Fleet

“ O Lord! we would not advise;
But if in thy Providence
A tempest should arise
To drive the French fleet hence,
And scatter it far and wide,
Or sink it in the sea,
We should be satisfied,
And thine the glory be. ”

“ Now the great vessel, followed by the fleet, moves swiftly through the ample passage, while from overhead as well as from below cheers upon cheers rend the air and from the Transports, which keep pace with the fleet, showers of blooms in glowing beauty rain down upon the heads of the people crowding the upper decks, and now the flag ship has plunged onto the lake as though purposing to pass straight across to the further side, but no, it turns to the right, leading the fleet in a triumphal procession around the lake. ”

“ Means his boats should all sink as they pass by our fleet;
Then, as under the ocean their course they steer right on,
They can pepper their foes from the bed of old Triton. ”

“ And the large fleet that to the northward steer’d Full sail, that glorious in my view appear’d; For where does man evince his full control O’er subject matter, where displays the soul Its mighty energies with more effect Than when her powers that moving mass direct? ”

“ Are to their ports by our bold fleet confined;
From whence our Red Cross they triumphant see,
Riding without a rival on the sea.
Others may use the ocean as their road,
Only the English make it their abode,
Whose ready sails with every wind can fly,
And make a cov'nant with th'inconstant sky;
Our oaks secure, as if they there took root, 29
We tread on billows with a steady foot. ”

“ If you cannot on the ocean Sail among the swiftest fleet, Rocking on the highest billows, Laughing at the storms you meet, You can stand among the sailors, Anchored yet within the bay, You can lend a hand to help them, As they launch their boats away. If you are too weak to journey Up the mountain steep and high, You can stand within the valley, While the multitudes go by ”

“ All is as quiet as though a mystic spell were laid on all the fleet. But when the sky to the eastward begins to turn gray, signs of life reappear. Here and there in the fleet a sail will be seen climbing jerkily to the masthead, and hoarse voices sound across the waters. It is only a minute or two after the first evidence of activity before the whole fleet is tensely active. ”

“ As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing, never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she is but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral. The port we sail from is for ever astern. ”

“ Onward we sped, through a fleet of vessels, our craft threading her way, "like a thing of life," obeying the master's steady commands, creating no little sensation, as she darted amongst them, inclining to the right or left, or pressing boldly, straight ahead, to the repeated orders of "starboard," "port," or "steady there, so," and causing the different craft to run up their signal lights quite hastily. ”

“ But in that fleet sailed all 't was dear to me.
Ships never bore such precious freight as these,
⁠Please God, to any woe.
His world is wide, and they may ride the foam,
Secure from danger, in some unknown seas. ”

“ Well, from the moment your ships rounded that headland the British Fleet has been sizing you up. Every boat that is manned and leaves your ship, every officer or man who moves about your decks, is being watched and criticised and studied by several thousand pairs of eyes. ”

“ Talking ever of homes that shook when the great grey vessels fought
And a fleet sent out on an enterprise, crippled and back in port.
⁠They'll marvel at men who'll struggle and drown
⁠For the sake of the maids in an East Coast town. ”

“ THE STRONGEST FLEET IN THE WORLD.
A monstrous plume of black, heavy smoke went up to the sky. We whipped round a buoy and came on the Fleet. There were eight battleships alike as peas to the outsider; and four big cruisers. They were not cruising or manœuvring just then; but practising their various arts and crafts. ”

“ Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue,
Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance,
With the English fleet in view. 'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase;
First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Damfreville;
Close on him fled, great and small,
Twenty-two good ships in all;
And they signalled to the place,
"Help the winners of a race! ”

“ They never before saw ships independent of wind and tide, and are half persuaded that these must be alive and rational. But when the fleet comes abreast of their rock, and the great ships stop while the little ones explore, what a sight it is to see the chief man of the foreigners come ashore, and walk up the hill ! ”

“ When we had made as many boats as we could carry, each with a curly-whirly bit of a leaf for its sail, we used to balance ourselves carefully on the stones—for we knew that if we got wet we should not be allowed to go to our river again—and launch our little fleet, one by one, on the brown water, and then eagerly watch each green vessel upon its course. ”

“ If the ship or fleet discovered have their tacks aboard and stand upon a wind, then if you had your tack aboard at the time of the discovery you shall bear up for a little time, and after hale aft your sheets again to show us what course the ship or fleet holdeth.
27. If you discover any ship or fleet by night, and they be [to] windward of you, the general or admirals, you shall presently bear up to give us knowledge if you can speak with her; if not, you may keep your luff and shoot off a piece of ordnance by which we shall know you give chase, to the end that the rest may follow accordingly. ”

“ How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight,
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged arrows of light. ”

“ When the compact Fleet, as one Person, has been introduced "Sailing from Bengala," "They," i. e. the "Merchants," representing the Fleet resolved into a Multitude of Ships, 'ply' their voyage towards the extremities of the earth: "So" (referring to the word "As" in the commencement) "seemed the flying Fiend;" the image of his Person acting to recombine the multitude of Ships into one body,—the point from which the comparison set out. ”

“ Our lives, like ships at sea, an instant meet,
Then part forever on their courses fleet!” ”

“ Ever your general course has been westward; and now you come back to the port from which you set sail. This is the first battle fleet that has ever circumnavigated the globe. Those who perform the feat can but follow in your footsteps. ”

