She walks thewaters like a thing oflife, And seems to dare the elements to strife. ~Lord Byron
Ships are large buoyant marine vessels. Ships are generally distinguished fromboats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as thetransport ofpeople orgoods,fishing,entertainment, public safety, andwarfare. Historically, a "ship" was a vessel with sails rigged in a specific manner. Ships and boats have developed alongside mankind. In armed conflict and in daily life they have become an integral part of moderncommercial andmilitary systems. Fishing boats are used by millions of fishermen throughout the world. Military forces operate vessels for combat and to transport and support forces ashore. Ships were key inhistory's greatexplorations andscientific andtechnological development. Navigators such asZheng He spread such inventions as the compass and gunpowder. Ships have been used for such purposes ascolonization and theslave trade, and have served scientific, cultural, and humanitarian needs. New crops that had come from theAmericas via the European seafarers in the 16th century significantly contributed to the world's population growth.
We came across fromKorea We braved thewind and therain We came a thousand miles just to be here And you want to send we back again We crossedMalaysian waters We sailed theSouth China Sea We stopped atSingapore andJakarta And you want to send we back to sea Don't send we back, havemercy upon us We know you don't want us but we've got no one Don't send we back, we've run out ofwater We won't last the morning in the baking sun TheIndonesian Islands We stopped at every one As for thePhilippines we tried 'em And you want to turn our boat around.
Outwards fromLondon,Glasgow,Amsterdam andHamburg there radiated the lines - shipping lines,railway lines,telegraph lines - that were the sinews of Westernimperial power. Regular steamships connected the great commercial centres to every corner ofthe globe. They criss-crossed theoceans; they plied its greatlakes; they chugged up and down its navigablerivers. 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 theVictorian age: theironrails, along which ran rhythmically, in accordance with scrupulously detailed timetables, a clunking cavalcade of steam trains. A third network, ofcopper andrubber 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 overseasmerchants - evenholy orders could use the telegraph to communicate with the thousands ofmissionaries earnestly disseminatingWest European creeds and ancillary beneficial knowledge to the heathen. Thesenetworks bound the world together as never before, seeming to 'annihilatedistance' and thereby creating trulyglobal markets forcommodities,manufactures,labour andcapital. In turn, it was thesemarkets that peopled theprairies of theAmericanMid-West and thesteppe ofSiberia, grew rubber inMalaya andtea inCeylon, bredsheep inQueensland andcattle in thepampas, dugdiamonds from the pipes of Kimberley andgold from the rich seams of the Rand.
Niall Ferguson,The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (2006), p. 15-16
It is a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from twenty to thirty milliondollars annually (exclusive of passage money which we should share with vessels of other nations) to foreigners for doing the work which should be done byAmerican vessels American built, American owned, and American manned. This is a direct drain uponthe resources of the country of just so muchmoney; equal to casting it into thesea, so far as thisnation is concerned.
Ulysses S. Grant, message to the Senate and House of Representatives (23 March 1870), as quoted in theCongressional Globe, vol. 42, p. 2,177.
Iwish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go inharm's way.
John Paul Jones, letter to Le Ray de Chaumont (16 November 1778), as quoted inThe Naval History of the United States (1890) by Willis John Abbot, p. 82.
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 ofEurope's place in the world. With these vessels, thenaval 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.
Paul Kennedy,The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), p. 26
And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and masts of ships.
Like ships that have gone down at sea, When heaven was all tranquillity.
Thomas Moore,Lalla Rookh (1817), The Light of the Harem.
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.
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!
Herodotus, VII. 141. Relating the second reply of the Pythian Oracle to the Athenians. B.C. 480. Themistocles interpreted this to mean the ships. See Grote,History of Greece, quoted in Timbs,Curiosities of History. Nepos,Themistocles.
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.
Chester W. Nimitz, when asked why a ship is always referred to as "she", to Society of Sponsors of the United States Navy, Washington, D.C. (February 13, 1940); reported in Associated Press dispatch,The New York Times (February 15, 1940), p. 39.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters.
Psalms. CVII. 23.
And let our barks across the pathless flood Hold different courses.
Walter Scott,Kenilworth, Chapter XXIX. Introductory verses.
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.
Emory A. Storrs, speech in Chicago (c. 1865–56), when President Johnson threatened to imitate Cromwell and force Congress with troops to adjourn. As reported in the Chicago Tribune.
And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill.
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.
Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe,The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 223.
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.
,Scaramanga v. Stamp (1880), L. R. 5 Com. PI. Div. 304.
I am sorry to see a decreasing tendency to aid vessels that are broken down.
Butt, J.,"The Benlarig" (1888), L. R. 14 Pro. D. 6.
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.
Lord Kenyon, C.J.,Cutter v. Powell (1795), 6 T. R. 320.
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