Photo of the Day

Some words from Longfellow’s “The Building of the Ship,”

an allegorical poem treasured by Lincoln and FDR

FDR's White House study was decorated with paintings of ships. When his presidential library opened in 1941, FDR selected items from his model ship collection for public display.

in which a robust and resilient ship symbolizes

the nation’s passage through times of great adversity.

Lincoln's love of sailing ships began as a young man with his two trips down the Mississippi River on flatboats. This image is from 1860.

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!

Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

The USS Monitor, the Union Navy’s first ironclad vessel. She sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras in December 1862.

Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

We know what Master laid thy keel,

What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,

The first American submarine, the USS Holland, under construction, 1900.

What anvils rang, what hammers beat,

In what a forge and what a heat

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!

The Titanic in Southampton, England, before her maiden voyage, April 10, 1912.

Fear not each sudden sound and shock,

'T is of the wave and not the rock;

'T is but the flapping of the sail,

And not a rent made by the gale!

Launch of a Liberty ship, c. 1942.

In spite of rock and tempest's roar,

In spite of false lights on the shore,

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,

Jimmy Carter in the main control room of the submarine USS K-1 (SSK-1), 1952.

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,

A Swift Boat in operation in the Mekong River Delta of South Vietnam, 1969.

Are all with thee,

— are all with thee!

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda