In 1849, Captain Waterman resigned from the _Sea Witch_ to take the Pacific Mail steamship _Northerner_ from New York to San Francisco. During the three years that he had commanded the _Sea Witch_, she had made a large amount of money for her owners, and Captain Waterman had added to his reputation,--so much so, indeed, that certain good people began to say unpleasant things of him. It was alleged that Captain Waterman carried sail too hard, that he exceeded the bounds of prudence in this respect, and kept padlocks on the topsail sheets and rackings on the topsail halliards fore and aft; also that he maintained a standard of discipline far more severe than was necessary. It is probable that Captain Waterman did carry sail rather hard--most American captains who wanted to get anywhere in those days usually did--and as to the padlocks and rackings, more than one captain used these precautions to prevent villainous or cowardly sailors from letting go sheets and halliards by the run, when according to their ideas the ship had too much canvas on her. The fact, however, remains that in the eighteen years during which Captain Waterman commanded various ships, he never lost a spar or carried away rigging of any importance, and never called on underwriters for one dollar of loss or damage. The record shows that six of the men before the mast sailed with him upon all his voyages in the _Natchez_ and the _Sea Witch_, a rare occurrence at that period, or at any other time of which we have knowledge, and creditable alike to the sailors, the ships, and their commander. The truth is that Captain Waterman was a humane, conscientious, high-minded man, who never spared himself nor any one else when a duty was to be performed. There are, and always have been, lazy, incompetent, mutinous sailors, a type of men that Captain Waterman detested. They found no comfort in sailing with him, and were glad when the voyage was ended, so that they might scramble ashore and relate their woes to the sympathetic legal “gents” who were usually to be found hanging about Pier 9, East River, when the _Sea Witch_ was reported coming up the bay. We shall hear more of Captain Waterman and his crew on board of the _Challenge_ in a later chapter. The celebrated clipper-ship captain, Nathaniel Brown Palmer, the first commander of the _Paul Jones_, _Houqua_, _Samuel Russell_, and _Oriental_, was born in the pretty town of Stonington, on Long Island Sound in 1799, and came from distinguished colonial ancestry. His grandfather’s only brother fell mortally wounded at the battle of Groton Heights in 1771, while his father was an eminent lawyer and a man of marked ability.