A wet sheet and a flowing sea,

A wind that follows fast,

And fills the white and rustling sail,

And bends the gallant mast.

And bends the gallant mast, my boys,

While like the eagle free

Away the good ship flies, and leaves

Old England on the lee.

Allan Cunningham (1785-1842): A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea.

Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea

Loves t' have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind,

Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack,

And his rapt ship run on her side so low

That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.

George Chapman (1557-1634): Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act iii. Sc. 1.

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): The Ancient Mariner. Part ii.

Sail on, O Ship of State!

Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

Henry W Longfellow (1807-1882): The Building of the Ship.

But who is this, what thing of sea or land,—

Female of sex it seems,—

That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay,

Comes this way sailing

Like a stately ship

Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles

Of Javan or Gadire,

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,

Courted by all the winds that hold them play,

An amber scent of odorous perfume

Her harbinger?

John Milton (1608-1674): Samson Agonistes. Line 710.

He was the mildest manner'd man

That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 41.