# Shipwreck

A Shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached, or the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the destruction of the ship at sea by violent weather.

## Quotes

* It was a touching answer of a Christian sailor, when asked why he remained so calm in a fearful storm, when the sea seemed ready to devour the ship. He was not sure that he could swim. "But," he said, "though I sink I shall only drop into the hollow of my Father's hand; for He holds all these waters there."
** William Arnot, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 281.
* Some hoisted out the boats, and there was one That begged Pedrillo for an absolution, Who told him to be damn'd,—in his confusion.
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 44.
* Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell— Then shriek'd the timid, and stood still the brave,— Then some leap'd overboard with fearful yell, As eager to anticipate their grave.
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 52.
* 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, Shipwreck (1762), Canto III, line 642.
* And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Through the whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept Towards the reef of Norman's Woe.
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Wreck of the Hesperus (1842), Stanza 15.
* O, I have suffer'd With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
** William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610-1612), Act I, scene 2, line 5.
* A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigged, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Instinctively have quit it.
** William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610-1612), Act I, scene 2, line 146.

### Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

    Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 704.
* Naufragium sibi quisque facit.
** Each man makes his own shipwreck.
** Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia, I, 499.
* Through the black night and driving rain A ship is struggling, all in vain, To live upon the stormy main;— Miserere Domine!
** Adelaide Anne Procter, The Storm.
* But hark! what shriek of death comes in the gale, And in the distant ray what glimmering sail Bends to the storm?—Now sinks the note of fear! Ah? wretched mariners!—no more shall day Unclose his cheering eye to light ye on your way!
** Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Shipwreck.
* Every drunken skipper trusts to Providence. But one of the ways of Providence with drunken skippers is to run them on the rocks.
** Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House, Act III.
* Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit.
** He wrongly accuses Neptune, who makes shipwreck a second time.
** Syrus, Gellius, 17. 14; Macrobius, Satires, II, 7.
* Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.
** Here and there they are seen swimming in the vast flood.
** Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 118.
* Or shipwrecked, kindles on the coast False fires, that others may be lost.
** William Wordsworth, To the Lady Fleming.

## See also

* Ships