Steamboat Pilot Jim Bludso
Louisville Courier Journal, 20 November 1904, page A5
WHEN STEAM BOATING WAS AT ITS ZENITH
Disasters on the River-But the Cumberland did have its Jim Bludso,
a negro pilot on the John Randolph, who died at his wheel.
the John Randolph, as she came up the river on March 16, 1836,
took fire, and reached the end of her journey in a full blaze.
Dave Craft, her pilot, a slave, some say, an ex-slave according to others, stayed at his post and steered for the wharf. The rope, however, was burned in two after the wharf was touched, and the vessel swung out into the stream and burned to the water's edge. David Craft's heroic soul went up in the smoke of the wreck and two other slaves lost their lives. The freight aboard, which was burned, was valued at $200,000.