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I'm reading Life On The Mississippi, by Mark Twain. The first half of the book recounts his training as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the US Civil War.
He describes in detail, and with characteristic humor, the innate intelligence and grasp of detailed knowledge required to navigate the riverboats safely.
As a novice, he was overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge needed to even achieve the bare competence of an assistant. He questioned his own aptitude and memory skills. Once he got a job as an apprentice, his progress was slow and his confidence lagged. There was a whole culture shared by the experienced pilots.
Their arrogance was well known and well earned. The best of the lot were revered among those in the industry. They had their own language, which raised the pedestal upon which they placed themselves. Ignorance of their idiom barred you from discussions. Twain was told to make careful notes of barely perceptible shoreline markers to aid in the navigation. Meanings of terms were revealed sparingly, as treats.
The shoreline views would change, depending on whether you were travelling upriver or down. Stormy weather and dark nights presented their own challenges. Twain was mocked, derided and cursed until his skills improved and he gained respect. Tylenol wouldn't be invented for another hundred years.
After the Titanic disaster and during World War I sonar developed, so these skills were less in demand. Becoming a pilot required somewhat less specialized knowledge. Pay and prestige suffered.
Today, your average fish finder device is more accurate.
this territory is moderated
47 sats \ 4 replies \ @jasonb 2 Oct
Willing to share any juicy excerpts? I’m sad to say, I’ve never read his nonfiction and I’m curious how well the humor would translate to a modern philistine like myself.
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I'll dig around and find something. BTW, I can't say enough how impressed I am by your latest adventure. Most of us just talk a good game.
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36 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb 2 Oct
Thanks man. Can’t say my project is really poised for success right now, but I guess I can say I’m really in the middle of a big leap.
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50 sats \ 1 reply \ @adlai 3 Oct
try this on for size
CHAPTER XV ~~~ THE PILOTS' MONOPOLY
One day, on board the Aleck Scott, my chief, Mr. Bixby, was crawling carefully through a close place at Cat Island, both leads going, and everybody holding his breath. The captain, a nervous, apprehensive man, kept still as long as he could, but finally broke down and shouted from the hurricane deck ---
"For gracious' sake, give her steam, Mr. Bixby! Give her steam! She'll never raise the reef on this headway!"
For all the effect that was produced upon Mr. Bixby, one would have supposed that no remark had been made. But five minutes later, when the danger was past and the leads laid in, he burst instantly into a consuming fury, and gave the captain the most admirable cursing I ever listened to. No bloodshed ensued; but that was because the captain's cause was weak; for ordinarily he was not a man to take correction quietly.
Having now set forth in detail the nature of the science of piloting, and likewise described the rank which the pilot held among the fraternity of steamboatmen, this seems a fitting place to say a few words about an organization which the pilots once formed for the protection of their guild. It was curious and noteworthy in this, that it was perhaps the compactest, the completest, and the strongest commercial organization ever formed among men.
For a long time the wages had been two hundred and fifty dollars a month; but curiously enough, as steamboats multiplied and business increased, the wages began to fall little by little. It was easy to discover the reason of this. Too many pilots were being "made." It was nice to have a "cub," a steersman, to do all the hard work for a couple of years, gratis, while his master sat on a high bench and smoked; all pilots and captains had sons or nephews who wanted to be pilots. By and by it came to pass that nearly every pilot on the river had a steersman. When a steersman had made an amount of progress that was satisfactory to any two pilots in the trade, they could get a pilot's license for him by signing an application directed to the United States Inspector. Nothing further was needed; usually no questions were asked, no proofs of capacity required.
Very well, this growing swarm of new pilots presently began to undermine the wages, in order to get berths. Too late --- apparently --- the knights of the tiller perceived their mistake. Plainly, something had to be done, and quickly; but what was to be the needful thing? A close organization. Nothing else would answer. To compass this seemed an impossibility; so it was talked, and talked, and then dropped. It was too likely to ruin whoever ventured to move in the matter. But at last about a dozen of the boldest --- and some of them the best --- pilots on the river launched themselves into the enterprise and took all the chances. They got a special charter from the legislature, with large powers, under the name of the Pilots' Benevolent Association; elected their officers, completed their organization, contributed capital, put "association" wages up to two hundred and fifty dollars at once --- and then retired to their homes, for they were promptly dischanged from employment. But there were two or three unnoticed trifles in their bylaws which had the seeds of propagation in them. For instance, all idle members of the association, in good standing, were entitled to a pension of twenty-five dollars per month. This began to bring in one straggler after another from teh ranks of the new-fledged pilots, in the dull (summer) season. Better have twenty-five dollars than starve; the initiation fee was only twelve dollars, and no dues required from the unemployed.
Also, the widows of deceased mebbers in good standing could draw twenty-five dollars per month, and a certain sum for each of their children. Also, the said deceased would be buried at the association's expense. These things resurrected all the superannuated and forgotten pilots in the Mississippi Valley. They came from farms, they came from interior villages, they came from everywhere. They came on crutches, on drays, in ambulances --- any way, so they all got there. They paid in their twelve dollars, and straightway began to draw out twenty-five dollars a month and calculate their burial bills.
By and by, all the useless, helpless pilots, and a dozen first-class ones, were in the association, and nine tenths of the best pilots out of it and laughing at it. It was the laughing-stock of the whole river. Everybody joked about the bylaw requiring members to pay ten per cent of their wages, every month, into the treasury for the support of the association, whereas all the member were outcast and tabooed and no one would employ them. Everybody was derisively grateful to the association for taking all the worthless pilots out of the way and leaving the whole field to the excellent and the deserving; and everybody was not only jocularly grateful for that, but for a result which naturally followed, namely, the gradual advance of wages as the busy season approached. Wages had gone up from the low figure of one hundred dollars a month to one hundred and twenty-five and in some cases to one hundred and fifty; and it was great fun to enlarge upon the fact that this charming thing had been accomplished by a body of men not one of whom received a particle of benefit from it. Some of the jokers used to call at the association rooms and have a good time chaffing the members and offering them the charity of taking them as steersmen for a trip, so that they could see what the forgotten river looked like. However, the association was content; or at least it gave no sign to the contrary. Now and then it captured a pilot who was "out of luck," and added him to its list; and these later additions were very valuable, for thei were good pilots; the incompetent ones had all been absorbed before. As business freshened, wages climbed gradually up to two hundred and fifty dollars --- the association figure --- and became firmly fixed there; and still without benefiting a member of that body, for no member was hired. The hilarity at the association's expense burst all bounds, now. There was no end to the fun which that poor martyr had to put up with.
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Yay! I can not only track, but very much enjoyed! Thanks!
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It's always fascinating to look back and see what jobs had prestige in the past compared to now.
I wonder if one day software development will be considered a plebeian task.
Today, I'd only expect to find a steamboat pilot at Disneyland, and he probably has to work for tips at night
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There's an important lesson in here I think.
The world is increasingly ephemeral. New technology dawns and entire professions get wiped out. New govs get elected and entirely new mandates get invented and torrents of cash get funneled into God-knows-what's next new grift. A lucky few are ever spared of this.
I found this to be a thoughtful reflection, as usual. Thanks for sharing.
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the steamboat captains were the rock stars of the river, respected and feared in equal measure. Makes you wonder what other professions might be headed towards a similar fate as technology continues to evolve...
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the captains might have had the notoriety of frontmen, although he explains in great detail how just like in a real rock concert, the man on deck is the master of the show; in the case of steamboats, those were the pilots, who actually selected the aiming points for navigation, commanded the engine, and ideally held the wheel themselves, while the captain might be shmoozing and snoozing.
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