A Diary of My Younger Years - The Autobiography of Ivan Hall

My First Ride on a Steamboat

MY FIRST RIDE ON A STEAMBOAT

I had crossed the Mississippi River at Fulton several times in skiffs and tugboats, but I had never crossed on any of the large steamboats. Paw would never let me. But as I became accustomed to the river I longed to ride on one. Then I became more venture some and determined to steal a ride across the river on one of the large steamboats.

So, while the captain was not looking, I sneaked on board a large boat that was bound for New Orleans. As I hid among the cotton bales where I thought I would not be found, I wondered what they would do with me if they found me. After waiting for some time for the boat to start, I became scared and wished that I was on shore again. A deck hand came and commenced to roll more cotton bales on deck all around me. I crouched down between the bales and still they did not see me.

After a while I could hear the puff of the engine and I could feel the boat moving. At last I could hear the bell ringing and hear the groaning of the big propelling wheels on both sides of the boat. I knew the boat was moving out into the stream; I knew it was shoving downstream and wondered if the boat would land across the river on the Arkansas side. After a long time I ventured to look out into the river and to my dismay I found that the boat was not going across the river but was going away down the river to I did not know where. I wished very much to be on the shore again. I vowed if I ever got on shore again that I would never go aboard another steamboat.

At last the captain came walking over the bales of cotton and, looking down, he spied me. After he had taken a good survey, he sternly asked me what I was doing there. Ah, but I was too scared to answer. Then he asked me to come forth and I came forth. He asked me where I was going, and I told him I thought I'd go across to Arkansas. The deck hands had now gathered around, grinning and laughing. They asked me if I thought I could roll in bales of cotton, but I couldn't even lift one end of a bale, so I answered in the negative.

Then the captain told me if I wanted to take a ride, he rather thought he needed a boy for awhile. After following the captains directions, I found myself carrying coal from the deck up into the cabin. After a time I began to get tired and wanted very much to get off the boat and go home. The boat, however, never landed in Arkansas but proceeded several miles down the river and landed at a little town in Tennessee, where they allowed me to get off and go home. The captain and his hands bid me farewell, telling me to come back again when I got to be a man and they would make a deck hand of me for sure.

I lost no time in getting back to Fulton. It was late at night when I got home. I had hoped that no one at Fulton would know where I had been, but the news had preceded me. The boys met me at the door, and I was asked all manner of questions. "Hello, old deck hand. Here comes the steamboater; how is the river bum today? What is the price of coal tonight?" until I was ashamed to go into the house.

The same old steamboat landed many a time at Fulton afterwards and the deck hands always asked me if I would like to take another trip down the river with them. I was just twelve years old at that time. I am now fifteen and live at Millington, Tennessee about fifteen miles south of Fulton and seventeen miles north of Memphis. I will now stop writing in my diary for a week, as I have to go to school and will have no time to write.