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Ships are a strange kind of commodity because they're very lumpy, very big individual units, but they're commodities.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage.

The more ships have grown in size and consequence, the more their place in our imagination has shrunk.

Ships are expendable; the whales are not.

There's this misconception that the Navy is this cruise ship, and you get to go out and sail around, and every now and then, you have to swab the deck. But, no, it is a very impressive group of young people that live at sea, in this place that's very uncomfortable. They exude a pride that is well-deserved.

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.

Every seaman is not only a navigator, but a merchant and also a soldier.

Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.