Port

“ The docks and quays are busy with their craft and shipping, upon the beautiful borders of the Lough;—the large red warehouses stretching along the shores, with ships loading, or unloading, or building, hammers clanging, pitch-pots flaming and boiling, seamen cheering in the ships, or lolling lazily on the shore. The life and movement of a port here give the stranger plenty to admire and observe. ”

“ In vain you look in the Tagus for that forest of shipping which should fringe the watery highway to, and ought to constitute the leading feature in, so fine a port—the capital of a country the once nautical genius of whose people is expressed in the only poem in any language that makes adventures on the deep its theme. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is a busy city. The port is thronged with shipping, mostly British. High-shouldered elevators stick out long tongues, and streams of wheat, grown on the plains of the interior, pour food for Europe into the holds. ”

“ Our eyes are engaged, in another moment, with some glimpses of our destined port. Very shortly, the Grant comes alongside a great wharf, and seeking her own slip, makes fast; and, the tide being out, we clamber up cautiously a steep incline, to the level of the Astorians. ”

“ A glance at the shipping in that port, with steamships and sailing vessels coming from and going to all parts of the world, with ferryboats constantly passing from pier to pier, and the shrill whistle of the omnipresent tugboat constantly rising above the roar of commerce, ought to convince the most skeptical that even as a boy he was a seaman who knew his business. ”

“ The sea-breeze, with which the shore had been refreshed for twenty minutes, had not as yet found its way into the recesses of the inner harbour, which, take it all in all, is one of the snuggest and most beautiful coves in the world. And such is the commodious nature of this admirable port, that even the Illustrious, though a large 74-gun ship, rode at anchor in perfect security, within a very few yards of the beach, which at that spot is quite steep to, and is wooded down to, the very edge of the water. ”

“ They are as the passengers of different ships, meeting for an hour in the same port, who hastily exchange a few words of sympathy, then pass away to other latitudes, under other skies—some to the North, others to the South, to the land of ice—to the cradle of the sun—far, far away from each other, to die. ”

“ I knows a port, an’ it’s a good port, An’ many a brig is ridin’ easy there; I knows a home, an’ it’s a good home, An’ a lass that’s sweet an’ fair. I knows a port, an’ it’s a good port, I knows a home, an’ it’s a good home But O the pretty that is my sort, That’s wearyin’ till I come! “I knows a day, an’ it’s a fine day, The day a sailor man comes back to town. I knows a tide, an’ it’s a good tide, The tide that gets you quick to anchors down. ”

“ A port is a place to which merchandise is imported, and from whence it is exported. It is created by law. It is not merely a harbor or haven, for it may be established where there is nothing but an open roadstead, or on the shore of a navigable river, or at any other place where vessels may arrive and discharge, or take in their cargoes. It comprehends the city or town which is occupied by the mariners, merchants, and others who are engaged in the business of importing and exporting goods, navigating the ships and furnishing them with provisions. ”

“ For both the port and also time and its pleasures remain the same, and one after another we take flight in the ship of mortality upon that boisterous sea which absorbs and devours everything, and are never suffered to touch shore again, but always tossed by adverse winds we are wrecked upon some rock at last. ”

“ All the ground is very clean, having 18 fathoms at the mouth and 13 within; and half a league inland there is a well of water, though not very plentiful, and bitterish. This port is a large half league in circuit. It is a singularity in all the rivers or harbours which I have seen on this coast, that they have no bars or banks at their mouths, which are generally deeper than within. ”

“ Port Said, where we have landed, is a large town with a big business, yet it is built on a site which a comparatively short time ago was nothing but a marshy salt lake. Men of all nations walk in its streets, and ships of all [Pg 53] nations pass through its port. ”

“ A thousand vessels have lain at one time side by side, off the mouth of that little river, and through the low sandy heads that close the great port towards the sea, thirteen millions sterling of exports is carried away each year by the finest ships in the world. ”

“ No boat, carrying produce of field, mill or mart, has ever passed up or down its course. No whitewinged schooner or other merchantman has enlivened its course by proudly gliding on its bosom to waiting port, where cargoes are discharged and received. ”

“ In their usual and natural meaning, the words 'from any port in the United States' include all voyages, whether domestic or foreign, which begin in this country; the words 'to any port in the United States' include all voyages, whether domestic or foreign, which end in this country; and the words 'between ports of the United States and foreign ports' include all foreign voyages which either begin or end here. The words of the 3d section, 'to or from any port in the United States,' express in the simplest and most direct form the intention to include voyages hither as well as voyages hence. ”

“ AFTER a prosperous, but to me very wearisome, voyage, we came at last into port. Immediately on landing I got together my few effects; and, squeezing myself through the crowd, went into the nearest and humblest inn which first met my gaze. ”

“ Every master of any vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward, bound from a port in one State to a port in any other than an adjoining State, except vessels of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print, with every seaman on board such vessel except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners, declaring the voyage or term of time for which such seaman shall be shipped. ”

“ Throughout the port there is a depth of 15 fathoms, with a clean bottom, at a short distance from the shore; and all along the coast there are soundings with clean bottom, and not a single sunken rock. Inside, at the length of a boat’s oar from the land, there are 5 fathoms. Beyond the limit of the port to the S.S.E. a thousand carracks could beat up. [170] One branch of the port to the N.E. runs into the land for a long half league, and always the same width, as if it had been measured with a cord. ”

