io8 A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



On long trips we received little mail and few papers. 

 Only a few "Firebox reports" ' and "Cook House" ■ 

 dispatches were in circulation to kill the monotony. 



Sometimes we made the run from Beef Slough to 

 Muscatine without landing. After delivering our raft 

 at Muscatine or elsewhere we got our kit off the raft 

 and stowed on the boat and aside from stopping at 

 LeClaire (usually) for coal we raced all the way back 

 to Beef Slough without landing. 



The "Silver Wave" could run well when she was in 

 good trim. She needed a good load on her head. On 

 one trip she ran from LeClaire to Beef Slough in 

 twenty-nine hours and thirty-seven minutes. The dis- 

 tance is three hundred miles. This run has not been 

 beaten by any raft-boat to my knowledge. 



There was considerable racing with other boats in 

 those days. Mr. Whitmore was always proud of his 

 boat and did not want her passed. 



If some one reported a "smoke ahead" he always got 

 busy and wanted to get close enough to read the name 

 even if he could not pass her. 



The prevailing opinion is that racing on the river is 

 dangerous. The movies generally show an explosion of 

 boilers as a natural feature of a steamboat race. This 

 is all wrong. The safest time to be on a boat is when she 

 is in a race. 



The engineer, firemen, mate, and watchman are 

 awake and alert on the main deck. The pilot is taking 

 pains to do his very best steering, the captain is in the 

 pilot-house or close by to give any needed assistance and 

 the rest of the crew even to the "slush cook" are inter- 



' Unconfirmed "Steamboat news" attributed to the firemen. 

 - Unconfirmed "Steamboat news" attributed to the cooks. 



