So how did he recognize the ship name is a name? Surely the log contained more common or more emphasized words.
A funny reaction would have been: "Klo-Tark? He named himself 'captain's log'"?
Edit: It reminds me on a trip with my family many years ago.
We went to Spain.
Since we didn't know the language, when we were on the first time on a subway, we tried to look for the name of the station so we can know how to return.
About an hour later, we figured out that the sign we memorized probably said "Exit", since it appeared in all the stations...