POSTCARD OF HARBOR BOAT `MARK TWAIN'

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] POSTCARD OF ST. LOUIS HARBOR BOAT `MARK TWAIN.' [St. Louis, 1907] Black and white postcard of the St. Louis harbor boat `Mark Twain' at the edge of the shore with its gang-plank down, unloading and loading cargo. This is the rarer of the two recorded postcards known that picture this famous steamboat, the last steamboat piloted by Mark Twain. In 1902, after his visit to Hannibal, Twain stopped in St. Louis and rechristened the harbor boat `City of St. Louis' as the `Mark Twain.' He took the wheel for a short excursion around the harbor, but when he saw some ripples ahead and could not be sure whether they indicated a sand bar, he casually passed the wheel over to the boat's pilot, excusing himself by saying he was tired. It was the last time he was to pilot a steamboat. The boat had been built in 1873 as the `Elon G. Smith,' renamed the `City of St. Louis' in 1882, and within a few years of being renamed the `Mark Twain' it was leaking and having problems, which resulted in hilarious local newspaper headlines (`Mark Twain in Need of Repairs' `Mark Twain Leaking Again'). Of the many steamboats named after Twain, this is the only one directly linked to him. This postcard was sold as a souvenir to commemorate the 1902 event and shows the boat as it was typically used. This card was being used as early as 1907; this example is postmarked in 1909. A very scarce postcard. Cf. Paine, BIOGRAPHY, III:1173-5. Rasmussen, pp. 303-4.