Seamen Quotes

“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")”
― Gertrude Bacon, The Gentlewomen of Evil: An Anthology of Rare Supernatural Stories from the Pens of Victorian Ladies

“Men ville mand imidlertid spørge dem saa,
Hvor lyckes i Fisket? Hvad kan i vel faa,
De svarer dig hogtet i bogte;
Part svarer: det er saare lidet vi faar,
Part svarer: Vi foer om alt Havet i Gaar,
Sled neppe saa mange vi kaagte.”
― Petter Dass, The Trumpet of Nordland

“Da Høitiden og den berammede Fæst
Fremskinnet, at alle blev buden som Giæst,
Var Brudgommen længst uti Havet.
Hvad var her at giøre, mand skicket ham bud,
Mand satte Fartøyer og Slupper herud,
Og allesteds Havet omstrømmet;
Hand lod sig dog icke beqvemme dertil,
Han bad dem inbiude, hvem Fanden de vil,
Den Giæstebud hannem ey sømmet.”
― Petter Dass, The Trumpet of Nordland

“The skin on his palm was thicker than the hide on a man's heel, but across it and between the fingers were deep raw cracks from the cold and the salt which would never heal, not until he settled ashore. And that was not likely to be anytime soon, for when a man's got salt water in his blood and a sea wind in his lungs, neither wife nor land can keep him from the waves.”
― Karen Maitland, The Gallows Curse

“Sailors never asked for money but, on the contrary, had large sums of money to spend in short spasms of shore leave. They also never turned nasty. Perhaps the act of running away to sea was an abandonment of accepted convention and, after a sojourn in strange ports, they returned with their outlook and possibly their anus broadened.”
― Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant