I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

-Masefield,John Edward
  'Sea Fever'.

A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

-Melville, Herman
Moby Dick, ch.24.

Hiswhole carcassseemedtobemade of iron.There was no give in himöno bounce, no softness. He sailed through American history like a steel ship loaded with monoliths made of granite.

-Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)
Of President Grover Cleveland. Quoted in Fred Hobson Mencken:  A Life (1994).

A ship is always referred to as 'she' because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.

-Nimitz, Admiral Chester (William)
  In the NewYork Times, 24 May.

And then went down to the ship, Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea.

-Pound, Ezra Loomis
  Draft of XVI Cantos, no.1.

Time that is moved by little fidget wheels Is not myTime, the flood that does not flow. Between the double and the single bell Of a ship's hour, between a round of bells From the dark warship riding there below, I have lived many lives, and this one life Of Joe, long dead, who lives between five bells.

-Skirving, Adam
  Five Bells, title poem.The poem was written as an elegy for Joe Lynch, a friend who fell overboard from a Sydney ferry.

'Sink me the ship, Master Gunnerösink her, split her in twain! Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!' And the gunner said 'Ay, ay,' but the seamen made reply: 'We have children we have wives, And the Lord hath spared our lives.'

-Tennyson
  'The Revenge', stanzas11^12, l.89^93.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.

-Whitman,Walt(er)
  Leaves of Grass,'Memories of President Lincoln','O Captain! My Captain!'

It isthe onlycase on record of a man swimming toward a sinking ship.

-Yarborough, Ralph
  On formerTexas GovernorJohn B Connally's switch from Democratic to the Republican party in his bid for the presidential nomination. Quoted in theWashington Post,18 Jan 1988.