Addressed as

 is considered a Circumstance in Sunless Sea.

In order to progress the stories of Sunless Sea, you need to have this quality activated.

Circumstance description
How do they speak to you?

Obtaining
 can be obtained if you pick the Choose a past action in the Character creation when creating a new character.

Circumstance status
The  has different status according to your actions, defined by the comment in front of the story.

Journal description

 * [ 1 ] Madam
 * [ 2 ] Sir
 * [ 3 ] Citizen
 * [ 4 ] my lord
 * [ 5 ] my lady
 * [ 6 ] Captain
 * [ 100 ] (mumble)