Best 51 quotes in «nautical quotes» category

In Frederick Marryat's Mr. Midshipman Easy Jack's father, Mr. Easy, became a(n) ____________ as it was the very best profession a man can take up who is fit for nothing else.

In a French accent developed through a lifetime of using English I said, 'Hello sir, I would like to row the English Channel in a bath please.' What actually arrived in the ear of the French Navy man was, 'Hello sire, I would like to fight a condom across a bath if you please.

I should say we’d reach England by Tuesday or thereabouts, with a decent wind behind us. It would be a lot quicker than that if we could just sail straight there, but I was looking at the nautical charts, and there’s a dirty great sea serpent right in the middle of the ocean! It has a horrible gaping maw and one of those scaly tails that looks like it could snap a boat clean in two. So I thought it best to sail around that.’ FitzRoy frowned. ‘I think they just draw those on maps to add a bit of decoration. It doesn’t actually mean there’s a sea serpent there.’ The galley went rather quiet. A few of the pirate crew stared intently out of the portholes, embarrassed at their Captain’s mistake. But to everyone’s relief, instead of running somebody through, the Pirate Captain just narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. That explains a lot,’ he said. ‘I suppose it’s also why we’ve never glimpsed that giant compass in the corner of the Atlantic. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed.

I phoned the Admiral back. 'It's no use, Admiral, the French speak nothing but French.' There was a short pause on the end of the line then his voice rattled into life like a sabre. 'They're lying, Tim!' 'What?' 'The French Navy must by law speak English, as English is the international maritime language of the sea.' 'Has anyone told the French that?' The line went dead for a moment before he thundered, 'Yes Nelson. At the battle of Trafalgar.' I tried to stifle an irresistibly British giggle not knowing if the Admiral was making a joke or not. I got it right. He was serious.

The cork was in the bottle. He and the Atropos were trapped.

Listen, Miss, boats are supposed to float. Even if they break up, they usually still float and show up on a shore somewhere. There have been no reports of wreckage or abandoned boats. At this point, no news is still good news. Don't worry. It's too early to worry.

Mr. Bird flung his food away and leaped to his feet, glaring around at no one in particular. 'I am not a dog!' he shouted agrily, his gold earrings flashing in the firelight.

Shandy looked ahead. Blackbeard, apparently willing to get the explanation later, had picked up his oars and was rowing again. 'May I presume to suggest,' yelled Shandy giddily to Davies, 'that we preoceed the hell out of here with all due haste.' Davies pushed a stray lock of hair back from his forehead and sat down on the rower's thwart. 'My dear fellow consider it done.

My wisdom is for my friends, my folly for myself.

Headwinds are sore vexations and the more passengers the sorer.

A small craft in an ocean is, or should be, a benevolent dictatorship.

Being hove to in a long gale is the most boring way of being terrified I know.

For one thing, I was no longer alone; a man is never alone with the wind-and the boat made three.

We were not a crew; we were only here at the same time.

At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.

I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.

He who lets the sea lull him into a sense of security is in very grave danger.

It's remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.

I don't know who named them swells. There's nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls.

If you can not arrive in daylight, then stand off well clear, and wait until dawn. After all, that's one of the things God made boats for- to wait in.

It is the weather, not work, that wears out sails.

It's out there at sea that you are really yourself.

It takes a minimum of six people, working in close harmony, to successfully flush a nautical toilet. That's why those old ships carried such large crews.

The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself.

I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2.

I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else.

Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down.

No literature is richer than that of the sea. No story is more enthralling, no tradition is more secure.

Of all the things that man has made, no is so full of interest and charm, none possesses so distinct a life and character of its own, as a ship.

Only fools and passengers drink at sea.

The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat.

The chance for mistakes is about equal to the number of crew squared.

The ocean has always been a salve to my soul.

The ocean is an object of no small terror.

The only way to get a good crew is to marry one.

There never was a great man yet who spent all his life inland.

Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

Spirits rise as the sails fill... Gone is the sea's glassy surface, and with it the terrible glare. Close the hatches and ports! We're sailing again!

Thats what a ship is, you know. Its not a keel and a hull and a deck and sails. Thats what a ship needs. But what a ship is. What the Black Pearl really is . . . is freedom.

The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.

There is but a plank between a sailor and eternity.

There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.

To the question, "When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?" the obvious answer seemed to be, "When the gin gave out.

The sea drives truth into a man like salt.

The sea finds out everything you did wrong.

The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.

Waves are not measured in feet or inches, they are measured in increments of fear.

Whenever your preparations for the sea are poor; the sea worms its way in and finds the problems.

All that yohoho stuff's for landlubbers, or it would be if we ever used words like landlubber. Do you know the difference between port and starboard? I don't. I've never even drunk starboard.

When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea.