explorer, Sir James Ross, in command of the famous Erebus and Terror expedition.
Captain Palmer next took command of the schooner Cadet, owned by Borrows & Spooner, of New York, on board of which he made a number of voyages to the Spanish Main. In 1826 he took the brig Tampico to Carthagena, and upon his return he married a daughter of Major Paul Babcock and sister of Captain David S. Babcock, afterwards famous as commander of the clipper ships SwordFish and Young America, and subsequently President of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Captain Palmer then took the brig Francis on several voyages to Europe, and in 1829 was in command of the brig Anawan, exploring new sealing-grounds among the islands about Cape Horn. In 1833 he took command of the New Orleans packet ship Huntsville, and then of the Hibernia, Garrick, and Siddons. In 1842 and the years following, as we have seen, he commanded the clippers Paul Jones, Houqua, Samuel Russell, and Oriental, and in 1850 retired from the sea.
At this time he was well known, not only among his neighbors and friends at Stonington, but in the great seaports of Europe and China as "Captain Nat," and many of those who talked about what he had said and what he had done were apparently unaware that he possessed any other name. It is pleasant to reflect that the neighboring seaport of Bristol has perpetuated the title in one who is respected and beloved, not more for his genius than for his modesty and reserve.
It was, of course, impossible for a man of Cap-
