The ship docked at the Detroit pier for passengers to embark or disembark. Sam was interviewed by a reporter from the Detroit Journal who wrote:
There was one striking figure in the crowd of a score or more persons who stood on the forward deck of the big steamer North Land as she drifted up to the dock at the foot of First street yesterday at 4 p.m. It was that of a man past the middle age of life, with bushy gray hair that fell well down upon his coat collar, a mustache of the same color, that was inclined to bristle, and a clear, ruddy complexion. He leaned carelessly over the railing and looked down upon the people assembled on the dock, without displaying any curiosity or interest that was evinced by people who were looking up at him. This man was Mark Twain, the humorist, christened Samuel L. Clemens, and father of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain's last visit to Detroit was eleven years previous , on tour with George W. Cable.