Harbour

“ Beyond the great harbour with its crowded shipping and merchandise of green and purple figs, heaps of dates, bales of fine muslin and linen, chests—some full of spices, others of gold and ivory—lies the sea, blue as the bluest sapphire, over which, going and coming from every harbour of every country whose shores touched the Mediterranean, ships go sailing. ”

“ After sailing amidst islands, rocks, and breakers, for above a league, we got safe into a good harbour, surrounded with small islands, which kept the sea off; here the water was as smooth as in a mill-pond. We call this harbour the Port of God's Mercy, esteeming our preservation this day to be a miracle. The most abandon'd among us no longer doubt of an Almighty Being, and have promis'd to reform their lives. ”

“ The glassy water of the little harbour, with the branches of the trees hanging over the rocky beach, the boats at anchor, the tents supported by the crossed oars, and the smoke curling up the wooded valley, formed a picture of quiet retirement. ”

“ And to your right is the harbour again, with ships and flags and masts, and beyond the harbour a waste of Mediterranean neither blue nor grey nor white, that, in the doubtful light, will seem neither land nor water, lying out towards the sunset, where dim clouds hold Riviera mountains in their midst. ”

“ Somewhere, far below the horizon, there is a City; some day I shall sail to find that sun-bright harbour; by what star I shall steer my vessel, or where that seaport lies, I know not; but somehow, through calms and storms and all the vague sea-noises I shall voyage, until at last some mountain peak will rise to tell me I am near my destination; or I shall see, some day at dusk, a lighthouse twinkling at its port. ”

“ The harbour, generally enlivened by East and West Indiamen at anchor; the incessant passing and repassing of steamers to every part of the coast and kingdom; with private yachts and pleasure-boats skimming past, or lying off the piers, with their holiday freight of joyous citizens, give a never failing interest and spirit to the whole picture; and present, in a short sojourn at Gravesend, more animation and variety than is to be met with at any other part of the river. The rides and drives inland are highly varied and picturesque. ”

“ Now a mile or so from the shore there was an island, very fair and fertile, but no man dwells there or tills the soil, and in the island a harbour where a ship may be safe from all winds, and at the head of the harbour a stream falling from a rock, and whispering alders all about it. ”

“ As we rowed past the shore, the people were seen running along all the roads leading to the town, so that by the time we reached the harbour, the crowd on both sides was immense: the trees, walls, and house tops, and in short every spot from which we could be seen, was literally covered with people, forming a sight as striking and animated as can well be conceived. ”

“ A turn to the left through a watergate defended by towers of wood and mud, and we were in the city harbour itself; boats of many kinds moored on every side; quaint craft from the gulfs and bays of Nowhere, full of unheard-of merchandise, and manned by strange-faced crews, every vessel a romance of nameless seas, an epitome of an undiscovered world, and every moment the scene grew busier as the breakfast smoke arose, and wharf and gangway set to work upon the day's labours. ”

“ For it is no light matter, as he reminded me, to be in an open boat, perhaps waist-deep with herrings, day breaking with a scowl, and for miles on every hand lee-shores, unbroken, iron-bound, surf-beat, with only here and there an anchorage where you dare not lie, or a harbour impossible to enter with the wind that blows. ”

“ We shall break out the jib and the foresail, the white houses on the harbour side will glide slowly past us as she gathers steering-way, and the voyage will have begun! As she forges towards the headland she will clothe herself with canvas; and then, once outside, the sounding slap of great green seas as she heels to the wind, pointing South! ”

“ My window, then, looks out from a small library upon a small harbour frequented by ships of all nations—British, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, French, German, Italian, with now and then an American or a Greek—and upon a shore which I love because it is my native country. Of all views I reckon that of a harbour the most fascinating and the most easeful, for it combines perpetual change with perpetual repose. ”

“ Down the slope we went; along towards the harbour, through a score of deserted lanes where nothing was to be heard but the roar of rain and the lapping of men and beasts, drinking in the shadows as though they never would stop, and so we came at last unmolested to the wharf. There I hid royal Seth between two piles of merchandise, and went to look for a boat suitable to our needs. ”

