John Masefield was a 20th century English writer and poet, noted for his poem Sea-Fever which contained the line: "And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." This line appeared on the dedication plaque of the USS Defiant.
In 2268, James T. Kirk quoted from Sea-Fever to Leonard McCoy. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer")
In 2287, Leonard McCoy confused Masefield with Herman Melville while on the shuttlecraft Galileo, but was quickly corrected by Spock. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
In 2372, Quark paraphrased Masefield's poem Sea-Fever, while aboard his ship Quark's Treasure, saying "all I ask is a tall ship… and a load of contraband to fill her with." (DS9: "Little Green Men")
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 25), the birth and death years of John Masefield were 1878 and 1967, respectively.
External links[]
- John Masefield at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- John Masefield at Wikipedia