Mark Twain was impressed by the river chariots in Hannibal and deeply desired to someday, become a steamboat captain. Twain eventually managed to acquire an apprenticeship with a steamboat captain.
In Twain's writing of the Mississippi river that borders Hannibal, he claimed that he was highly impressed and fascinated by the Mississippi river itself, its immensity as well as the people/ workers who populated the steamboats on the river.
