From Samuel L. Clemens and Others to John E. Mouland
23 November 1872 • SS Batavia en route from Liverpool, England, to Boston, Mass.
(MS: ViU, UCCL 00834)

The Passengers to Capt. Mouland1

Sir: You have brought us safely through a remarkable voyage, & one which once or twice seemed to promise disastrous results to ship & passengers. Your courageous bearing & your cheery words & countenance, all through the storms that beset us, inspeired us with a hope & a confidence that not even the deliberate villainy of the barometer could vanquish. When we were uneasiest & our perils seemed at the highest, the reflection that you were at your post on deck brought with it an inspiriting c sense of security; & after you had braved that gale, up there, through all that terrific morning of the 18th November, & we had remained in dismal suspense hearsed in the saloon, it was sunshine to see your face again when you introduced the wave that smashed the bulwarks & flooded the cabins; & it was cordial wine to hear you say, with cheery indifference to truth, that there was “no danger.”

For a large part of two days & nights you were wholly without food or sleep; you lost the ends of your fingers & never missed them, you were so busy issuing orders & fighting the hurricane; & by only a hairsbreadth you escaped annihilation by the wave that accomplished the starboard damage——& then we would have been in a state of things. We are sailors enough to know & appreciate the necessity to us all of your intelligent head & and your superb seamanship in [ thr those] th troubled hours—we are sailors enough for that, although it is doubtful if one of us can tell the mizzen-foretops’l-jib-boom from the binnacle gaskets of the main-to’-gallan’mast bulkhead. You went through a good deal, Captain, but you brought the ship through along with you, & you never lost a single spar except the two life-boats—one of which was splintered & washed over-board by a wave that was hunting for the main-royals, & the other was turned adrift because sound judgment dictated that course. And we speak the simple, grateful truth when we say that we all recognize & appreciate the great qualities which you have manifested, & the happy success achieved by their [exercise]—& when we add that we respect & honor & esteem you without stint or measure, our hearts speak through our lips.

You did a brave, good [ dead deed] when you went instantly to the aid of the shipwrecked crew of the “Charles Ward,” Nov. 19th. Without a moment’s hesitation you took the serious responsibility of halting the ‸your‸ ship in a fierce gale of wind & a turbulent sea, & adventuring a boat’s-crew of gallant volunteers in the service of humanity. Your masterly management of the rescuing enterprise was conspicuous throughout; & to you, the head & chief here, the crew of the wreck owe their first obligations for their restoration to the world of the living.

We shall separate to-morrow; but no matter how widely our diverging paths may sunder us, our memories of you will still bloom & bear pleasant fruit through the accumulating years; & whenever we think of you or hear the friendly music of your name, we’ll warm right up & say Here’s luck & long life to the “old man!”

Edward W. Emerson
Secretary

James Hall

C. F. Wood.

E. K. Alden

Colton Greene

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Although Clemens and his fellow passengers addressed this letter to Mouland, they also planned to have it published with the previous letter. The original manuscript was evidently given to Mouland, and a copy of it given to the Boston Advertiser, where the two letters appeared under the same headline, “A Daring Deed.” The Advertiser added a brief explanation before the present (second) letter: “A meeting of the passengers was held after the rescue, officers appointed, and a committee to draw up an address. Of course the task was intrusted to the genial humorist, and the result was as follows” (26 Nov 72, 4).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L5, 227–229; numerous newspapers, including “A Daring Deed,” Boston Advertiser, 26 Nov 72, 4; “A Daring Deed,” Boston Evening Transcript, 26 Nov 72, 1; “Perils of the Sea,” Hartford Courant, 27 Nov 72, 1; Brownell 1949, 2–3.

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

Emendations and textual notes:

Of On • Ofn [‘f’ partly formed; possibly ‘l’]

thr those • throse

exercise • ex exercise

dead deed • dea ed