Ships

"We came across from Korea We braved the wind and the rain We came a thousand miles just to be here And you want to send we back again We crossed Malaysian waters We sailed the South China Sea We stopped at Singapore and Jakarta And you want to send we back to sea Don't send we back, have mercy upon us We know you don't want us but we've got no one Don't send we back, we've run out of water We won't last the morning in the baking sun The Indonesian Islands We stopped at every one As for the Philippines we tried 'em And you want to turn our boat around."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"A small leak can sink a great ship"

"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 great ship asks deep waters."

"It is cheering to see that the rats are still around—the ship is not sinking."

"Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned."

"A navy is essentially and necessarily aristocratic. True as may be the political principles for which we are now contending they can never be practically applied or even admitted on board ship, out of port, or off soundings. This may seem a hardship, but it is nevertheless the simplest of truths. Whilst the ships sent forth by the Congress may and must fight for the principles of human rights and republican freedom, the ships themselves must be ruled and commanded at sea under a system of absolute despotism."

"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."

"Yet when all these reservations are made, there is no doubt that the development of the long-range armed sailing ship heralded a fundamental advance of Europe's place in the world. With these vessels, the naval powers of the West were in a position to control the oceanic trade routes and to overawe all societies vulnerable to the workings of sea power."

"And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and masts of ships."

"Build me straight, O worthy Master! Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel That shall laugh at all disaster, And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"

"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!"

"Like ships that have gone down at sea, When heaven was all tranquillity."

"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."

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

"Ships, dim discover'd, dropping from the clouds."

"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."

"The true ship is the ship builder."

"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!"

"The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered."

"Ships that sailed for sunny isles, But never came to shore."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder."

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters."

"And let our barks across the pathless flood Hold different courses."

"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."

"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."

"And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill."

"Whoever you are, motion and reflection are especially for you, The divine ship sails the divine sea for you."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"A salvage service which hardly exceeds ordinary towage is naturally remunerated on a very different scale from an heroic rescue from imminent destruction."

"The impulsive desire to save human life when in peril is one of the most beneficial instincts of humanity, and is nowhere more salutary in its results than in bringing help to those who, exposed to destruction from the fury of winds and waves, would perish if left without assistance."

"I am sorry to see a decreasing tendency to aid vessels that are broken down."

"It is of great importance that the laws by which the contracts of so numerous and so useful a body of men as the sailors are supposed to be guided, should not be overturned."