During the fall of 1860 Captain David DeHaven of the St. Louis and New Orleans packet steamer Alonzo Child was "impressed with the belief that he had on his boat two of the best pilots on the river." The first of these pilots was Horace E. Bixby whom the captain presented with an inscribed "splendid watch", the other pilot who impressed him was Sam Clemens. When Sam Clemens first began to pilot for DeHaven, the captain could not have been very impressed with the experience. It was over a day out of St. Louis 20 September 1860 when the Child with Clemens at the wheel approached Cairo in the dark. When landing a steamboat the pilot was under the orders of the captain who ordered Clemens to land at a certain place. Evidently it was dark and the captain failed see a boat already occupying that spot but the pilot did see the vessel and told him so. Clemens later recalled the captain "said there wasn't any steamboat there and I tried to prove it to him and succeeded by mashing that stern-wheeler all to pieces." The stern-wheeler was the Jacob Poe which only sustained some small damage "from contact with the nose of the Alonzo Child." After loading additional freight and passengers the Child "cleared for the South at daylight" on the twenty-first of September.
A day ahead of the Child was Captain Klinfelters' steamer the Gladiator also bound for New Orleans. After three days and some skilled piloting on the part of both Bixby and Clemens the Child had caught up with the Gladiator in the vicinity of Napoleon, Arkansas. Captain Klinfelter was a competitive riverman and if possible he would not let the Child beat his vessel to New Orleans. In the published river memoranda of steamboats bound for St. Louis note both the Gladiator and the Child together at various points along the river. Just past Port Hudson as a passenger recalled it, the Gladiator; "tried to pass the 'Child' on the bend side of False Point, at the shoulder of Prophet Island." We don't know whether Clemens or Higby was piloting the Child at this point, but whoever it was gave the pilot on the Gladiator something think about. Here the Gladiator "found she was getting in a close place, when her bow was somewhat past the stern of the 'Child'. Signaling the engine room the pilot of the Gladiator had her " 'worked slow,' and pulled suddenly out to the left, touching with her bow the stern of the 'Child,' and bearing away her yawl, destroying it completely." They had little trouble with the Gladiator after that. Arriving in New Orleans Captain DeHaven was so impressed with his two pilots that he complemented then both and presented Higby with the inscribed watch.
