William Falconer Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

The sacred lamp of day
Now dipt in western clouds his parting ray.

William Falconer
With living colours give my verse to glow:
The sad memorial of a tale of woe!

William Falconer
The effect of sailing is produced by a judicious arrangement of the sails to the direction of the wind.

William Falconer
Again she plunges! hark! a second shock
Bilges the splitting vessel on the rock;
Down on the vale of death, with dismal cries,
The fated victims shuddering cast their eyes
In wild despair; while yet another stroke
With strong convulsion rends the solid oak:
Ah Heaven!—behold her crashing ribs divide!
She loosens, parts, and spreads in ruin o'er the tide.

William Falconer
The great weight of the ship may indeed prevent her from acquiring her greatest velocity; but when she has attained it, she will advance by her own intrinsic motion, without gaining any new degree of velocity, or lessening what she has acquired.

William Falconer
In the time of battle the hammocs, together with their bedding, are all firmly corded, and fixed in the nettings on the quarter-deck, or whereever the men are too much exposed to the view or fire of the enemy.

William Falconer
The head of a ship however has not always an immediate relation to her name, at least in the British navy.

William Falconer
The fleet being thus more inclosed will more readily observe the signals, and with greater facility form itself into the line of battle a circumstance which should be kept in view in every order of sailing.

William Falconer
The anchors now made are contrived so as to sink into the ground as soon as they reach it, and to hold a great strain before they can be loosened or dislodged from their station.

William Falconer
The admiral, or commander in chief of a squadron, being frequently invested with a great charge, on which the fate of a kingdom may depend, ought certainly to be possessed of abilities equal to so important a station and so extensive a command.

William Falconer
The admirals of his majesty's fleet are classed into three squadrons, viz. the red, the white, and the blue.

William Falconer
Hence a ship is said to be tight, when her planks are so compact and solid as to prevent the entrance of the water in which she is immersed: and a cask is called tight, when the staves are so close that none of the liquid contained therein can issue through or between them.

William Falconer
Of whatsoever number a fleet of ships of war is composed, it is usually divided into three squadrons; and these, if numerous, are again separated into divisions.

William Falconer
High in his chariot glow'd the lamp of day.

William Falconer