There are many landsmen who love ships with a strange devotion, a devotion not peculiar to men who go down to the sea in ships, an admiration not depending either in the construction of the hull, the form of the rigging and its sails, or on the brains and brawn of those who direct the vessels' paths across the great deep. Their love is founded upon something more intangible and wonderful. It is to be found in that subtle awakening of mental processes, that consciousness of self-appreciation arising from the realization that the object of their affection and interest, the ship, combines all the elements of aesthetic fundamentals; that it is in fact inherently a work of art, replete with line, colour, form, atmosphere. And for the perfect setting of this work of art, intensifying it's beauty and romance, is the ever-present, ever-changing mystery of the sea.
Henry Culver- The Book of Old Ships