Pilot Skills on a 300-footer – The Unfettered life – Sam the Mason

January 7 Saturday – A.B. Chambers arrived in New Orleans.

January 10 Tuesday – A.B. Chambers left for St. Louis.

January 20 Friday – A.B. Chambers arrived in St. Louis.

February 1 Wednesday – A.B. Chambers left for New Orleans.

February 11 Saturday – A.B. Chambers arrived in New Orleans.

February 14 Tuesday – A.B. Chambers left for St. Louis.

February 24 Friday – A.B. Chambers arrived in St. Louis.

March 21 Wednesday – According to records accessed at the Department of Commerce, Steamboat Inspection Service in St. Louis in 1925, Sam’s pilot license, initially issued Apr. 9, 1859 was renewed on this day [The Twainian, January 1940].

March 25 Sunday – Sam became pilot of the City of Memphis (865 tons) and left St. Louis this day with co-pilot Wesley Jacobs, Captain Joseph E. Montgomery. Here was a 6-boiler, 300-foot behemoth of a boat. Branch asserts that Sam was a skillful pilot [Branch, “Mark Twain: The Pilot” 30].
“One time I mistook Capt. Ed Montgomery’s coat hanging on the big bell for the Capt. himself and waiting for him to tell me to back I ran into a steamboat at New Orleans” [MTNJ 2: 536].

April 2 Monday – City of Memphis arrived in New Orleans.

April 4 Wednesday – City of Memphis left for St. Louis.

April 11 Wednesday – City of Memphis arrived in St. Louis.

April 14 Saturday – City of Memphis left for New Orleans.

April 21 Saturday – City of Memphis arrived in New Orleans.

April 24 Tuesday – City of Memphis left for St. Louis.

May 1 Tuesday – City of Memphis arrived in St. Louis.

May 4 Friday – City of Memphis left for New Orleans.

May 9 Wednesday – A family story told by Annie Moffett Webster disclosed Sam’s political leaning in 1860 (Annie was 8 years old). That year a third political party of old Whigs and former Know-Nothings called the Constitutional Union Party met in Baltimore and nominated John Bell of Tennessee for president and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for vice president.

May 14 Monday – City of Memphis arrived in New Orleans.

May 15 Tuesday – City of Memphis left for St. Louis.

May 22 Tuesday – City of Memphis arrived in St. Louis.

May 24 Thursday – City of Memphis left for New Orleans.

May 27 Sunday – The St. Louis Missouri Republican published “a brief, matter-of-fact river report signed by him [Sam] and Wesley Jacobs, his City of Memphis copilot”

May 31 Thursday – City of Memphis arrived in New Orleans.

June 3 Sunday – City of Memphis left for St. Louis.