Maritime

"It is a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from twenty to thirty million dollars annually (exclusive of passage money which we should share with vessels of other nations) to foreigners for doing the work which should be done by American vessels American built, American owned, and American manned. This is a direct drain upon the resources of the country of just so much money; equal to casting it into the sea, so far as this nation is concerned."

"A small leak can sink a great ship"

"Outwards from London, Glasgow, Amsterdam and Hamburg there radiated the lines - shipping lines, railway lines, telegraph lines - that were the sinews of Western imperial power. Regular steamships connected the great commercial centres to every corner of the globe. They criss-crossed the oceans; they plied its great lakes; they chugged up and down its navigable rivers. At the ports where they loaded and unloaded their passengers and cargoes, there were railway stations, and from these emanated the second great network of the Victorian age: the iron rails, along which ran rhythmically, in accordance with scrupulously detailed timetables, a clunking cavalcade of steam trains. A third network, of copper and rubber rather than iron, enabled the rapid telegraphic communication of orders of all kinds: orders to be obeyed by imperial functionaries, orders to be filled by overseas merchants - even holy orders could use the telegraph to communicate with the thousands of missionaries earnestly disseminating West European creeds and ancillary beneficial knowledge to the heathen. These networks bound the world together as never before, seeming to 'annihilate distance' and thereby creating truly global markets for commodities, manufactures, labour and capital. In turn, it was these markets that peopled the prairies of the American Mid-West and the steppe of Siberia, grew rubber in Malaya and tea in Ceylon, bred sheep in Queensland and cattle in the pampas, dug diamonds from the pipes of Kimberley and gold from the rich seams of the Rand."

"For why drives on that ship so fast, Without or wave or wind? The air is cut away before, And closes from behind."

"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a [large] ship to founder. . . . Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."

"She bears her down majestically near, Speed on her prow, and terror in her tier."

"She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife."

"O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire, and behold our home!"

"He hath put a girdle 'bout the world And sounded all her quicksands."

"On deck beneath the awning, I dozing lay and yawning; It was the gray of dawning, Ere yet the Sun arose; And above the funnel's roaring, And the fitful wind's deploring, I heard the cabin snoring With universal noise."

"There were three sailors of Bristol City Who took a boat and went to sea. But first with beef and captain's biscuits And pickled pork they loaded she. There was gorging Jack and guzzling Jimmy, And the youngest he was little Billee. Now when they got as far as the Equator They'd nothing left but one split pea."

"Thou bringest the sailor to his wife, And travell'd men from foreign lands, And letters unto trembling hands; And, thy dark freight, a vanish'd life."

"Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer! List, ye landsmen all, to me: Messmates, hear a brother sailor Sing the dangers of the sea."

"Ye who dwell at home, Ye do not know the terrors of the main."

"Behold the threaden sails, Borne with the invisible and creeping wind, Draw the huge bottomes through the furrow'd sea, Breasting the lofty surge."

"Upon the gale she stoop'd her side, And bounded o'er the swelling tide, As she were dancing home; The merry seamen laugh'd to see Their gallant ship so lustily Furrow the green sea-foam."

"Merrily, merrily goes the bark On a breeze from the northward free, So shoots through the morning sky the lark, Or the swan through the summer sea."

"Well, then—our course is chosen—spread the sail— Heave oft the lead, and mark the soundings well— Look to the helm, good master—many a shoal Marks this stern coast, and rocks, where sits the Siren Who, like ambition, lures men to their ruin."

"Why does pouring Oil on the Sea make it Clear and Calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?"

"And that all seas are made calme and still with oile; and therefore the Divers under the water doe spirt and sprinkle it aboard with their mouthes because it dulceth and allaieth the unpleasant nature thereof, and carrieth a light with it."

"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!"

"Ye gentlemen of England That live at home at ease, Ah! little do you think upon The dangers of the seas."

"Nos fragili vastum ligno sulcavimus æquor."

"Thus far we run before the wind."

"Some love to roam o'er the dark sea's foam, Where the shrill winds whistle free."

"—They write here one Cornelius—Son Hath made the Hollanders an invisible eel To swim the haven at Dunkirk, and sink all The shipping there. —But how is't done? —I'll show you, sir. It is automa, runs under water With a snug nose, and has a nimble tail Made like an auger, with which tail she wriggles Betwixt the costs of a ship and sinks it straight."

"Yet the best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle."

"What though the sea be calm? trust to the shore, Ships have been drown'd, where late they danc'd before."

"Though pleas'd to see the dolphins play, I mind my compass and my way."

"Thus, I steer my bark, and sail On even keel, with gentle gale."

"Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold And the mate of the Nancy brig, And a bo'sun tight and a midshipmite And the crew of the captain's gig."

"The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators."

"Skill'd in the globe and sphere, he gravely stands, And, with his compass, measures seas and lands."

"There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of poor Jack."

"For they say there's a Providence sits up aloft To keep watch for the life of poor Jack."

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the fields of air."

"A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast And fills the white and rustling sails, And bends the gallant mast! And bends the gallant mast, my boys, While, like the eagle free, Away the good ship flies, and leaves Old England in the lee."

"And as great seamen, using all their wealth And skills in Neptune's deep invisible paths, In tall ships richly built and ribbed with brass, To put a girdle round about the world."

"Here's to the pilot that weathered the storm."

"How Bishop Aidan foretold to certain seamen a storm that would happen, and gave them some holy oil to lay it."

"O pilot! 'tis a fearful night, There's danger on the deep."

"There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen."

"Our Mountains are cover'd with Imperial Oak Whose Roots, like our liberties, ages have nourished But long e're our Nation submits to the Yoke Not a Tree shall be left on the Field where it Flourished Should Invasion impend, every Tree would defend From the Hill tops they shaded, our Shores to defend For ne'er shall the Sons of Columbia be Slaves While the Earth bears a Plant, or the Sea rolls its Waves."

"It may not be fit, in point of discipline, that a subordinate officer should dispute the commands of his superior, if he were ordered to go to the mast head: but if the superior were to order him thither, knowing that, for some bodily infirmity, it was impossible he should execute the order, and that he must infallibly break his neck in the attempt, and it were so to happen, the discipline of the navy would not protect that superior from being guilty of the crime of murder."

"War itself is a great evil, but it is chosen to avoid a greater. The practice of pressing is one of the mischiefs war bringeth with it. But it is a maxim in law, and good policy too, that all private mischiefs must be borne with patience for preventing a national calamity. And as no greater calamity can befall us than to be weak and defenceless at sea in a time of war, so I do not know that the wisdom of the nation hath hitherto found out any method of manning our navy, less inconvenient than pressing; and at the same time, equally sure and effectual."

"The navy is the most important defence of the country, in which every subject of the Queen has an interest of the deepest character."

"The salvation of this country depends upon the discipline of the fleet; without discipline they would be a rabble, dangerous only to their friends, and harmless to the enemy."

"The condition of the British Navy is, no doubt, a matter of national importance and public interest."

"The naval dominion of England is of great consequence and use; for it is called dotem regni. If therefore the kingdom of England consists of land and sea, I hope we shall not stand at half defence, to defend the land and leave the sea."

"Surely the navy must be the navy royal."