Nautical Wit 'n Wisdom.....

[the Royaliste]

Ah, Mellville....

At last we hoisted the stun-sails up to the top-sail yards, and as soon as the vessel felt them she gave a sort of bound like a horse, and the breeze blowing more and more, she went plnging along, shaking off the foam from her bows like foam from a bridle-bit. Every mast and timber seemed to have a pulse in in that was beating with life and joy, and I felt a wild ezulting in my own heart, and I felt as if I would be glad to bound along so round the world.

[Zephyr]

'A sailing ship is an exceedingly complex,sensitive, and capricious creation- quite as much so as most human beings. Her coquetry and exasperating deviltry have been the delight and despair of seamen's hearts, at least since the days when the wise, though much-married, Solomon declared that among the things that were too wonderful for him andwhich he knew not, was " the way of a ship in the midst of the sea."..Capt. Arthur H. Clark

And that be why they calls them she

Love the poetry!

do keep at it.......

[the Royaliste]

Aye, Aye!...(starts thinking hard, smells somthin' burnin', runs 'ead under faucet)..........

[Thomas B.]

'A sailing ship is an exceedingly complex,sensitive, and capricious creation- quite as much so as most human beings. Her coquetry and exasperating deviltry have been the delight and despair of seamen's hearts, at least since the days when the wise, though much-married, Solomon declared that among the things that were too wonderful for him andwhich he knew not, was " the way of a ship in the midst of the sea."..Capt. Arthur H. Clark

And that be why they calls them she

Love the poetry!

do keep at it.......

I do agree Zephyr, Sounds a lot like a she, to me

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

"At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it."

-Benjamin Franklin

Makes one wonder how history might have changed if Ben Franklin had been a sea captain, eh?

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

I have my doubts if this is true, but for whatever it's worth, I found the following quote sandwiched between quotes of Thomas Jefferson and Ghandi...

"Move your fat ass, Harry, or you'll sink this boat."

-George Washington

The website notes it as follows: ...Actual quote from George Washington to another general in his boat as he crossed the Delaware. True story.

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

A poem written upon the death of Blackbeard, which is attributed to Ben Franklin at age 12 and sold on the streets of Boston. Although no copy survives one stanza has been recalled as follows:

"So each man to his gun,

For the work must be done

With cutlass, sword, and pistol.

And when we can no longer strike a blow

Then fire the magazine, boys, up we go.

It is better to swim in the sea below

Than to hang in the air and feed the crow,

Sang jolly Ned Teach of Bristol."

[Dorian Lasseter]

Aye,

Intrestin' stuff, that about Ben Franklin...

If ye want a great site, try this; http://www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin/

ANything ye ever wanted ta know 'bout th' fine gentleman...

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

...and I be puttin' the finishing touches on an article about his privateering exploits during the American Revolution for No Quarter Given. Veeeeeery interesting stuff, that!!

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Although not nautical, a friend sent me this quote today and it most definitely sounds piratical to me-

"A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will

be sitting next to you saying, "WOW!...that was fun!"

-annonymous

[Coastie04]

And that be why they calls them she

Nay, this be why they're called 'she'.

A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.

-Adm. Chester Nimitz

On another note, I saw an interesting grave stone up the river a ways in Norwich. It was for Capt. Robert Niles of the Spy. I can't remember the exact wording, but he did something like taking Ben Franklin to Paris to negotiate a treaty with France. Just an interesting little note.

Coastie

[the Royaliste]

Her sails are strong and yellow as the sand,

Her spars are tall and supple as the pine,

And, like the bounty of a generous mine,

Sun-touched, her brasses flash on every hand

Her sheer takes beauty from a golden band,

Which, sweeping aft,is taught to twist and twine

Into a scroll, and badge of quaint design

Hang on her quarters. Insolent and grand she drives.

Her stem rings loudly as it throws the hissing sapphire into foamy waves,

While on her weather band bends the copper glows in burnished splendor.

Rolling down she laves her high black sides until the scupper flows,

Then pushing out her shapely bow she braves the next tall sea, and, leaping, onward goes.

-Thomas Fleming Day

[Jess Blackett]

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

-- John Masefield, Sea Fever

[BoneHunterLane]

"Move your fat ass, Harry, or you'll sink this boat."

-George Washington

For what it's worth, those lines are in the movie A & E made a few years back "The Crossing" with Jeff Daniels... maybe not those exact words, but close.

[the Royaliste]

What is there in the universe more fascinating than running water and the possibility of moving over it?

What better image of existence and possible triumph.-George Santayana

[Zephyr]

And that be why they calls them she

Nay, this be why they're called 'she'.

A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.

-Adm. Chester Nimitz

Coastie

Anthe older they gets the more it takes in time and money (personal experience)

[the Royaliste]

The stately ship is seen no more,

The fragile skiff attains the shore;

And while the great and wise decay.

And all their trophies pass away;

Some sudden thought, some careless rhyme,

Still floats above the wrecks of Time.

-William Edward Harpole Lecky

[Coastie04]

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!

Long has it waved on high,

And many an eye has danced to see

That banner in the sky;

Beneath it rung the battle shout,

And burst the cannon's roar;

The meteor of the ocean air

Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,

Where knelt the vanquished foe,

When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,

And waves were white below,

No more shall feel the victor's tread,

Or know the conquered knee;

The harpies of the shore shall pluck

The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered bulk

Should sink beneath the wave;

Her thunders shook the mighty deep,

And there should be her grave;

Nail to the mast her holy flag,

Set every threadbare sail,

And give her to the god of storms,

The lightning and the gale!

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

[the Royaliste]

:) Aye'm likin' Ollie! 'ere's another...

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving- we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it- but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. -Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Cap'n Coyote]

Very reminiscent of Will Rogers: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

[Coastie04]

I was at the tiller, when suddenly I shouted: "Look! There's New York!"

Geoff and Nicky bobbed up out of the hatch and vainly searched the skyline ahead.

"I don't see a damned thing except mist," grumbled Geoff.

"I don't mean over there," I replied. "This is our landfall on New York right here!"

They turned and saw I was pointing down into the waters around us. We were sailing through a sea of milk-bottle tops, cardboard cups, orange peel, broken crates and other such strange marine life, which told us, as surely as though we had seen the distant towers of Manhattan, that we were drawing near port.

-Dennis Puleston

[the Royaliste]

The damned ship lurched and slithered. Quiet and quick,my cold gorge rose;

The long sea rolled; I knew I must think hard of something, or be sick;

And could think hard of only one thing-you!

You, and you alone could hold my fancy ever!

And with your memories come, sharp pain and dole,

Now there's a choice- heartache or liver!

A sea-sick body or a sea-sick soul.

Did I forget you? Retchings hoist and tie me,

Old meat, good meals, brown gobbets, up I throw.

Do I remember? Acrid return and slimey,

The slobs and slobber of a last year's woe.

And still the ship rolls. 'Tis hard, I tell ye,

To choose 'twixt love and nausea, heart and belly.

-Rupert Brooke, 'Channel Passage'

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Here is a terrible one-

“...Hear that Inca God...cause we’ve got a God worth a thousand of yours. A gentle God, with gentle priests and a couple of great big cannon to blow you out of the sky.”-

- Francisco Pizarro - in The Royal Hunt of the Sun

[the Royaliste]

There is no dilemma compared with that of the deep-sea diver who hears the message from the ship above, "Come up at once. We are sinking." -Robert Cooper

[Cap'n Coyote]

Dammit, Man! I just spit rum all over my computer!

*sparks flyin...smoke fillin up the room*

That was good rum, too.