sea quotations

all taken from Donovan Hohn's book Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea & of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools Including the Author Who Went in Search of Them

Wallace Stevens - "The wilderness rose up to it, / And sprawled around, no longer wild."

Lieutenant Parry - "Success in my enterprise is by no means essential to our joy. tho' it might have added something to it; but we cannot, ought not to have everything we wish."

Herman Melville - "When seamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued in amber."

"A vessel's center of gravity is analogous to the metronome's sliding weight. You can adjust it by adding or discharging cargo or ballast water. Make the center of of gravity too low and the ship will be "stiff"; a stiff ship is stable, but like a metronome set to allegro, it will jerk violently back and forth in short, quick rolls. Makes the center of gravity too high and the ship well be "tender," rolling steeply, righting itself slowly. With every roll the crow's nest will swing way out over the water to starboard, then way out over the water to port, describing long, but-wrenching arcs." (p245)

"Preventing liability is the second most important part of the captains' job, after ensuring the safety of his crew." (p246)