Gain River-Navigation Knowledge with "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain

[dusty]

I thought this was very interesting:

Captain Joshua Slocum (first of mankind to sail solo around the world), in his book "Voyage of the Liberdade" gives this review of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain (page 24 of "Voyage of the Liberdade" for those reading from Dover ISBN 0-486-40022-0):

The money was taken care of all right, and so was the Aquidneck! By daylight of the following morning she was underweigh, and under full sail at the head of a fleet of piloted vessels, and, being the swiftest sailer, easily kept the lead, and was one of the vessels that did not "rompe el banco," as was predicted by all the pilots, while they hunched their shoulders above their ears, exclaiming, "No practico, no possebla!" This was my second trip down the Parana, it is true, and I had been on other rivers as wonderful as this one, and had, moreover, read Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi," which gives no end of information on river currents, wind-reefs, sand-reefs, alligator-water, and all that is useful to know about rivers, so that I was confident of my ability; all that had been required was the stirring-up that I got from the impertinent pilot, or buccaneer, whichever is proper to call him---one thing certain, he was no true sailor!

The very reason I started reading Captain Slocum's books was to gain some insight on traveling the wild, blue water so I might live through some long and great adventure. He read for the same reason, apparently, and recommends Mark Twain's work for recognizing some gotchas on the art of navigating rivers.

Slocum's books I do recommend, as well. Just started "Voyage of the Liberdade", after reading his "Sailing Alone around the World". The latter was more a tale of adventure than a how-to on blue-watering, but still a very engulfing time warp into the life of a 19th century sailor and his run-ins with pirates and kings. Just started "Voyage...". It's intriguing so far!