Author Description

Based primarily on narratives collected by the author from more than fifty pilots (some of whom worked the rivers for as long as sixty years), “The River’s in My Blood” is about riverboat pilots on the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their tributaries. The book begins with a discussion of the river in cultural terms, both symbolic and practical, the steamboat pilot as immortalized by Mark Twain, and the coexistence of old-time tradition and space-age innovation. The following chapters discuss various aspects of the piloting profession: initiation, learning the river, technology of boats and the river, work life and social life on the boats, and the legacy of piloting. Pilots tell of accidents and explosions, cyclones, unions, impromptu races, pranks, pets, superstitions, eccentricities, family life, and retirement. The old-timers tell of the old days of constantly changing channels, whistle communications, wooden hulls, and hand-steered wheels. And, in keeping with Mark Twain's “stretchers,” there are tall tales passed down along the way. In focusing on working pilots and their profession, Jane Curry presents a composite picture of modern riverboat pilots while at the same time preserving their individuality. The river is “in their blood,” and the tradition, if less immediately lived because of technological improvements, is still actively remembered.