December 20 Tuesday – A.B. Chambers left for New Orleans.
Sam Clemens on the Mississippi: Day By Day
December 22 or 23 Friday – The Chambers ran aground five miles south of Commerce, Mo., where the channel flowed between Power’s Island and Goose Island—a notorious trap. It was soon stuck hard with ice piling up around it. Out of wood, the captain ordered Sam and seven others to take a yawl and row up river to fetch a flatboat with wood. Sam’s judgment in directing the craft avoided certain death by any other course [MTL 1: 95n4]. (See this note for the full story as told by Grant Marsh, first mate.)
December 29 Thursday – A.B. Chambers reached Cairo, Illinois.
December 31 Saturday – A.B. Chambers arrived in New Orleans.
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.