Happy Birthday, Melville

Eaton, Herman Melville, 1870

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Herman Melville, born on this day in 1819, from Moby-Dick, or The Whale

The Longest Johns, "Mingulay Boat Song"

When the wind is wild with shouting,

And the waves mount ever higher,

Anxious eyes turn ever seaward,

To see us home safe to Mingulay ...

Sea.

Tranquil.

Locher, Storm off Højen, 1890

LINES WRITTEN in a STORM at SEA

That sky of clouds is not the sky

To light a lover to the pillow

Of her he loves--

The swell of yonder foaming billow

Resembles not the happy sigh

That rapture moves.

Yet do I feel more tranquil far

Amid the gloomy wilds of ocean,

In this dark hour,

Than when, in passion's young emotion,

I've stolen, beneath the evening star,

To Julia's bower.

Oh! there's a holy calm profound

In awe like this, that ne'er was given

To pleasure's thrill;

'Tis as a solemn voice from heaven,

And the soul, listening to the sound,

Lies mute and still.

'Tis true, it talks of danger nigh,

Of slumbering with the dead tomorrow

In the cold deep,

Where pleasure's throb or tears of sorrow

No more shall wake the heart or eye,

But all must sleep.

Well! -- there are some, thou stormy bed,

To whom thy sleep would be a treasure;

Oh! most to him,

Whose lip hath drained life's cup of pleasure,

Nor left one honey drop to shed

Round sorrow's brim.

Yes -- he can smile serene at death:

Kind heaven, do thou but chase the weeping

Of friends who love him;

Tell them that he lies calmly sleeping

Where sorrow's sting or envy's breath

No more shall move him.

Thomas Moore

Driving.

Turner, Three Seascapes, 1829

WHITE HORSES 

Far out at sea 

There are horses to ride, 

Little white horses 

That race with the tide. 

Their tossing manes 

Are the white sea-foam, 

And the lashing winds 

Are driving them home- 

To shadowy stables 

Fast they must flee, 

To the great green caverns 

Down under the sea.

Irene Pawsey

Deep.

Whistler, Violet and Silver - The Deep Sea, 1893

Sea.

Sight.

von Kalckreuth, The North Sea, 1955

The WORLD is TOO MUCH WITH US

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

William Wordsworth

Happy Birthday, Golding

I find it very difficult to talk here now because I'm watching the sea all the time. The sea always makes me watch it all the time. I've spent hours and hours not just on the sea but just watching wave after wave come in. If it's an image of anything, I think it's an image of our own unconscious, the unconscious of our own minds... or you can put it the other way around, and that is that we have a sea in us. After all, we are sea creatures that learnt to walk on the land, are we not? And perhaps one way or another we go back to it. Every night when we dream we go back into that kind of depths, and that kind of beauty and monstrosity and mystery. So really the sea is not a single image, it can really image almost anything that the human mind can discover.

William Golding, born on this day in 1911

Greatest.

You better hold fast.

The greatest war, naval, sailing movie ever made ...

I was born at the wrong time.

Happy Birthday, Constable

Constable, The Sea near Brighton, 1826

John Constable was born on this day in 1776.

Main.

O Merlin wise I learned a song,—

Sing it low or sing it loud,

It is mightier than the strong,

And punishes the proud.

I sing it to the surging crowd,—

Good men it will calm and cheer,

Bad men it will chain and cage—

In the heart of the music peals a strain

Which only angels hear;

Whether it waken joy or rage

Hushed myriads hark in vain,

Yet they who hear it shed their age,

And take their youth again.

Hear what British Merlin sung,

Of keenest eye and truest tongue.

Say not, the chiefs who first arrive

Usurp the seats for which all strive;

The forefathers this land who found

Failed to plant the vantage-ground;

Ever from one who comes to-morrow

Men wait their good and truth to borrow.

But wilt thou measure all thy road,

See thou lift the lightest load.

Who has little, to him who has less, can spare,

And thou, Cyndyllan's son! beware

Ponderous gold and stuffs to bear,

To falter ere thou thy task fulfil,—

Only the light-armed climb the hill.

The richest of all lords is Use,

And ruddy Health the loftiest Muse.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea,

Drink the wild air's salubrity:

When the star Canope shines in May,

Shepherds are thankful and nations gay.

The music that can deepest reach,

And cure all ill, is cordial speech:

Mask thy wisdom with delight,

Toy with the bow, yet hit the white.

Of all wit's uses, the main one

Is to live well with who has none.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grog.

Singleton, Admiral Vernon, 1793

Whereas it manifestly appears to be the unanimous opinion of both Captains and Surgeons, that the pernicious custom of the seamen drinking their allowance of rum in drams, and often at once, is attended with many fatal effects to their morals as well as their health...and which...cannot be better remedied than by ordering their half pint of rum to be daily mixed with a quart of water, which they that are good husbandmen may purchase sugar and limes to make more palatable to them.

Admiral Edward "Old Grogram" Vernon, August 21, 1740

As a tradition (shouting) ...

A toast then to Horatio, and another to the Queen

And may we all, 

Wherever we are,

Remember where we’ve been

UP SPIRITS!

STAND FAST THE HOLY GHOST!

Grog (traditional)

• 1 part rum
• 4 parts water 
• add limes as your pockets will allow

To be generally distributed between 11 and noon, and then again between 4 and 6 in the after-noon.

Calls.

Homer, Sandy Beach with Breakers, 1869

The tide rises, the tide falls,

The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;

Along the sea-sands damp and brown

The traveller hastens toward the town,

      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,

But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;

The little waves, with their soft, white hands,

Efface the footprints in the sands,

      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls

Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;

The day returns, but nevermore

Returns the traveller to the shore,

      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Peaceful.

The Ocean has its silent caves,

Deep, quiet, and alone;

Though there be fury on the waves,

Beneath them there is none.

The awful spirits of the deep

Hold their communion there;

And there are those for whom we weep,

The young, the bright, the fair.

Calmly the wearied seamen rest

Beneath their own blue sea.

The ocean solitudes are blest,

For there is purity.

The earth has guilt, the earth has care,

Unquiet are its graves;

But peaceful sleep is ever there,

Beneath the dark blue waves.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Seamanlike.

She found out that having something to do prevented you from feeling seasick, and that even a job like scrubbing a deck could be satisfying, if it was done in a seamanlike way. She was very taken with this notion, and later on she folded the blankets on her bunk in a seamanlike way, and put her possessions in the closet in a seamanlike way, and used 'stow' instead of 'tidy' for the process of doing so. After two days at sea, Lyra decided that this was the life for her.

Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Take.

The OUTLET

My river runs to thee:  

Blue sea, wilt welcome me?  

   

My river waits reply.  

Oh sea, look graciously!  

   

I'll fetch thee brooks

From spotted nooks,—  

   

Say, sea,  

Take me!

Emily Dickinson

Excellent.

An excellent book ...

PREFACE.

The reader will please regard these papers as the mere whiskings of a petrel’s pinions skimming the blue surge of deep waters. The utmost hope of the author goes no further than that here and there something may be found to pleasantly lighten the tedium of a sleepless half-hour in the bunk or hammock, or relieve the dulness of a spell of quarter-deck lounging.

CONNECT

Rough.

Henri, Rough Seas near Lobster Point, 1903

Out.

Phelps, N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth in Rain Gear, Looking Out Over Rocky Coastline, 1945