t very reason!

Captain Swain never deigned to notice me in any way, and the chief mate
followed his example so far as was practicable. The second mate's name
was Cathcart. He was man of inferior capacity, ignorant, and coarse. As
I was looked upon as a sort of "black sheep" in the flock, and was in
the second mate's watch, that officer imagined he could, with impunity,
make me a target for his vulgar jokes, and practised on me a line of
conduct which he dared not practice on others. A day or two after we left
Liverpool, he took occasion, when several of the crew were standing by,
to make my rather quaint NAME the subject of some offensive remarks.
My indignation was roused at such ungentlemanly conduct, and I retorted
with a degree of bitterness as well as imprudence that surprised myself
as well as others.

"My name?" said I; "you object to MY name! Look at home! My name is a
quiet name, a sensible name, surrounded with pleasant associations,
and easily spoken, which is more than can be said of yours.
Ca-a-th-ca-r-r-t! There is neither sense, meaning, nor beauty in that
name. Why," continued I, making strange grimaces, "one cannot speak
it without twisting the mouth into kinks and cuckold's necks without
number. Ca-a-th-c-a-a-rt! I would sooner be called Tantarabogus."

This turned the laugh against him. He made no reply, but no longer
annoyed me with his coarse jokes, and the respectable epithet of
"Tantarabogus" stuck to him until our arrival in New York.

The ship Lady Madison left Liverpool about the 17th of March, 1812. The
wind had been blowing a long time from the westward, with occasional
gales which prevented vessels from getting to sea; and we sailed in
company with a large fleet of merchant ships at the commencement of a
change of wind. We left the Mersey with a fine breeze and soon passed
the headmost vessels in the fleet. Our ship was large, a fine model,
newly coppered, well provided with sails, and having left part of her
cargo in Liverpool was in good ballast trim, and slipped through the
water like a fish.

For eight days this easterly wind continued, the ship sometimes carrying
top-gallant sails and a fore-topmast studding sail, and sometimes
running directly before the wind under double-reefed topsails and
foresail, progressing at the rate of ten, eleven, and eleven and a half
knots. Chronometers were unknown in those days, and lunar observations,
owing to the cloudy weather and other causes, c