Greatest nautical quote of all time

[Breakaway]

Eighty feet of waterline, nicely making way.
-Stephen Stills


Kevin

[sandtown]

What Giovanni da Verrazzano inquired of his navigator in 1520 as they sailed into New York harbor . . .

Staten Island ???

RIP Ed Fracker

[heimlaga]

Bound is boatless man.

-WoodenBoat Proverb

That is a translation of an age old proverb from the Faroes. Bundin er bátaleysan maður.

It refers both to the fact that without a boat you cannot possibly go anywhere so you are tied to the place and to the old bátsbandið. This was a system where smallholders had a duty to man the boats owned by the richer farmer who in turn had a duty to share out the catch among the crew in such a way that the boat owner's profit was large enough to keep a good boat but not much more. This system developed after a teerible storm centuries ago when the small boats then in use were caught out and sunk by the dozen. Afterwards this system was developed to make it feasible to keep one or two larger more seaworthy boats per village. Usually theese larger boats were rowed by eight men.

[Andrew2]

Guest ' You do know how to sail?'

[Priscilla]

‘What ever floats your boat”

[AndyG]

There's something bloody wrong with our ships today.

[Breakaway]

" Pull in to that fuel dock.I want to top your tank off."

[Garret]

" Pull in to that fuel dock.I want to top your tank off."

That's been said? Really?

[Sea Smoke]

I can not believe that no one has brought up
Captain Jack Sparrow "Now, Bring Me That Horizon"!

[Paul Pless]

I can not believe that no one has brought up
Captain Jack Sparrow "Now, Bring Me That Horizon"!

Why is the rum gone?

[Paul Pless]

and

But why is the rum gone?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

" You may fire when ready, Gridley " - Dewey, at Manila Bay

" The impervious horror of a leeward shore " - Mowett, from the Aubrey/Maturin novels

O’Brian was quoting Falconer:

”The ship no longer can whole courses bear,
To reef them now becomes the master's care;
The sailors summon'd aft all ready stand,
And man the enfolding brails at his command:
But here the doubtful officers dispute,
Till skill and judgment prejudice confute:
For Rodmond, to new methods still a foe,
Would first, at all events, the sheet let go;
To long-tried practice obstinately warm,
He doubts conviction, and relies on form.
This Albert and Arion disapprove,
And first to brail the tack up firmly move:
"The watchful seaman, whose sagacious eye
On sure experience may with truth rely,
Who from the reigning cause foretells the effect,
This barbarous practice ever will reject;
For, fluttering loose in air, the rigid sail
Soon flits to ruins in the furious gale;
And he, who strives the tempest to disarm,
Will never first embrail the lee yard-arm."
So Albert spoke; to windward, at his call,
Some seamen the clue-garnet stand to haul—
The tack's eased off, while the involving clue
Between the pendent blocks ascending flew;
The sheet and weather-brace they now stand by,
The lee clue-garnet and the bunt-lines ply:
Then, all prepared, Let go the sheet! he cries—
Loud rattling, jarring, through the blocks it flies!
Shivering at first, till by the blast impell'd,
High o'er the lee yard-arm the canvas swell'd;
By spilling lines embraced, with brails confined,
It lies at length unshaken by the wind.
The fore-sail then secured with equal care,
Again to reef the mainsail they repair;
While some above the yard o'erhaul the tye,
Below the down-haul tackle others ply;
Jears, lifts, and brails, a seaman each attends,
And down the mast its mighty yard descends:
When lower'd sufficient they securely brace,
And fix the rolling tackle in its place;
The reef-lines, and their earings now prepared,
Mounting on pliant shrouds, they man the yard:
Far on the extremes appear two able hands,
For no inferior skill this task demands—
To wind, foremost, young Arion strides;
The lee yard-arm the gallant boatswain rides:
Each earing to its cringle first they bend,
The reef-band then along the yard extend;
The circling earings round the extremes entwined,
By outer and by inner turns they bind;
The reef-lines next from hand to hand received,
Through eyelet-holes and roban-legs were reeved;
The folding reefs in plaits inroll'd they lay,
Extend the worming lines, and ends belay.”

[Priscilla]

Starboard!!!

[CWSmith]

Starboard!!!

Now that's one I have both heard and yelled.

[Canoeyawl]

I've heard claims it was a paraphrase, but has anyone mentioned Farragut?

"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

Yup...
yesterday

[rgthom]

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free:
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

[robm]

O’Brian was quoting Falconer:

”The ship no longer can whole courses bear,
To reef them now becomes the master's care;
The sailors summon'd aft all ready stand,
And man the enfolding brails at his command:
But here the doubtful officers dispute,
Till skill and judgment preju........

Now I know why Mowett was always interrupted!

[David G]

and

But why is the rum gone?

I think you've hit on it <G>

[Landrith]

Now I know why Mowett was always interrupted!

From neither a sailor nor soldier:

"Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul."

excerpt from “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley

[willin woodworks]

Now that's one I have both heard and yelled.

A personal favorite of mine

And the best reply..."Hold your course"

[Breakaway]

Lets anchor and spend the night.


Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Ian McColgin]

We were on the port tack in a crossing with our main rival.

To clarify, I shouted, "Larboard!!"

He instinctively tacked clear and we surged ahead, blanketing him. That's when he realized he was now on the port tack, had had the right-of-way, and had been snookered.

[L.W. Baxter]

<laconic> "there's one". (albacore, salmon, halibut on the line)

[Bflat]

"The best cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree."

[Breakaway]

<laconic> "there's one". (albacore, salmon, halibut on the line)

I get it.

I've been known to say, Going' up!, in that same situation. In fact, I owned a boat that I named, Goin' Up!

Kevin

[Rich Jones]

Eighty feet of waterline, nicely making way.
-Stephen Stills


Kevin

I'd always assumed that David Crosby, an avid sailor, penned that line.
Stephen Stills owned a big stink-pot... errr... powerboat.

[Ted Hoppe]

Don't sit there ..

[Ted Hoppe]

It's hard to eat, you're wet a lot of the time and just going to the bathroom is a chore.
- Ted Turner

[Hugh MacD]

I've always been fond of the (probably misquoted) definition of sailing as: "The fine art of getting cold, wet and miserable while slowly going nowhere at a great expense."

[Larks]

Not a quote but of all of the sea poems this one vividly reawakens fond memories

I must go down to the seas 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.

[Canoeyawl]

Red dress at night, Sailor's delight
Red dress at morning, Sailor's take warning

Joe Richards

[Breakaway]

I'd always assumed that David Crosby, an avid sailor, penned that line.
Stephen Stills owned a big stink-pot... errr... powerboat.

Crosby didnt even sing on the record. He left the band and didn't rejoin until about 1983 or 84 ( The song hit in 1982 iirc)

Kevin

[L.W. Baxter]

I get it.

I've been known to say, Going' up!, in that same situation. In fact, I owned a boat that I named, Goin' Up!

Kevin

"thar she blows!"

[Nicholas Carey]

Don't mind the rain or the rolling sea,
The weary night never worries me.
But the hardest time in sailor's day
Is to watch the sun as it dies away.
It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.

-- Cyril Tawney, The Grey Funnel Line (1959)

[wizbang 13]

Don’t grab that lifeline