Best Nautical Quotes & Sayings

I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2. — Ernest K. Gann

In those days, the Corrected Hydrographic Sailing Directions for the Mediterranean, say, or the tables in Brown's Nautical Almanac. Under the charm of these rich I was as trusting and as stupid as a bird dog who wants to go out with any man with a gun, or a trained pig — Ernest Hemingway,

There exists an oasis where inspiration bursts forth like black gold from the fertile loam and every odd bellbird chirps a melody worth remembering. There's no bloody map or nautical chart that can deliver you there, but you know the instant you've arrived because you never ever want to depart. — Adam G. Tarsitano

I've been reading and researching various aspects of history - Dickens' London, Nelson's sea battles, Magellan's nautical explorations, the weapons and battles and key figures of the American Civil War - for most of my life. I pick up a book here or there or see a documentary or talk with an expert in the subject, and my curiosity about the one area of study and discovery always leads to another. — Gary Paulsen

Quite a bit of his swearing was pure nautical genius. — Michael G. Manning

Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk. — Francis Chichester

The Bane
... where coxswain's dirt
and seaman's shirts
brushed bawdily upon her chest ... — Muse

To reach a port we must set sail — Franklin D. Roosevelt

If in some cases a bit of a nautical Murat in setting forth his person ashore, the Handsome Sailor of the period in question evinced nothing of the dandified Billy-be-Dam, an amusing character all but extinct now, but occasionally to be encountered, and in a form yet more amusing than the original, at the tiller of the boats on the tempestuous Erie Canal or, more likely, vaporing in the groggeries along the towpath. — Herman Melville

We should make up our own phrase," I suggested. "Add our own contribution to nautical lore."
Cal thought about it for a while and then said, "How about, the starboard sea?"
"What?" I asked. "Like the sea on the right side of the boat? That doesn't mean anything."
"No," Cal insisted, "it means the right sea, the true sea, or like finding the best path in life. It's deep. I'm telling you, it's going to catch on. By this time next year, everyone will be using it. — Amber Dermont

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! — Jim Moore

The ocean is an object of no small terror. — Edmund Burke

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. — Cathy Ostlere

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. — Tim FitzHigham

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

Before Lind's experiments, scurvy was not clearly defined as a disease.The term was used as a catchphrase to include all manner of nautical ailments. — Stephen R. Bown

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

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

Right," I scoffed, "Alpha Yam Ergo." Adrian nodded solemnly. "A very old and prestigious society." "I've never heard of them," said the girl who'd claimed the first shirt. "They don't let many people in," he said. In white paint, he wrote his fake fraternity's initials: AYE. "Isn't that what pirates say?" asked one of the girls. "Well, the Alpha Yams have nautical origins," he explained. To my horror he began painting a pirate skeleton riding a motorcycle. "Oh, no," I groaned. "Not the tattoo." "It's our logo," he said. — Richelle Mead

I couldn't stop thinking about blue eyes and the way he smelled, his scent was a mix of liquor, winter fresh and Nautical sport. — Glenna Maynard

having been jostled by a nautical-looking negro who had come from one of the queer dark courts on the precipitous hillside which formed a short cut from the waterfront to the deceased's home — H.P. Lovecraft

There is but a plank between a sailor and eternity. — Thomas Gibbons

What is particularly amusing about cocker spaniels is their swaying gait when they are in a playful mood: it's as if they had tiny little springs screwed to their paws that cause them to bounce upward - but gently, without jolting. This also affects their paws and ears like the rolling of a ship, so cocker spaniels, like jaunty little vessels plying dry land, lend a nautical touch to the urban landscape: utterly enchanting. — Muriel Barbery

But, however, I clapped a stopper over his capers.' Dr Maturin was proud of his nautical expressions: sometimes he got them right, but right or wrong he always brought them out with a slight emphasis of satisfaction, much as others might utter a particularly apt Greek or Latin quotation. 'And brought him up with a round stern,' he added. — Patrick O'Brian

The SAFE was slain in battle. A great flaming nautical pyre carries it off to VAULTHALLA. — Andrew Hussie

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

Peter was a gentle, red-haired bear of a man. Standing at six-four in his socks, he moved everywhere with a slight and nautical sway, but even though he was broad across the chest there was something centered and reassuring about him, like an old ship's mast cut from a single timber. — Graham Joyce

We hated the cruise. Our cabin was deep in the bowels of the ship, the nautical equivalent of nosebleed seats. — Janet Ambrosi Wertman

You can do everything right, strictly according to procedure, on the ocean, and it'll still kill you, but if you're a good navigator, at least you'll know where you were when you died.
(In "The Nautical Chart" by Arturo Perez-Reverte) — Justin Scott

As boys going to sea immediately become nautical in speech, walk as if they already had their "sea legs" on, and shiver their timbers on all possible occasions, so I turned military at once, called my dinner my rations, saluted all new comers, and ordered a dress parade that very afternoon. — Louisa May Alcott

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. — Tristan Jones

Where are we?" Nick shouted.
"I don't know, you're the nautical one. I just piloted the boat out of the harbor."
"Pirated! You pirated it out of the harbor!"
"Semantics. — Abigail Roux