KEY POINTS

  • This years’ theme is "Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet"
  • Various events and activities are held in maritime organizations across the world to mark the day
  • Schools observe the event by taking students to maritime museums

World Maritime Day is observed annually in the last week of September to highlight the international maritime industry’s contributions towards the world economy as well as to raise awareness about shipping safety and the marine environment.

This years’ theme is "Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet." Various events and activities are held in maritime organizations across the world to celebrate the day. Schools also observe the event by taking students to maritime museums.

Here are a few quotes about sea and sailors, courtesy Brainy Quotes and Deep Sailing–

  • "Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause." ― Abraham Lincoln
  • "Sailors, with their built-in sense of order, service, and discipline, should really be running the world" ― Nicholas Monsarrat
  • "I propose to construct a new chart for navigating, on which I shall delineate all the sea and lands of the Ocean in their proper positions under their bearings; and further, I propose to prepare a book, and to put down all as it were in a picture, by latitude from the equator, and western longitude." ― Christopher Columbus
  • "The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence." - Rabindranath Tagore
  • "The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself. " ― John Rousmaniere
  • "The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance." ― Annie Van De Wiele
  • "We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came." ― John F. Kennedy
  • "Sailors ought never to go to church. They ought to go to hell, where it is much more comfortable." ― H.G. Wells
  • "Dwellers by the sea are generally superstitious; sailors always are. There is something in the illimitable expanse of sky and water that dilates the imagination." ― Thomas Bailey Aldrich
  • "Like solo sailors venturing into the Southern Ocean, climbers are seduced by risk. The desire to push to a summit or scale a rock face is so strong that they consciously or subconsciously minimize safety precautions drilled into their brains." ― Charles Duhigg
Japan's coast guard has rescued one person from a cargo ship that issued a distress call during a typhoon
Japan's coast guard has rescued one person from a cargo ship that issued a distress call during a typhoon 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters / Handout