213 Quotes About Ships

On any sea voyage, even one as mundane as a cross-channel car ferry, it is difficult to focus on your destination until you have lost sight of the land.

I would just as soon have abused the old village church at home for not being a cathedral.

We clear the harbor and the wind catches her sails and my beautiful ship leans over ever so gracefully, and her elegant bow cuts cleanly into the increasing chop of the waves. I take a deep breath and my chest expands and my heart starts thumping so strongly I fear the others might see it beat through the cloth of my jacket. I face the wind and my lips peel back from my teeth in a grin of pure joy.

The wind tousled his hair, and Dain’s chest loosed a little as his gaze broke from the wooden maid to follow a breeze-blown gull toward the horizon. The distant salmon skies dipped over the rim of the sea, and for the first time since boarding, he wondered where the waves might take him.

Quale nell’ arzana de Viniziani bolle l’inverno la tenace pece a rimpalmar li lor legni non sani,che navicar non ponno, e in quella vece chi fa suo legno nuovo, e chi ristoppa le coste a quel che piu viaggi fece;che ribatti da proda, e chi da poppa; altri fa remi, ed altri volge sarti; chi terzeruolo ed artimon rintoppa...(Inferno XXI 7-15)

Turn over the rudder in God's name, and sail with the wind heaven sends us.

Never a ship sails out of bay but carries my heart as a stowaway.

Read on and I will tell you what to do in the future to avoid getting smashed and find yourself with nothing but little pieces of drift floating around in the ship's wake.

They that go down to the sea in ships' see strange things, but what they tell is oft-times stranger still. A faculty for romancing is imparted by a seafaring life as readily and surely as a rolling gait and a weather-beaten countenance. A fine imagination is one of the gifts of the ocean-witness the surprising and unlimited power of expression and epithet possessed by the sailor. And a fine imagination will frequently manifest itself in other ways besides swear words. ("The Gorgon's Head")