Stern

Stern

The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section of the ship, but eventually came to refer to the entire back of a vessel. The stern end of a ship is indicated with a white navigation light at night.

Read more about Stern.

Famous quotes containing the word stern:

    The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    It was her stern necessity: all things
    Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower,
    Deceive us, seeming to be many things,
    And are but one. Beheld far off, they differ
    As God and devil; bring them to the mind,
    They dull its edge with their monotony.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Me in my vow’d
    Picture the sacred wall declares t’have hung
    My dank and dropping weeds
    To the stern God of Sea.
    Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8)