BOATS
The Owl and the
Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”
Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O! let us be married; too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.¹
Boats are akin to the fantastic question, “what lies beyond?” Our earliest of desires to discover and explore…boats were probably invented when ancient human beings first encountered bodies of water and decided they needed to see what was out there. After all, we are curious creatures. Call it wanderlust, explorer, or adventurer, boats throughout time have moved us as seafaring ways of life. They are transportation. They are life-sustaining for those who live their lives by the sea. They are recreation. Boats are, as for the Owl and the Pussy-Cat, vehicles of love.
PHOTOGRAPHER SABBIR AHAMMED
PHOTOGRAPHER KAS DEDDENS
PHOTOGRAPHER JENNIFER CHEN from Toronto, Canada
OUR BOAT STARTS AT NIGHT
Our boat starts at night
from the beach of Yen Kuang.
Great ships sail only for profit
Only small boats come here because of your fame.
The passers-by are embarrassed by your virtue.
So in the night we steal by the place where you used to fish.
—Poem by Li Qingzhao
(Li Qingzhao lived from 1084-1155; she is arguably China’s greatest female poet. She was born into a literary family during the Song Dynasty. Most of her work is lost except fragments of poems.)
PHOTOGRAPHER ZOLTAN TASI United Kingdom
PHOTOGRAPHER CHESTER HO
Hong Kong
“Ef mi had ah boat Id live pon jamdung—Jamaica mon!”
PHOTOGRAPHER MINA THEVENIN
PHOTOGRAPHER SANDRA SEITAMAA from Utah
PHOTOGRAPHER TREVOR COLE from Dunfanaghy, UK
“This is a characteristic scene when one of our sailing parties on the “Georgia”comes home. Papa is standing on the cabin. We have had many fine trips in this boat. Margaret and I shall stay another week but the rest of the family goes home on Tuesday—Hope you will have a fine trip.
C.F.M.
Prince’s Point, Yarmouth, Maine, August 27, 1905″
Stories that involve boats carry us through antiquity to present day. When we look at pictures of boats, well, they tell their own stories…of labor, pastime, and love. Boats represent our dreams and the potential of where we may go and who we may be.
¹Lear, Edward. “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.” The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature, Edited by Margaret E. Martignoni, 15th ed., Grosset & Dunlap, Inc, 1955, p. 118.
