at the jack-staff,
and sometimes a duplicate on the verge staff astern.
Two or three miles of mates were commanding and swearing with more
than usual emphasis; countless processions of freight barrels
and boxes were spinning athwart the levee and flying aboard
the stage-planks, belated passengers were dodging and skipping
among these frantic things, hoping to reach the forecastle
companion way alive, but having their doubts about it;
women with reticules and bandboxes were trying to keep up
with husbands freighted with carpet-sacks and crying babies,
and making a failure of it by losing their heads in the whirl
and roar and general distraction; drays and baggage-vans were
clattering hither and thither in a wild hurry, every now and
then getting blocked and jammed together, and then during ten
seconds one could not see them for the profanity, except vaguely
and dimly; every windlass connected with every forehatch,
from one end of that long array of steamboats to the other,
was keeping up a deafening whiz and whir, lowering freight
into the hold, and the half-naked crews of perspiring negroes
that worked them were roaring such songs as 'De Las' Sack!
De Las' Sack!'--inspired to unimaginable exaltation by the chaos
of turmoil and racket that was driving everybody else mad.
By this time the hurricane and boiler decks of the steamers
would be packed and black with passengers. The 'last bells'
would begin to clang, all down the line, and then the powwow
seemed to double; in a moment or two the final warning came,--
a simultaneous din of Chinese gongs, with the cry,
'All dat ain't goin', please to git asho'! '--and behold,
the powwow quadrupled! People came swarming ashore,
overturning excited stragglers that were trying to swarm aboard.
One more moment later a long array of stage-planks was being
hauled in, each with its customary latest passenger clinging
to the end of it with teeth, nails, and everything else,
and the customary latest procrastinator making a wild spring
shoreward over his head.
Now a number of the boats slide backward into the stream,
leaving wide gaps in the serried rank of steamers.
Citizens crowd the decks of boats that are not to go, in order
to see the sight. Steamer after steamer straightens herself up,
gathers all her strength, and presently comes swinging by,
under a tremendous head of steam, with flag flying,
black smoke rolling, and her entire crew of firemen and deck-hands
(usually swarthy negroes) massed together on the forecastle,
the best 'voice' in the lot towering from the midst
(being mounted on the capstan), waving his hat or a flag,
and all roaring a mighty chorus, while the parting cannons boom
and the multitudinous spectators swing their hats and huzza!
Steamer after steamer falls into line, and the stately procession goes
winging its flight up the river.
In the old times, whenever two fast boats started out on a race,
with a big crowd of people looking on, it was inspiring to hear
the crews sing, especially if the time were night-fall, and the forecastle
lit up with the red glare of the torch-baskets. Racing was royal fun.
The public always had an idea that racing was dangerous; whereas the opposite
was the case--that is, after the laws were passed which restricted
each boat to just so many pounds of steam to the square inch.
No engineer was ever sleepy or careless when his heart was in a race.
He was constantly on the alert, trying gauge-cocks and watching things.
The dangerous place was on slow, plodding boats, where the engineers drowsed
around and allowed chips to get into the 'doctor' and shut off the water
supply from the boilers.
In the 'flush times' of steamboating, a race between two notoriously
fleet steamers was an event of vast importance. The date was set
for it several weeks in advance, and from that time forward, the whole
Mississippi Valley was in a state of consuming excitement. Politics and
the weather were dropped, and people talked only of the coming race.
As the time approached, the two steamers 'stripped' and got ready.
Every encumbrance that added weight, or exposed a resisting surface
to wind or water, was removed, if the boat could possibly do without it.
The 'spars,' and sometimes even their supporting derricks, were sent ashore,
and no means left to set the boat afloat in case she got aground.
When the 'Eclipse' and the 'A. L. Shotwell' ran their great race many
years ago, it was said that pains were taken to scrape the gilding off
the fanciful device which hung between the 'Eclipse's' chimneys, and that for
that one trip the captain left off his kid gloves and had his head shaved.
But I always doubted these things.
If the boat was known to make her best speed when drawing five and a half feet
forward and five feet aft, she was carefully loaded to that exact figure--
she wouldn't enter a dose of homoeopathic pills on her manifest after that.
Hardly any passengers were taken, because they not only add weight but they
never will 'trim boat.' They always run to the side when there is anything
to see, whereas a conscientious and experienced steamboatman would stick to
the center of the boat and part his hair in the middle with a spirit level.
No way-freights and no way-passengers were allowed, for the racers would
stop only at the largest towns, and then it would be only 'touch and go.'
Coal flats and wood flats were contracted for beforehand, and these were
kept ready to hitch on to the flying steamers at a moment's warning.
Double crews were carried, so that all work could be quickly done.
The chosen date being come, and all things in readiness,
the two great steamers back into the stream, and lie there
jockeying a moment, and apparently watching each other's
slightest movement, like sentient creatures; flags drooping,
the pent steam shrieking through safety-valves, the black smoke
rolling and tumbling from the chimneys and darkening all the air.
People, people everywhere; the shores, the house-tops,
the steamboats, the ships, are packed with them, and you know
that the borders of the broad Mississippi are going to be
fringed with humanity thence northward twelve hundred miles,
to welcome these racers.
Presently tall columns of steam burst from the 'scape-pipes
of both steamers, two guns boom a good-bye, two red-shirted heroes
mounted on capstans wave their small flags above the massed crews
on the forecastles, two plaintive solos linger on the air a few
waiting seconds, two mighty choruses burst forth--and here they come!
Brass bands bray Hail Columbia, huzza after huzza thunders from
the shores, and the stately creatures go whistling by like the wind.
Those boats will never halt a moment between New Orleans and St. Louis,
except for a second or two at large towns, or to hitch thirty-cord
wood-boats alongside. You should be on board when they take a couple
of those wood-boats in tow and turn a swarm of men into each;
by the time you have wiped your glasses and put them on, you will be
wondering what 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.
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. Le_______"_____"_________________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.___ H.
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
Harry Hills_________________________1___00
Red Church__________________________1___39
Bonnet Carre________________________2___38
College Point_______________________3___50
Donaldsonville______________________4___59
Plaquemine__________________________7___05
Baton Rouge_________________________8___25
Bayou Sara_________________________10___26
Red River__________________________12___56
Stamps_____________________________13___56
Bryaro_____________________________15___51
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
Tow-head, Island 14_____________2__17___23
New Madrid______________________2 19 50
Dry Bar No. 10__________________2 20 37
Foot of Island 8________________2__21___25
Upper Tow-head--Lucas Bend______3
Cairo___________________________3___1
St. Louis_______________________3__18___14
The Lee landed at St. Louis at 11.25 A.M., on July 4th, 1870--6 hours
and 36 minutes ahead of the Natchez. The officers of the Natchez claimed
7 hours and 1 minute stoppage on account of fog and repairing machinery.
The R. E. Lee was commanded by Captain John W. Cannon, and the Natchez was in
charge of that veteran Southern boatman, Captain Thomas P. Leathers.
Read next: Chapter 17 - Cut-offs and Stephen
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