“ Know ye that having full confidence in your fidelity and prudence we have appointed you to arrest all and singular the ships and other vessels both of our kingdom of England and of foreign parts of the burthen of twenty casks and upwards lying in our port of London, and to cause them to be conveyed with all possible speed to the port of our town of Southampton, to serve on our present voyage for our moneys reasonably to be expended in this part. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That the port to which any such ship or vessel shall be deemed to belong, agreeably to the intent and meaning of this act, shall be the port at or near which the husband or acting and managing owner or owners of such ship or vessel usually resides or reside; and the name of such ship or vessel, and of the place to which she belongs shall be painted on her stern, on a black ground with white letters of not less than three inches in length.
Vessels of citizens residing in foreign countries not entitled to register but in certain cases. ”

“ Should our fur trade be recovered out of the hands of the English, it will naturally come to Honfleur, as the port of Paris.
5. Salt is an important article in all our return cargoes; because, being carried as ballast, its freight costs nothing. But, on account of some regulations, with which I am not well acquainted, it cannot, at present, be shipped to advantage from any port on the Seine.
6. Our vessels being built sharp, for swift sailing, suffer extremely in most of the western ports of France, in which they are left on dry ground at every ebb of the tide. ”

“ A range of sand banks run parallel with the coast for many miles, but several channels intervene, giving sufficient depth for vessels of the heaviest draught at high water, at which time the Mersey presents the most interesting and striking scene,—particularly when a westerly wind favours the arrival of the numerous fleets destined to this port, bearing the flags and freighted with the produce of all nations that have found a place in the chart of commercial enterprise. ”

“ O Captain! My Captain! O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; ”

“ The wind that succeeded the calm was gentle and favourable, and did not change for fifty days, but brought us safe to the port of a fine city, well peopled, and of great trade, the capital of a powerful State, where we came to anchor.
Our vessel was speedily surrounded with an infinite number of boats full of people, who came to congratulate their friends upon their safe arrival, or to inquire for those they had left behind them in the country from whence they came, or out of curiosity to see a ship that came from a far country. ”

“ In other countries, and indeed, in most countries in Europe, all their inland trade, such as it is, is carried on by the convenience of navigation, either by coastings on the sea, or by river-navigation. It is true, our coasting trade is exceedingly great, and employs a prodigious number of ships, as well from all the shores of England to London, as from one port to another. ”

“ Thus it was that while ceaster retained its sturdy objectivity, and was merely qualified, as a place-name, by the addition of a distinctive prefix, port, on the other hand, referring as it did to the town viewed in a particular aspect, was only strong enough to become itself a prefix, used, for the purpose of distinction, in a quasi-adjectival sense. In port-mote it served to distinguish the moot held in the “port” from the scir-mote and tun-mote; in port-reeve it served to distinguish the reeve of the “port,” or trading town, from the scir-reeve, the wic-reeve, and reeves other innumerable. ”

“ The city is now in the harbor of a great port, and all the merchantmen who live nearest to this port have been informed that the vehicle city would arrive about midweek and remain four days. What a busy time follows after the floating city is fastened to its moorings! Inhabitants go on solid ground to do their trading. Dealers make large purchases and place extensive orders.
It should be stated that the mail and telegraph systems between the continents and all these floating cities are well nigh perfect. ”

“ This port, or landing-place, which was then called the Moie, is a rocky plateau half-formed by nature, half by art, raised about forty feet above the level of the waves, and communicating with the water by two large beams laid parallel in the form of an inclined plane. The fishing-vessels are hoisted up there by chains and pulleys from the sea, and are let down again in the same way along these beams, which are like two rails. For the fishermen there is a ladder. The port was, at the time of our story, much frequented by the smugglers. ”

“ The elder Baron selects the port from which I am to sail. Description of port No Man’s Port. How I escaped its quicksands, Whirlpool and Thor’s Hammer. Becalmed on the Southern Seas, I rescue my ship in a wonderful way. Land ho! Something about a beautiful Island. I leave my ship and start for the interior. How I fell in with some most extraordinary beings. Description of them. They leave me to go and request permission of their chief to present me at his court. How I thought myself attacked by a band of gigantic beings. ”

“ Then every few miles, turns in the road would bring us in view of little seaports beneath, with their half-circle harbors, light-houses, and white walls standing, out conspicuously on the deep blue of the sea, while the feluccas and great lateen sails, gliding into their ports, reminded one strikingly of panoramic views and paintings, or of those brilliant blue and white pictures of Mediterranean seaports which we sometimes see suspended in merchants' counting-rooms in America. ”

“ A great number of ladies and gentlemen visited the Port during the day—some to say farewell to their friends, and others merely to witness the embarkation of the passengers, among whom, as we have already said, are several old and respected colonists. ”

“ From the harbour, filled with shipping, the ground rises all round to a height of 500 or 600 feet in steep slopes, upon which the city is built; a line of warehouses or other great white buildings, connected no doubt for the most part, if not altogether, with the trade of the port, forms the front rank, and gives an imposing facing to the whole. ”