Fortune
Eads made his initial fortune in salvage, by creating a diving bell for retrieving goods from the bottom of rivers that were sunk there by riverboat disasters, especially along the busy Mississippi River. He also devised special boats for raising the remains of sunken ships from the river bed. Because of his detailed knowledge of the Mississippi (the equal of any professional river pilot), his exceptional ability at navigating the most treacherous parts of the river system, and his personal fleet of snag-boats and salvage craft, he was afforded the much prized courtesy title of "Captain" by the rivermen of the Mississippi and was addressed as Captain Eads throughout his life.
Read more about this topic: James Buchanan Eads
Famous quotes containing the word fortune:
“When the old man on the border lost his horse, who could know that it was good fortune in disguise?”
—Chinese proverb.
“Only he who has had the good fortune to read them in the nick of time, in the most perceptive and recipient season of life, can give any adequate account of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)