There is perhaps no other profession that has inspired more articles, books, and movies than that of a sea captain. However, not all captains led glamorous lives. In fact, many were quite the opposite; they led a hard life at sea and encountered a number of tragedies that they chronicled in their memoirs and letters. One such person was Mark Twain, whose job as a steamboat pilot inspired him to write one of the classics of American literature, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In this piece, we will explore how Twain’s job as a pilot influenced his writing and whether or not he actually had a sad life.
Written By A Pilot
When Mark Twain signed on to work as a cabin boy on the Mississippi River in 1852, at the age of 15, he could not have known that the job would eventually lead him to becoming one of the greatest humorists of all time. When Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, he wrote, “I have been a boatman and a pilot, and the experiences I have had in both capacities are among the best materials I possess.”
The adventurous life that Twain led as a young sailor provided him with many stories and adventures that he could use in his writing. Indeed, most of Twain’s stories come from his time spent on the river. In one of his most famous stories, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he wrote about an experience he had while working as a cabin boy. He told the story of how he rescued a young girl, named Becky, from being abducted by a group of robbers in the woods. In doing so, he used his own experiences as a boatman and a pilot to develop the story.
Twain’s work as a pilot was not all fun and games. He wrote many letters home during his time working for Captain Bonaparte McAllister, whose company ran ships between St. Louis and New Orleans. In one such letter, dated May 13, 1873, Twain described a particularly dangerous stretch of the river that he had to navigate:
“We have just come through one of the most dangerous portions of the river, above Baton Rouge. The most treacherous rapids and whirlpools, and the most terrifying cliffs and sandbanks you ever saw. It was such a rapid that I had to keep a constant lookout ahead so as not to sweep past a sandbank while going up. In the middle of the river, the most treacherous part, you would see a number of logs and wreckage floating down — and it was here that the most accidents happened. There was not a bit of cover on the banks, and the currents were so strong that there were great whirlpools in the river. If you went aground there, you were in danger of being whirled away by the current.”
Twain’s letters to McAllister also reveal a more serious side to the adventures that he encountered while working for the company. In one letter, dated February 25, 1873, he wrote:
“You say that the company makes you work too hard. Perhaps you are right, but I like to think it is a good, hard work that helps me grow up and be a man. If I did not feel that way, I would not stay in the job three years. Of course I love to write and enjoy my work, but I have other feelings too. This is my third year at the helm and I have yet to see a cabin boy or a young lady passenger. It is not that I want to be rude or discourteous, but simply that I want to obey the rules of the company and not make friends with the opposite sex. I am told that when I become a man I must not talk with women or look at them, and I must not make friends with them, and I believe it.”
No Sadness Beyond This Point
Most people are familiar with the story of Tom Sawyer, but very few are aware that the riverboat adventures of Twain’s youth were largely fictional. In his Life on the Mississippi (1883), Twain wrote that he constructed his stories using details from his real-life adventures, but admitted that much of it was made up:
“The truth is, most of the incidents and characters in my books are imaginary, and I have woven my plots around actual events and people. But I have never gone back to the real thing with greater intensity than I have done for the last two years, since the publication of Life on the Mississippi.”
Twain’s life after leaving McAllister’s company in 1873 was quite uneventful and he wrote little about it. He did turn down a $150,000 offer to write a book about his travels in the Middle East for the Victorian publisher, Murray, but said that he did not have the time to dedicate to the project. He also turned down a proposal to tour Australia with a show.
Twain eventually ended up in the United States, where he married, raised a family, and began working as a journalist. Despite the tragedies and excitement that he encountered while working on the Mississippi, he maintained a melancholy outlook in his later years. In his famous essay, The Mysterious Stranger, he stated: “I have been a boatman, a pilot, and an explorer. I have been to the bottom of the sea and seen its most dangerous creatures. I have been through a cave in the dark and have faced wild beasts. But wherever I have gone, whatever I have seen, I have never felt truly happy nor have I ever felt that I belonged.”
Although much of Twain’s life was rather uneventful, he experienced a number of tragedies and near misses that he chronicled in his novels and memoirs. In his early days as a riverboat pilot, he was nearly drowned several times. The most serious accident that he had as a boatman occurred when the Mississippi River steamboat on which he was working collided with a railroad train. The accident nearly killed him and he was placed in a coma for several weeks. After he recovered, he decided to leave the riverboat business and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked for the newspaper, the Missouri Democrat and Chronicle. He eventually rose to fame and became a wealthy man, publishing numerous books and earning a reputation as one of the greatest humorists of all time.