17 quotes found
"I intend shortly, God willing, a journey for Newfoundland to visit a plantation which I began there some few years since."
"Although in cloaths, company, buildings faire With England, New-found-land cannot compare: Did some know what contentment I found there, Alwayes enough, most times somewhat to spare, With little paines, lesse toyle, and lesser care, Exempt from taxings, ill newes, Lawing, feare, If cleane, and warme, no matter what you weare, Healthy, and wealthy, if men careful are, With much-much more, then I will now declare, (I say) if some wise men knew what this were (I doe beleeve) they'd live no other where."
"It seems to be a fearsome coast,— No trees, no hospitable whiffs,— God help the crew whose ship is lost On yonder homicidal cliffs!"
"Pakistan and Newfoundland have a lot in common: we're both economically challenged, we man a lot of call centres, our people feature heavily in jokes about people walking into bars."
"For Greenland is a barren place, A land where grows no green, But ice and snow, and the whale-fish blow, And the daylight’s seldom seen, brave boys! And the daylight’s seldom seen!"
"As Men in Greenland left beheld the sun From their horizon run; And thought upon the sad half-year Of cold and darkness they must suffer there:So on my parting mistress did I look."
"The Icelander Biœrn of Skardsa...relates that Jon Grœnlander, a Hamburgh seaman, was thrice driven among the Greenland islands, where he saw fishers' huts like those of Iceland, but could discern no people in the neighbourhood. Fragments of shattered boats, according to the same authority, have frequently been stranded on the coast of Iceland; and in 1625, an entire canoe was driven on shore, compacted of sinews and wooden pegs, and smeared over with blubber. An oar has since been found, inscribed in Runic characters, with the words, Oft var ek dasa, dur ek dro thik: "Oft was I tired, while I drew thee.""
"In my first voyage not experienced of the nature of those climates, and having no direction either by Chart, Globe, or other certaine relation in what altitude that passage was to be searched, I shaped a Northerly course and so sought the same toward the South, and in that my Northerly course I fell upon the shore which in ancient time was called Groenland, [...] the land being very high and full of mightie mountaines all covered with snow, no viewe of wood, grass or earth to be seene, and the shore two leagues off into the sea so full of yce that no shipping could by any meanes come neere the same. The lothsome view of the shore, and irksome noyse of the yce was such, as that it bred strange conceites among us, so that we supposed the place to be wast and voyd of any sensible or vegitable creatures, whereupon I called the same Desolation."
"Nunarput utoqqarsuanngoravit Niaqqut ulissimavoq qiinik. Qitornatit kissumiaannarpatit Tunillugit sineriavit piinik.Akullequtaasutut merlertutut Ilinni perortugut tamaani Kalaallinik imminik taajumavugut Niaqquit ataqqinartup saani."
"A stunted, stern, uncouth, amphibious stock Hewn from the living marble of the rock Or sprung from mermaids, and in ocean's bed With orcs and seals in sunless caverns bred, They might have held, from unrecorded time Sole patrimony in that hideous clime, So lithe their limbs, so fenced their frames to bear The intensest rigours of the polar air; Nimble and muscular and keen to run The rein-deer down a circuit of the sun; To climb the slippery cliffs, explore their cells, And storm and sack the sea-birds citadels; In bands, through snows, the mother-bear to trace Slay with their darts the cubs in her embrace, And while she licked their bleeding wounds to brave Her deadliest vengeance in her inmost cave. Train'd with inimitable skill to float Each, balanced, in his bubble of a boat, With dexterous paddle, steering through the spray, With poised harpoon to strike his lunging prey As though the skiff, the seaman, car and dart Were one compacted body, by one heart With instinct, motion, pulse, empower'd to ride A human Nautilus upon the tide; Or with a fleet of Kayaks to assail The desperation of the stranded whale, When wedg'd twixt jagged rocks he writhes and rolls In agony among the ebbing shoals, Washing the waves to foam, until the flood From wounds like geysers seems a bath of blood, Echo all night dumb pealing to his roar Till morn beholds him slain along the shore."
"“How do you find America?” a reporter asked Ringo Starr just over 61 years ago. The Beatles’ drummer replied: “Turn left at Greenland.”"
"If anyone thinks that the US Congress would have stood for any sort of troops moved to Greenland, I believe we’d have veto-proof majorities within two weeks."
"When the expanse of more recently formed land on which Nantucket stood was submerged, Nantucket was insulated by the advance of the sea around it, and the other islands in the same chain—, , , and s—were similarly left standing in the ocean. Nantucket was, therefore, a —a halting-place of the glacial movement,—that is,it was formed by the advancing lower rim of the glacier which, melting, deposited its accumulation of —sand, clay, and s—caught up in its southward march, and frozen within its substance, in great heaps where they exist to-day as islands in the ocean."
"Nantucket is one of the last remaining authentic places in America. It has streets and Quaker meetinghouses and no traffic lights and no s. It also has fifty miles of pristine public beach. It's one of those places that people fall in love with because there is no place else like it."
"Since the island was settled, Nantucketers have been grappling with coastal hazards which, in many ways, are an accepted part of island life. Formed after the retreat of the , most of the island is composed of glacial outwash materials, including sand and , which are especially prone to erosion ... Over time, Nantucketers have adapted to coastal hazards by moving lighthouses, homes, roads, utilities, and other structures away from the coastline in both managed (i.e., planned) and emergency situations. However, with climate change, coastal storms are increasing in frequency and intensity and erosion of the island’s bluffs, dunes, and beaches is becoming more rapid with sea level rise, bringing impacts to Nantucketers’ front doors and threatening their homes, infrastructure, and natural resources."
"Social and political upheavals of the 1960s spurred many reactions in the arts, from optimistic modernism to nostalgic historicism, that resulted in a widespread revival of . On Nantucket, the 1960s craft revival coincided with a renaissance of the island itself, as it looked towards the past to shape its future. The wharf transformed and was promoted, the island a time capsule of its nineteenth-century glory days as a port. In 1961, the Nantucket Historical Trust renovated the Jared Coffin House, a historic whaling merchant’s mansion turned hotel, decorating it with custom reproduction interior textiles. A weaving workshop was established, and the Nantucket Looms was born. While historicism is Nantucket’s trademark, a study of the Nantucket Looms in the 1960s reveals that modernism is equally apparent in Nantucket’s craft history."
"... in 1762, seventy-eight s cleared from American ports, of which more than half were from Nantucket. The year of 1766 saw 118 vessels, measuring 75 tons each on the average, clear from Nantucket alone. They brought home 11,969 barrels of valued at $129,983. In 1770 the Nantucket fleet numbered 125 ships of the average size of 93 tons. During that year they took 14,331 barrels of oil worth $358,200. The ship owners of other ports, seeing Nantucket's prosperity, had tried to share in it. Their success was fairly good, but Nantucket owned at this time as many whale-ships as all the other ports of America combined."