74 A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



earnings, she being owned by the LeClaire Navigation 

 Company. I was on her as master all season, and while 

 she was engaged on the rapids, in low water, I learned 

 to bring her back up between trips while the rapids 

 pilots rested for another trip. This was a fine chance 

 for me to learn the rapids, and I embraced it, and soon 

 had removed from my pilot's license the phrase: "The 

 Rock Island Rapids excepted," so that the license 

 allowed me to pilot from Saint Louis to Saint Paul and 

 Minneapolis, and to Stillwater, on Lake Saint Croix. 



Dorrance later sold the "Pilot," and built a larger 

 boat called the "Irene D." at Kahlke's boatways at 

 Rock Island. Her engines, twelve inches by eight-foot 

 stroke, were built by Kattenbracker and Weithe in Le- 

 Claire, and she was a strong, fast boat. 



Then Long and McCafifrey had the "Jo Long" built 

 by Swain at Stillwater, with engines twelve inches by 

 six-foot stroke. She was very fast and more satisfactory 

 in every way than the "Irene D." 



Meanwhile, Captain J. W. Rambo and his backers, 

 which included Mr. Jacob Suiter and Joe Manwaring, 

 built the "West Rambo," neither as large or fast as the 

 others, but she was a handy, useful craft, and did a lot 

 of work. 



The "Pilot" was still owned at LeClaire, towing rock 

 to Davenport, and the "Jennie Gilchrist" was there, 

 towing coal. This made five nice, light, handy boats 

 that tied up at LeClaire every night. 



The rapids pilots' fee for a straight, single trip down, 

 was ten dollars. If he had to double-trip from Duck 

 Creek or Stubb's Eddy, it was fifteen dollars. In low 

 water, when they split the raft, at LeClaire, and put it 

 down steamboat channel with a bow-boat, we paid the 



