114 A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



Captain Van Sant was justly proud of the speed of 

 the "Silver Wave" and the "Musser." 



After we bought the "Ten Broeck" I soon discovered 

 that when loaded just right she made excellent time go- 

 ing up river, but she would not stand crowding when 

 heavily loaded as she did not have much free-board 

 forward. 



One night on backing out from a wood pile near 

 Fishers island to go back up to Beef Slough for our 

 second piece, I saw a boat coming up behind us and 

 apparently gaining on us. I called down to James Sted- 

 man, the chief engineer, who was on watch, telling him 

 we should try to keep ahead until we got up to the 

 boom (about eight miles). By the time he and the fire- 

 man got a good fire and our usual steam, the other boat 

 got up close, her bow even with our wheel and we saw 

 she was the "Musser." Her pilot whistled to go by on 

 the right but he did not go by. I kept well to my side 

 of the channel, the "Ten Broeck" got her gait and 

 gradually increased the gap between us and went into 

 the mouth of Beef Slough four lengths ahead. 



I warned our crew not to mention anything about it 

 as the "Musser" may not have been in as good trim as 

 the "Ten Broeck." 



Now comes the funny part of it. On our next trip 

 coming up we had a very heavy load of fuel and iron 

 boom chains on the "Ten Broeck" when we landed at 

 Winona and Captain Van Sant came on to ride up to 

 Beef Slough with us. 



While eating supper at the Winona dock the captain 

 gave me and the engineer a very kind but serious talk 

 about racing, said he would admit he had done a lot of 

 it in his time, but could plainly see now that there was 

 no sense in it, etc., etc. 



