Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Ships
She walks the waters like a thing of life,
And seems to dare the elements to strife.
Byron—The Corsair. Canto I. St. 3.
She bears her down majestically near,
Speed on her prow, and terror in her tier.
Byron—The Corsair. Canto III. St. 15.
For why drives on that ship so fast,
Without or wave or wind?
The air is cut away before,
And closes from behind.
Coleridge—Ancient Mariner.
A strong nor’wester’s blowing, Bill;
Hark! don’t ye hear it roar now?
Lord help ’em, how I pities them
Unhappy folks on shore, now.
Charles Dibden—Sailor’s Consolation. Attributed to Pitt (song writer) and Hood.
The true ship is the ship builder.
Emerson—Essays. Of History.
For she is such a smart little craft,
Such a neat little, sweet little craft—
Such a bright little,
Tight little,
Slight little,
Light little,
Trim little, slim little craft!
W. S. Gilbert—Ruddigore.
A great ship asks deep waters.
Herbert—Jacula Prudentum.
The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered.
Herodotus. VII. 141. Relating the second reply of the Pythian Oracle to the Athenians.
Ships that sailed for sunny isles,
But never came to shore.
Thos. Kibble Hervey—The Devil’s Progress.
Morn on the waters, and purple and bright
Bursts on the billows the flushing of light.
O’er the glad waves, like a child of the sun,
See the tall vessel goes gallantly on.
Thomas Kibble Hervey—The Convict Ship.
Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
Samuel Johnson—Boswell’s Life of Johnson. (1759).
Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream.
An’, taught by time, I tak’ it so—exceptin’ always steam.
From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see thy Hand, O God—
Predestination in the stride o’ yon connectin’-rod.
Kipling—McAndrew’s Hymn.
The Liner she’s a lady, an’ she never looks nor ’eeds—
The Man-o’-War’s ’er ’usband an’ ’e gives ’er all she needs;
But, oh, the little cargo-boats, that sail the wet seas roun’,
They’re just the same as you an’ me, a’-plyin’ up an’ down.
Kipling—The Liner She’s a Lady.
Her plates are scarred by the sun, dear lass,
And her ropes are taut with the dew,
For we’re booming down on the old trail, our own trail, the out trail.
We’re sagging south on the Long Trail, the trail that is always new.
Kipling—L’Envoi. There’s a Whisper down the Field.
Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel
That shall laugh at all disaster,
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!
Longfellow—Building of the Ship. L. 1.
There’s not a ship that sails the ocean,
But every climate, every soil,
Must bring its tribute, great or small,
And help to build the wooden wall!
Longfellow—Building of the Ship. L. 66.
And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and masts of ships.
Longfellow—Hyperion. Bk. I. Ch. VII.
Like ships that have gone down at sea,
When heaven was all tranquillity.
Moore—Lalla Rookh. The Light of the Harem.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters.
Psalms. CVII. 23.
And let our barks across the pathless flood
Hold different courses.
Scott—Kenilworth. Ch. XXIX. Introductory verses.
She comes majestic with her swelling sails,
The gallant Ship: along her watery way,
Homeward she drives before the favouring gales;
Now flirting at their length the streamers play,
And now they ripple with the ruffling breeze.
Southey—Sonnet XIX.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burn’d on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 196.
It would have been as though he [Pres. Johnson] were in a boat of stone with masts of steel, sails of lead, ropes of iron, the devil at the helm, the wrath of God for a breeze, and hell for his destination.
Emory A. Storrs—Speech in Chicago, about 1865–6, when President Johnson threatened to imitate Cromwell and force Congress with troops to adjourn. As reported in the Chicago Tribune.
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill.
Tennyson—Break, Break, Break. St. 3.
Ships, dim discover’d, dropping from the clouds.
Thomson—The Seasons. Summer. L. 946.
Whoever you are, motion and reflection are especially for you,
The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.
Walt Whitman—Song of the Rolling Earth. 2.
Speed on the ship;—But let her bear
No merchandise of sin,
No groaning cargo of despair
Her roomy hold within;
No Lethean drug for Eastern lands,
Nor poison-draught for ours;
But honest fruits of toiling hands
And Nature’s sun and showers.
Whittier—The Ship-Builders.
If all the ships I have at sea
Should come a-sailing home to me,
Ah, well! the harbor would not hold
So many ships as there would be
If all my ships came home from sea.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox—My Ships. From Poems of Passion.
One ship drives East, and one drives West,
By the selfsame wind that blows;
It’s the set of the sails, and not the gales,
Which determines the way it goes.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox—Winds of Fate.