Mississippi

Full Story

"Mississippi".

Chapter 1

The steamboat captain's voice boomed down from somewhere above. "What's your name boy?"

The boy could not see the captain, but he answered politely. "I'm Joe. I'm the new deck boy, sir."

A pair of shiny black shoes and a pair of starched white trousers appeared on the ladder above Joe's head. "I'm the captain of the Mississippi Queen." Said the voice attached to the smart shoes and trousers.

"Yes sir." gulped Joe.

The captain barked out. "You know how to spell that, I hope?"

Joe squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to imagine how the word looked. He did not want to disappoint the captain within the first minute of stepping aboard the paddle steamer.

Before Joe could answer, the captain spoke up. "Four S's, Four I's and two P's! The rest is obvious." He muttered as he went back into the steamer's bridge, "You had best learn it, because I'll test you again!"

Joe stood there with his cap in one hand and his little suitcase in the other. He did not know what to do next.

A door opened and a tall, thin man in a dark suit stepped onto the deck. "Are you the new deck boy?" the man asked.

Joe nodded, "Yes sir."

"Follow me boy!" the man ordered. He walked off down the deck.

Joe hurried after the man in the dark suit.

The man led Joe along the deck, up and down ladders, towards the back of the steamboat. Crewmembers hurried past in both directions. There were stokers and firemen with their faces blackened from coal and soot. Some men carried sacks and crates on their shoulders. Joe passed the engine room. The steam engine was puffing and rattling as it built up steam. As the paddle wheels started turning, machine men stood by with cans of oil and grease.

They reached the very back of the steamer. The man said, "We call this the stern. You had better remember that." He lifted a hatch on the deck and pointed into the dark, cramped space below. He said. "You sleep in here. When you are not asleep, then you are on deck duty." The man checked a watch that he kept chained to his waistcoat. "We sail in three minutes. Drop your bag here and report to the first mate." The man hurried away.

"Yes sir." Joe answered. He picked up his suitcase and pushed it through the doorway of his tiny cabin.

The man shouted over his shoulder. "I'm the purser. Stay out of my way until you leave the ship at St Louis!"

Joe hurried back along the deck, which was difficult, because it was now crowded with big men all pushing in the opposite direction. Joe felt like a fish trying to swim upstream. The ship's horn blasted and the steamer started to pull away from the quayside. Joe ran to the railing and peered down at the giant paddlewheel as it churned the muddy river water. The town of Memphis became smaller and smaller as the steamer set course up the middle of the mighty Mississippi River.

A voice boomed in Joe's ear. "Take these and get scrubbing boy!"

Joe turned. It was the first mate. A bucket and broom were thrust into Joe's hands. It seemed that his first voyage aboard a river steamer was going to be hard work.

Chapter 2

Joe had always wanted to see the world. He had thought that he might stow away aboard a ship and sail to far-off lands. But the family farm outside Memphis, Tennessee, was a long, long way from the ocean. For an eleven-year-old boy in 1850, travelling that far to the ocean would have been impossible. So Joe made his way into town, hung about the quayside and suddenly had the idea of signing on as a deck boy on a riverboat.