“ It takes the fresh-faced young men down past the inner harbour to where lie the tall ships waiting. They and their cargo of exuberance, of hope, of energy, of thirst for the bubble adventure, the rainbow romance, sail away to where these wares have a market. And the quiet men glide away to the North. ”

“ Its magnificent harbour, or rather series of harbours, so beautiful to the eye of the painter, so perfect to that of a sailor,—so easy of access and egress, and so perfectly capable of containing and protecting, by the erection of judiciously placed fortifications, any number of shipping, are advantages that more than compensate the natural defects of a barrenness of soil, and proportional deficiency of luxuriance in the vegetation of its immediate vicinity ”

“ The so-called harbour is really an open roadstead, for there is no shelter to the north, and when, as often happens, the dreaded gale from that quarter breaks, vessels that have not had time to run out under steam are in danger of drifting ashore, for the water deepens so quickly from the land that they cannot anchor far out. ”

“ I fear the word wharf may suggest the dirty prosaic wharves of England, an idea which you must banish at once; for business in its dingy aspect is not obtrusive, and the harbour-wall is but a stone coping for soft green turf, where girls with light rods sit fishing, and market-boats land their cargo of gay fruit and fish, while the motley throng pass and repass—Tahitians, French sailors and soldiers, Chinamen, black-robed French priests, and all the nondescript nationalities from the ships. ”

“ The harbour itself simply teems with life. Not a moment passes throughout the hours of daylight that some craft or other—whether battleship, torpedo boat, destroyer, excursion steamer, yacht, or trading schooner, barque, brigantine, or rust-red collier—is entering or leaving it through the narrow jaws between Blockhouse Fort and Point Battery. ”

“ HARBOUR, havre, a general name given to any sea-port or haven; as also to any place convenient for mooring shipping, although at a great distance from the sea. The qualities requisite in a good harbour are, that the bottom be entirely free from rocks or shallows; that the opening be of sufficient extent to admit the entrance or departure of large ships, without difficulty; that it should have good anchoring-ground, and be easy of access; that it should be well defended from the violence of the wind and sea ”

“ The harbour is a good one, and of considerable size, and in summer time there are many white-winged craft within its basin which can lie snug enough in any save strong easterly or southerly gales, when a nasty sea outside makes an uncomfortable swell within. ”

“ The country higher up appeared green and fresh, although much rock and sand abounded. The harbour, or rather bay, is small, and its depth of water from two to five fathoms. The principal battery is built on a solid tongue of rock which curves outward and forms a kind of harbour. I remarked the Spanish arms on the centre of it, and on inquiry I found it had been placed there by Charles the Fifth when he landed and took possession of the town. ”

“ It is only to be hoped that the result of their labours may make it a fitter place for the habitation of more virtuous people. We ran into the harbour, which is nearly land-locked, and dropped our anchor. It was a curious feeling, coming suddenly from the storm-tossed ocean, to find ourselves surrounded by land, with lofty mountains rising up from the shore close to us. We all agreed that we were never in a more beautiful or picturesque spot. ”

“ The harbour is large, and the vessels are entirely mercantile, with a plentiful sprinkling of fishing smacks: but the manner in which the latter harmonized with the tint and structure of the houses--the bustle upon shore--the casks, deal planks, ropes, and goods of every description upon the quays,--all formed a most animated and interesting scene. The population seemed countless, and chiefly females ”

“ The harbour is the only prospect to the northward, and immediately in its rear the land rises so as to prevent anymore distant view, and even the harbour appears dwindled to a miniature of itself, being seen in the same picture with the mighty ocean that nearly surrounds the beholder. ”

“ What mockeries are our most firm resolves!
To will is ours, but not to execute.
We map our future like some unknown coast,
And say, "Here is an harbour, here a rock—
The one we will attain, the other shun:"
And we do neither. ”

