What was the name of the steamboat pilot who taught Mark Twain?

The steamboat pilot who taught Mark Twain was Horace Bixby.

Born Horace Ezra Bixby, he was an experienced pilot on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers. He met Samuel Clemens in 1857, when Clemens was seeking the river knowledge needed to become a licensed pilot. Bixby agreed to teach him the lower Mississippi for $500, with part of the fee paid in advance and the remainder to come from Clemens’s future earnings.

Clemens spent roughly two years apprenticed to Bixby, learning to read changing channels, sandbars, snags, reefs, and other hazards. River piloting required memorizing the river’s constantly shifting geography and making quick decisions in darkness, fog, and difficult weather. After receiving his pilot’s license, Clemens worked on several steamboats before the Civil War disrupted Mississippi traffic.

Twain later described Bixby in Life on the Mississippi as an exacting, colorful mentor. The book helped make Bixby famous beyond the river world, though friends disputed Twain’s comic portrayal of his language and temperament. Orion Clemens was Twain’s brother, not his pilot instructor.