When He Had Seen
Each Division Once In The Daytime And Once At Night, His Education Was
So Nearly Complete That He Took Out A 'daylight' License; A Few Trips
Later He Took Out A Full License, And Went To Piloting Day And Night -
And He Ranked A 1, Too.
Mr. Bixby placed me as steersman for a while under a pilot whose feats
of memory were a constant marvel to me.
However, his memory was born in
him, I think, not built. For instance, somebody would mention a name.
Instantly Mr. Brown would break in -
'Oh, I knew HIM. Sallow-faced, red-headed fellow, with a little scar on
the side of his throat, like a splinter under the flesh. He was only in
the Southern trade six months. That was thirteen years ago. I made a
trip with him. There was five feet in the upper river then; the "Henry
Blake" grounded at the foot of Tower Island drawing four and a half; the
"George Elliott" unshipped her rudder on the wreck of the "Sunflower" - '
'Why, the "Sunflower" didn't sink until - '
'I know when she sunk; it was three years before that, on the 2nd of
December; Asa Hardy was captain of her, and his brother John was first
clerk; and it was his first trip in her, too; Tom Jones told me these
things a week afterward in New Orleans; he was first mate of the
"Sunflower." Captain Hardy stuck a nail in his foot the 6th of July of
the next year, and died of the lockjaw on the 15th.
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