“ I shall go to the harbour, as soon as I have seen you; and if it is this evening a boat sails, I shall go back at once and bid them farewell, saying that a ship is sailing for Leith, and that I have taken passage in her. ”

“ The harbour, once at the eastern, is now at the western extremity,—its three considerable basins being fit for mail steamers and ordinary trading vessels. 2. The admiralty pier is a massive structure of solid concrete and masonry extending about one-third of a mile into the sea, affording lee and landing accommodation for vessels of almost any burthen, made for ultimate connection by break-water with a horn east of the castle, so inclosing the bay as a vast harbour. ”

“ A pier and harbour have been erected, beautiful in design and substantial in execution, affording abundant accommodation and shelter for the large steam-vessels and other craft frequenting this part of the coast, and to which the depth of water affords for the most part, an easy entrance or exit, at all states of the tide. ”

“ The natural excellence of the harbour, which is almost closed by an island, leaving a channel for ships on both sides, has been further improved by the removal of some of the spurs of the hills so as to give larger space for wharfage. ”

“ If the city is on the sea, we should choose ground close to the harbour as the place where the forum is to be built; but if inland, in the middle of the town. ”

“ There is a Harbour which since the Creation was never capable of receiving a Lighter, yet by another Miracle the King of France was to ride there with a vast Fleet of Ships, and to land a hundred thousand Men. ”

“ The ships having happily found so excellent shelter in an inlet, the coasts of which appeared to be inhabited by a race of people, whose inoffensive behaviour promised a friendly intercourse, the next morning, after coming to anchor, I lost no time in endeavouring to find a commodious harbour where we might station ourselves during our continuance in the Sound. ”

“ Being disappointed in our expectation of any friendly connection with these people, among whom we only saw a small quantity of gold, which they wore as ornaments in their ears, we sailed about eighty leagues further along the coast, when we discovered a safe harbour, into which we brought our ships, and found the country exceedingly populous. ”

“ There is depth of water sufficient in the greater part of the harbour for line-of-battle ships to anchor and turn, and the few coral shoals which would be in the way are being torn up with dredging machines. ”

“ It's risky enough for men who know their way about to beach a boat along this coast among the rocks and breakers, and especially after dark; and the only chance for these fellows would be to make the harbour and land on the quay. ”

“ The harbour is one of the finest natural harbours in the kingdom, and has the advantage of a double tide, the tide of the English channel giving it high water first by way of the Solent and two hours later by way of Spithead. ”

“ A vessel might sail past the entrance a hundred times without suspecting the existence of a harbour. Once inside, however, the biggest vessels could ride securely at anchor within a stone’s-throw of the shore, which rose abruptly from the water’s edge, leaving only a narrow ledge on which the town was built. ”

“ The high rocky coast is much indented by bays and arms of the sea, several of which form excellent harbours, that of St John being safe and commodious, but inferior to English Harbour, which, although little frequented, is capable of receiving vessels of the largest size. ”

“ Wherever wind-tanned men with level eyes live all day in blue jerseys, there the lover of ancient peace may safely abide. And the quay of my little town and the boats in her great, spreading harbour are populous with such men. They arrest progress. Even the arrival of petrol and the spectacle145 of a fishing-boat gaining the open sea in the teeth of a headwind at a rate of ten knots an hour has not injured them. ”

“ There is nothing here to attract the eye of the traveller, unless it be the harbour with its two piers—one 3,530, the other 3,123 feet long—where the inhabitants can go and breathe the sea air, away from the noise and smoke of the town. ”

“ Here, below Lostwithiel’s ancient bridge, let us take boat and taste of the ineffable enjoyment which laureates of the Fowey have attributed to a sail or a row down the romantic stream to the mouth of the harbour, where the sailors sing their chanties as they work the merchantmen out between the old towers whence chains were stretched across the harbour in the stirring days when the Spaniard sailed the main. Sing hey, sing ho, for indeed life is worth living when the soft zephyrs blow, and we glide by the prettily placed church of St. ”