Changing Of The Guard
Whenever influential waterways leaders hit milestones in their careers or retire, it inspires reflection on the importance of accumulated experience and wisdom. This applies both on the rivers and ashore. Take Mississippi River steamboat captain Horace Ezra Bixby, for example. Bixby remained active as a steamboat captain well into his 80s. At the age of 84, he was pilot of the U.S. snagboat Wright. He died at the age of 86 in 1912.
His career bookended the great ages of steamboating on the Mississippi and other rivers, both before and after the Civil War. Across his career, Bixby saw a tremendous amount of change, including the rapid growth of railroad tariffs that some feared would drive steamboats off the rivers altogether.
The main reason we know his name today is because of his decision to take a young, unknown cub river pilot under his wing and teach him the river. That cub pilot’s name was Samuel Clemens, who became famous as the writer Mark Twain (the name taken from riverboat slang). Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” was a best-seller and remains so to this day.
We often talk about older towboat captains retiring, and the loss of knowledge and experience that will go with them. Lately, some captains are continuing to work into their 70s and even 80s, as Bixby did, delaying the crunch that will come when they retire. Their delay in retiring also extends the time they have to give to new recruits, some of whom may not come from towboating families.
Skills and knowledge used to be passed almost entirely informally from one generation to another, in mentor-student relationships, like that between Bixby and Twain. Today, training in all facets of towboating and barge fleet management has become more formalized and official, from deckhand to tankerman to piloting. But those mentor relationships are still just as important as they were in Horace Bixby’s day.
That’s something the new generation of rising inland waterways leaders, like those who will be featured in the “40 Under 40” awards at the upcoming Inland Marine Expo in Nashville, should not only accept but also embrace.
