This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
The best of the steamboat captains on the Upper Mississippi River became legends in their own lifetimes for their daring and their skill. Above them all stood William F. Davidson, the only captain to be accorded the honorary rank of Commodore by fellow rivermen. The Commodore was head of the Davidson Line, the largest and most successful line of packet boats on the river. Proud and headstrong, the Commodore made sure both his boats and his crews were shipshape. The Davidson Line ran on time and went where it said it would go.
Then, a crisis. In mid-career, Commodore Davidson was converted to Christianity, an uncommon event among crusty steamboat captains. It turned out to be a serious conversion, not the kind that melts down in time for golf the following Sunday. Like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, he became as hard a Christian as he had been a reprobate. Amid the tears of stockholders in his company, the Commodore banished all bars from his steamboats, forbad dancing on Sundays, as well as all other games, put all gamblers ashore, and in general made his boats so clean and reputable they could have served as Methodist churches.
But even in the deepest of conversions there is often some debris left behind by the cleansing water and mop. And steamboat captains’ habits run deep. Old captains long retired ashore often still stood watch as other boats passed by.
Those habits may account for Davidson's manner of prayer. Or it could have been river water in the baptismal fount. Following his conversion, the Commodore regularly assembled his crew for prayer meetings on deck. At these meetings, Davidson himself often offered the public prayer. According to a crewman who claimed to be present, at least one prayer concluded with the following petition for the poor:
"And, O Lord, bless the poor. Give to every poor man a barrel of pork, a barrel of sugar, a barrel of salt, a barrel of pepper. Oh, HELL no—that's too much pepper."
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
