To John E. Mouland
22 January 1873 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: ViU, UCCL 00862)

Hartford, Jan. 22.

My Dear Capt—

I am just as glad you got the gold medal, “old man,” as if I’d got it myself—I am thoroughly glad. And I am glad the officers & men were so handsomely treated by the Humane Society.1 You say “a money reward to each man & - - - pay to the officers.” I can’t [make] out that word; is it “extra pay,” or is it “two years’ pay?”—or what is it? Be sure & write or telegraph me, because I want to give the item to the N. Y. Tribune, & I want to get it right.2 Don’t forget it—don’t neglect it.

Well, they couldn’t have conferred the gold medal on a better man, anyway. But by George, when I think how Wood & the General3 & I did swell around that perilous upper deck & help give orders it makes me marvel at our own intrepidity!

I am to lecture in N. Y. the last day of this month & the first day or two of Feb.4 And after that I’m going to peg away at my book5 & be ready to sail for England in May. My wife said, weeks ago, when we were reading about the immensity & the palatial splendors of some of the other ships, “Well, it is no matter, we will not sail with anybody but Capt. Mouland.” So that thing is settled, & entirely to my satisfaction, too. Ah, & won’t we cut tobacco & smoke pipes & have a general good time? I rather think so.

Now “old man,” try hard to get down here next trip. It is only 4 hours from Boston—not 6. You leave there at 9 AM & reach here at 1 PM; or you leave there at 3 PM & get here at 7. Be sure & telegraph me when you start, so that I can meet you at the station & cart you out.6

I am very much obliged to that Humane Society. When I lecture in London I mean to offer them the proceeds in a quiet way, for I think the Society is supported by voluntary contributions.7

I have just bought a lovely piece of ground, 544 feet front on the Avenue here, and 320 feet deep & shall have a house built in the midst of it while we are absent in England8—& then we’ll have a blow-out there every time you can run down from Boston.

Don’t forget about that information as to the officers’ reward.

Faithfully Yours,

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens first described Mouland’s heroic rescue of the crew of the shipwrecked Charles Ward, suggesting that Mouland and his crew should receive a medal, in his letter of 20 November 1872 to the Royal Humane Society. On 3 December he invited Mouland to visit him in Hartford. Mouland replied (CU-MARK):

UCLC31851

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Although Clemens did not realize it, Mouland’s gold medal came not from the Royal Humane Society, but from the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, to which his recommendation was evidently referred. Founded in 1839, the Liverpool society still grants awards “to recognise the actions of persons instrumental in saving, or attempting to save, human life from danger” (Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society 1994, 2, 4). The society’s annual report for the year ending 1 July 1873 recorded the following:

To Captain John E Mouland, s.s. “Batavia”, a GOLD MEDAL; and SILVER MEDALS to Mr David Gillies, 3rd officer; Mr Haslett Kyle, 4th officer; Nicholas Foley and Henry Foley, quartermasters; Richard Brennan, Nathanial Clarke, John Park, and Thomas Henry, seamen, for a most gallant and skilful rescue of nine survivors of the crew of the “Charles Ward”, which was dismasted and waterlogged and almost torn to pieces by the fearful violence of the winds and waves in the Atlantic, on the 20th November, 1872. The weather was so bad that they could not hoist up the lifeboat after the rescue, and it had to be abandoned. (Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society 1873, 11)

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2 If Mouland answered Clemens’s question his letter is now lost. Clemens’s “item” (published as “British Benevolence” in the New York Tribune on 27 January) said that the officers received “a money reward suited to their official grade” (see 25 Jan 73 to Reid, n. 2, and the Enclosure with the same letter). The meaning of Mouland’s original words, “Injun pay,” has not been discovered.

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3 See 26 Nov 72 to JLC and PAM, n. 2, and 3 Dec 72 to Mouland, n. 2.

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4 These dates were changed (see p. 295).

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5 The manuscript for The Gilded Age.

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6 Between late January and mid-May the Batavia was assigned to the Liverpool-Boston route. Mouland visited the Clemenses twice before their departure for England in May, during the two periods when he was in the country on layovers. The first visit took place at the end of February, and the second sometime between 7 and 11 April (“Brief Mention,” Hartford Courant, 28 Feb 73, 2; “News Summary,” Brooklyn Eagle, 14 Apr 73, 2; Boston Transcript: “Steamboats,” 25 Jan 73, 7, and 28 Feb 73, 7; “Transcript Marine Journal,” 25 Feb 73, 5, and 7 Apr 73, 5; “Shipping,” New York Times, 16 May 73, 7; 26 Apr 73 to Greene).

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7 No record has been found of any donation from Clemens to the Royal Humane Society or to the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society.

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8 See 13 and 17 Jan 73 to Reid, nn. 6, 8.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU).

Previous publication: L5, 277–79.

Provenance:deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 16 April 1960.

Emendations and textual notes:

make • make | make [rewritten for clarity]