What does Mark Twain mean?

[Bad Dog]

As a barefoot boy sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River, Samuel Langhorne Clemens watched stern-wheeler boats churning the muddy waters, and he heard the leadsmen sounding the depth of the river by calling out to the captains, "By the deep six ... by the mark five ... by the deep four ... by the mark three." When the river bottom was only two fathoms, or twelve feet, down, he would hear the lusty cry "by the mark twain." Long after he left the Mississippi, and after various careers as a riverboat pilot, prospector, and printer, Sam Clemens, now a journalist, contributed an article to the Nevada Territorial Enterprise on February 3, 1865, and signed it with a new name -
Mark Twain.

Just a point of interest.
BD

[renegade600]

okay?!?!?!?!?!?!

[zipulrich]

I learned that in about 4th-5th grade. He was required reading in a lot of classes through the years, and I'm glad he was. One of the best storytellers ever.

[Ned Seagoon]

Yes a very interesting chap. My Grandfather, a British seafarer, met and spoke with Mark Twain in one of the southern US towns in the late 1800s. He was very impressed with him. Mark Twain was very interested all things associated with water transport, and spoke with many seafarers. BF

[Snurfen]

"Twain" is an archaic form of "two". As in "never the twain shall meet".

Great story though, we weren't brought up on his stories in school quite so much over here. Still very popular though.

[Vercades]

Yeah, I learned about that in english class waaaaaaaay back in the last century. We read some book about steamboats, by Mark Twain. And Mark Twain also had a habit of generalizing the worlds people, I forget the books name but it was kinda funny.