You board a Mississippi riverboat at dusk and sleep as it steams south, 1876 | 4 Hour Sleep Story, No Mid Roll Ads

Fall asleep inside history. Tonight you are a passenger on a stern wheel packet boat leaving St. Louis at dusk in the autumn of 1876, steaming south down the Mississippi through a calm and starry night. You take supper in the long white cabin, walk the quiet guards while the towns slide past, look in at the engine room watch and the darkened pilot house where a man steers twelve hundred remembered miles of river, and listen as the leadsman sings the depth of the water up out of the dark, two soft words that mean all is well. The great wheel turns astern like a heartbeat, the boat ties up if fog ever closes the river, and your berth waits in a small white stateroom where the light comes gently through the transom.

You will hear the steady soft churn of the stern wheel, water sliding along a wooden hull, the slow deep sigh of the scape pipes, the gentle working creak of a big timber boat, and far off, the leadsman's call and one whistle answered across the water.

This is a four hour sleep story. The narration ends softly a little past the three hour mark, and then the river runs on beneath you until the fourth hour. Black screen friendly.

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome
6:57 The Levee At Dusk
12:19 Under The Great Bridge
16:28 The Boat From Keel To Texas
22:22 Supper In The Long Cabin
26:30 The Guards At Evening
30:59 The Engine Room Watch
34:54 The Main Deck Sleeps
39:19 The Leadsman'S Song
45:00 The Pilot House
52:48 Wooding Up By Torchlight
57:39 When The River Closes
1:02:13 Your Stateroom
1:06:12 The Train On The Illinois Shore
1:09:49 The Boat Settles
1:15:13 Drifting

Listen with the video on YouTube: add the episode link.

New episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6pm Eastern. Nights carry you inside an ordinary evening from the past. Tales, every Friday, tell one true story from history, calm enough to sleep to and interesting enough to stay up for.

🕯 Kingdoms at Dusk: https://kingdomsatdusk.com
📜 All our worlds: https://gildenmyth.com
🌙 Norse myth sleep stories, The Sleeping Almanac: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSleepingAlmanac
🕊 Goddess sleep meditations, The Tender Hour: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTenderHourChannel
🎙 David's interview podcast, Conversations That Count: https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsThatCount-CTC
🎧 Also on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3J6lZ10GvK07qCv3aQxnkR and Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/conversations-that-count-a31f16a6-3131-4c8f-982f-19d52407e8eb/id1890348796

Sources: Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi and Life on the Mississippi; Louis C. Hunter, Steamboats on the Western Rivers; Frederick Way Jr., Way's Packet Directory; Thomas C. Buchanan, Black Life on the Mississippi; George Byron Merrick, Old Times on the Upper Mississippi.

A real human voice with AI assistance, fully disclosed. No mid roll ads, ever, so nothing wakes you.