Duyfken (Little Dove) (by ndnbrunei)
The full size replica of the16th century sailing vessel, Duyfken, moored at Marlin Wharf, Cairns, North Queensland, Australia.
The original ship was built in 1595 in the Netherlands and appears to have been the first European vessel to make landfall in Australia. The Duyfken was sent out by the Dutch East India Company from what is now Indonesia, to search for “south and east lands”.
In 1606 she bumped into the west coast of Cape York (North Queensland) and her crew then sailed south along the coast until they were involved in an unfortunate incident with the Aboriginal people. The ship then returned to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
Interestingly, I worked for a number of years with the Wik People (the Aboriginal people of that area of Cape York) and the story of the incident with the Dutch is still told as part of their strong oral tradition, four hundred years after the event!
This vessel was built in Western Australia and launched in January 1999. She is 24 metres long and was made using traditional materials (oak) and methods (most joints are dowelled - view this photo in the large size and you will see the dowel ends in the side of the ship). The attention to detail is wonderful, even down to reproductions of the art work that was on the original ship - made with the assistance of sailor’s sketches found in the historic record. — ndnbrunei
Sailing
When I go sailing, I’ll gaze at the sky,
And use the breeze to steer her by,
Where I’ll go I cannot decide,
But I must hurry to catch the tide,
Up above me, birds are flying,
While back on board I’m contently sighing,
My ship speeds throu water like a knife,
Yes, indeed, this is the life,
Would I again live on land,
Go back to hard labour, bleeding hands,
I wouldn’t change for the world,
Not now my sails have been unfurled,
— Disconnected Soul With A Deceased Heart
Free Man’s Dreams (by valerie chiang)
“The memory of an absent person shines in the deepest recesses of the heart, shining the more brightly, the more wholly its object has vanished: a light on the horizon of the despairing, darkened spirit; a star gleaming in our inward night.” — Victor Hugo
Fishermen’s boat at dawn - Barca di pescatori all’alba (by Robyn Hooz)
“On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day.” — Rumi
“Beyond the East the sunrise, beyond the West the sea,
And East and West the wanderlust that will not let me be;
It works in me like madness, dear, to bid me say good-by!
For the seas call and the stars call, and oh, the call of the sky!
I know not where the white road runs, nor what the blue hills are,
But man can have the sun for friend, and for his guide a star;
And there’s no end of voyaging when once the voice is heard,
For the river calls and the road calls, and oh, the call of a bird!
Yonder the long horizon lies, and there by night and day
The old ships draw to home again, the young ships sail away;
And come I may, but go I must, and if men ask you why,
You may put the blame on the stars and the sun and the white road and the sky!”
— Gerald Gould
Elegant Elena (by Alain25370)
“Come freely, go safely and leave something of the happiness you bring.” - Bram Stoker
sailing-the-ocean (by Samuel_Leo)
“The little cares that fretted me,
I lost them yesterday
Among the fields above the sea,
Among the winds at play.”
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“…the sea’s only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head…” — Primo Levi
morning mist (by gazpic)
“I don’t think the world is the way we like to think it is. I don’t think it’s one solid world, but many, thousands upon thousands of them—as many as there are people—because each person perceives the world in his or her own way; each lives in his or her own world.” — Charles de Lint
Yes, those are sailors on the masts. Waterfront, Elliot Bay, Seattle, WA.
Pirate Dreams
Needles and pins, Needles and pins,
Sew me a sail to catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your hammers and nails.
Hammers and nails, hammers and nails,
Build me a boat to go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales, sailing the blue
Find me a captain and sign me a crew.
Captain and crew, captain and crew,
Take me, oh take me to anywhere new.
— Shel Silverstein
Four-masted vessel (by Marite2007)
“So I’m sailing for tomorrow - My dreams are a dyin’.
And my love is an anchor tied to you - Tied with a silver chain.
I have my ship and all her flags are a flyin’
She is all that I have left - And music is her name.
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me larger voices callin’.
What heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten.”
- Southern Cross, Crosby, Stills & Nash
Sailing Vessel “Vivid” under sail (by nashworld)
“From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines.”
— Walt Whitman
“I love moving water, I love ships, I love the sharp definition, the concentrated humanity, the sublime solitude of life at sea. The dangers of it only make present to us the peril inherent in all existence, which the stupid, ignorant, untravelled land-worm never discovers; and the art of it, so mathematical, so exact, so rewarding to intelligence, appeals to courage and clears the mind of superstition, while filling it with humility and true religion.”
— George Santayana
“There are times, they occur with increasing frequency nowadays, when I seem to know nothing, when everything I know seems to have fallen out of my mind like a shower of rain, and I am gripped for a moment in paralysed dismay, waiting for it all to come back but with no certainty that it will.”
— John Banville
