Before becoming more famous as the pen name of Samuel Clemens, what did 'mark twain' refer to?

Roxanne33

He adopted his name from the call 'Mark twain!' - meaning by the mark of two fathoms - used when sounding river shallows. Source : http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mtwain.htm May 23 02, 12:11 PM

eliasen

Mark Twain himself stated that he stole the pen-name from Captain Isaiah Sellers. You can read Twain's words on my web site in chapter 50 of 'Life On The Mississippi': http://www.mindspring.com/~eliasen/twain/miss/miss50.html Twain claims that Sellers used the pen-name in writing articles to newspapers. Twain used to brutally satirize Sellers, signing his own articles 'Sergeant Fathom.' After Sellers died, Twain claims to have taken the name. The problem that scholars have with this story is that there's no evidence that Isaiah Sellers ever used 'Mark Twain' as a pen-name. Nobody's ever been able to dig up an example. Sellers apparently signed under his own name. May 23 02, 7:14 PM

eliasen

By the way, I'm not disputing the statement above. The cry of 'Mark Twain' did indeed mean a depth sounding of exactly two fathoms. Some sources, including the recent Ken Burns documentary on Twain claim that 'Mark Twain' implied safe water. This is completely wrong. Read chapter 13 of 'Life on the Mississippi' to see a case where the cry 'mark twain' struck fear into a young cub pilot named Samuel Clemens. A funny story. http://www.mindspring.com/~eliasen/twain/miss/miss13.html May 23 02, 7:18 PM