What does Mark Twain actually mean in river-boat language?

Question

Mark Twain... who knows about him?

Answer 1

Barbara is right. The mississippi river is full of sandbars and many a boat became stranded. For this reason, wise captains assigned someone to constantly measure the depth of the river when they knew (or suspected) that they were in shallow water.

They would hold a rope over the side of boat with a weight at the bottom and constantly watch the depth. When the critical depth marked on the rope (2 fathoms) was reached, the person would yell out as loud as he could "Mark Twain!!" Mark as in "we hit the critical mark" and twain is old english for "two."

That meant STOP! If they sailed any further they too would get hung up on a sandbar.

Rich

Answer 2

Mark Twain River

Answer 3

Mark Twain Measurement

Answer 4

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RE:
What does Mark Twain actually mean in river-boat language?
Mark Twain... who knows about him?

Answer 5

A change is appropriate within a country, when old ways are no longer useful fro the country as a whole. But thinking contains involves a degree of inertia, the kind of idea that it's always been this way and must continue to be this way. People can be afraid of positive change, because they've got a personal attachment and investment in the way things are at the moment. So a first mover on positive change, often gets flak from all sides because there is something in the current state of affairs that people want to hold on to and are afraid to let go. But in retrospect if a change has occurred and fears haven't been realised but benefits have accrued then people switch to supporting the patriot. The difference with the patriot is that it's the whole country rather than individual selective interests that are in mind. But that perspective is hidden from others who find it hard to believe that someone is really having that kind of perspective. But we are really past that point now. It's global and it more clearly pans into the distant future. So these days, the "patriot" is the global citizen with all future generations in mind, and that's the hardest thing for people to see because it crosses all perceived boundaries and divisions, and that's just not in the mindset of a lot of people. It would be considered very naive or worse in the kind of society we have today, which is very short term and competitively driven and obscured by all kinds of complex contrived themes.

Answer 6

Mar Twain means 2 fathoms under the keel (12 feet). It was the river boat call meaning "safe water."

Answer 7

It's a depth measurement-two fathoms. Samuel Clemens actually trained as a riverboat pilot. He wrote about it in "Life on the Mississippi".

Answer 8

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That standing up for what is right is hard, while standing up for what is popular is easy. A similar phrase would be that success has many fathers while failure is an orphan.