Quotes from Joshua Slocum

Captain Fisher, the commander, with a party of young ladies from the city and gentlemen belonging to his ship, came one day to pay me a visit in the midst of a deluge of rain.

My ship was also in better condition than when she sailed from Boston on her long voyage. She was still as sound as a nut, and as tight as the best ship afloat. She did not leak a drop - not one drop!

Nothing escapes the vigilance of the New South Wales police; their reputation is known the world over.

But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?

And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I have endeavoured to tell just the story of the adventure itself.

Was the crew well? Was I not? I had profited in many ways by the voyage. I had even gained flesh, and actually weighed a pound more than when I sailed from Boston.

Anyhow, a philosophical turn of thought now was not amiss, else one's patience would have given out almost at the harbour entrance. The term of her probation was eight days.

On this day there was soon wind enough and to spare. The same might have been said of the sea. The Spray was in the midst of the turbulent Gulf Stream itself. She was jumping like a porpoise over the uneasy waves.

If the Spray discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that there were no more continents to be discovered. She did not seek new worlds, or sail to pow-wow about the dangers of the sea.

Anyhow, a philosophical turn of thought now was not amiss, else one's patience would have given out almost at the harbour entrance. The term of her probation was eight days.

I had already found that it was not good to be alone, and so made companionship with what there was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all else.

Now, it it well known that one cannot step on a tack without saying something about it.

as the day wore on I watched the birds all flying in one direction, and said, "Land lies there.

I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895, was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve-o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A

for what is a man in a storm like this?

I grasped her gunwale and held on as she turned bottom up, for I suddenly remembered that I could not swim.

birds flew by, As lightly and as free, Ten thousand stars were in the sky, Ten thousand on the sea. For every rippling, dancing wave, That leaped upon the air, Had caught a star in its embrace, And held it trembling there.

But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?

I was just saying, "Now I lay me," when I was seized by a determination to try yet once more, so that no one of the prophets of evil I had left behind me could say, "I told you so.

You must then know the sea, and know that you know it, and not forget that it was made to be sailed over.

I suddenly remembered that I could not swim.

I found no fault with the cook, and it was the rule of the voyage that the cook found no fault with me. There was never a ship's crew so well agreed.

There are no poetry enshrined freighters on the sea now. It is a prosy life when we have no time to bid one another good morning.

The sea was confused and treacherous. In such a time as this the old fisherman prayed, 'Remember Lord, my ship is small and thy sea is so wide.