“ Now when the Roman folk would make a fleet hastily, and had no rowers, nor time to train them rightly, they built stages like to the oar benches of a ship in a certain lake, and so taught the men the swing and catch of the long oars. ”

“ It is this enormous fleet to which we now must turn in order that we may continue our ever-widening story of the development of ships. And with this vast fleet we shall include the countless thousands of still smaller steamers that serve as many thousand masters in a great diversity of ways. ”

“ A fleet, consisting seldom of less than twenty ships of the line of battle, and sometimes exceeding forty, which I attended in the different scenes of active service in that distant and unhealthy region, for more than three years, has afforded me opportunities of making observations upon a large scale. ”

“ We were now a little fleet, viz., two large ships and a brigantine, well manned, and furnished with all sorts of necessaries for any voyage or any enterprise that was fit for men in our situation to undertake; and, particularly, here I made a full design of the whole voyage, to be again openly declared to the men, and had them asked, one by one, if they were willing and resolved to undertake it, which they all very cheerfully answered in the affirmative. ”

“ A modern fleet of ships does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a highway. ”

“ The English fleet, which was the first ready, consisted of one hundred and fourteen sail of men-of-war and frigates, twenty-eight fire-ships and ketches, having about twenty-two thousand seamen and soldiers on board. ”

“ The Fleet is a very peculiar isolated kingdom, bounded on the north by the wall to the north or north wall; on the south, by the wall to the south or south wall; on the east, by the wall to the east or east wall; and on the west, by the wall to the west or west wall. The manners and habits of the natives are marked with many extraordinary peculiarities; and some of the local customs are of an exceedingly interesting character.
The derivation of the word “Fleet” has caused many controversies, and we believe is even now involved in much mystery, and subject to much dispute. ”

“ It is not uncommon, my lords, when the fleet has entered the open seas, for the traders to take different courses both from the convoy and from each other, and to disperse themselves beyond the possibility of receiving assistance in danger or distress ”

“ Imagination beholds ten thousand fleets sweeping over the ocean—or a hundred of them, or one—and man's exulting spirit feels that it was not in vain. The purposes for which fleets do sail—to carry commerce, to carry war, to carry colonies, to carry civilisation, to bring home knowledge, have triumphantly prospered; and, of course, are not in the meaning of the poet, although properly they alone are in the meaning of the word. ”

“ Many a green isle needs must be
In the deep wide sea of Misery,
Or the mariner, worn and wan,
Never thus could voyage on—
Day and night, and night and day, _5
Drifting on his dreary way,
With the solid darkness black
Closing round his vessel's track:
Whilst above the sunless sky,
Big with clouds, hangs heavily, _10
And behind the tempest fleet
Hurries on with lightning feet,
Riving sail, and cord, and plank,
Till the ship has almost drank
Death from the o'er-brimming deep; ”

“ A completely organized Fleet is composed of a Battleship Force, a Scout Force, a Cruiser Force, a Destroyer Force, a Submarine Force, a Mine Force and a Train Force, the latter consisting of the supply ships and repair vessels and transports and being usually referred to as the “Train.” ”

“ We lie, as before said, nearly in the center of the whole fleet, which from originally covering an area of perhaps fifteen miles each way, has 'knotted up' into a little space, not above two miles square. In many places, although the sea is tolerably rough, the vessels lie so closely together that one could almost jump from one to the other. ”

“ Perhaps there lives some dreamy boy, untaught In schools, some graduate of the field or street, Who shall become a master of the art, An admiral sailing the high seas of thought, Fearless and first and steering with his fleet For lands not yet laid down in any chart. ”

“ The two longest voyages were those of the “Theodore” and the “Pasear,” both of which vessels travelled about a mile along the river. The owners think that any other little boys who live near a stream sufficiently deep to float ships drawing so little water might like to follow their example and build a fleet, therefore I am to tell you how each vessel was built, as well as the story of its voyage.
The chart shows the winding river down which the clippers voyaged, and on it are marked the various snags, rapids, and other dangers. ”

“ The fleet being thus more inclosed, will more readily observe the signals, and with greater facility form itself into the line of battle; ”

“ 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. ”

“ Since, as our fleets are at present superior to those of the whole world united, it must be a matchless degree of supineness or meanness of spirit, if we permit any of the advantages deriveable from new discoveries, or from a more extended navigation, to be ravished from us. ”

“ The admirals of his majesty’s fleet are classed into three squadrons, viz. the red, the white, and the blue. ”

“ Ah that such sweet things should be fleet,
Such fleet things sweet! ”

“ There is no saying what she could or could not do in heavy weather, and Navies that do not like heavy weather; tumble-home boats unused to working n a sea; a beaky and a plated Navy, with big tops that roll and strain, might suffer. ”

“ Within a while after we saw men travelling the seas, and a new found manner of navigation, themselves supplying the office both for ship and sailor, and I will tell you how. As they lie upon their backs in the water and their privy members standing upright, which are of a large size and fit for such a purpose, they fasten thereto a sail, and holding their cords in their hands, when the wind hath taken it, are carried up and down as please themselves. ”

“ The sea is flying heavily over the weather rail of the prostrate ship, and adding its peculiar bursting noise to the din of the furiously-shaken canvas, to the deafening booming of the wind, and the hoarse long-drawn cries of the sailors hauling upon the ropes. ”

“ For a ship with her sails furled on her squared yards, and reflected from truck to water-line in the smooth gleaming sheet of a landlocked harbour, seems, indeed, to a seaman's eye the most perfect picture of slumbering repose. ”