Throughout North America, an array of nautical icons have cultural significance with people that love the water. Icons originate from a wide range of objects which are found in or near the water.
Navigational equipment often become icons of nautical life. Among the most popular are compass roses, sextants, lighthouses, navigational buoys, and related items.
Boats and boating equipment are among the most popular nautical icons. Famous boat icons include sailboats, tall ships, trawlers, lobster boats, Chesapeake Bay skipjacks, deadrise boats, open skiffs, anchors, ship’s wheels, and other designs.
Commercial fishing gear often become nautical icons. These include lobster buoys, wooden lobster traps, nets, harpoons, gaffs, and other equipment.
On the open sea and around most fishing ports, birds are present. Some of the most common have become important icons or nautical life. Ospreys, gulls, terns, frigate birds, albatrosses, shearwaters, storm petrels and other birds are often considered to be nautical icons.
Obviously, fish and shellfish have become nautical icons in most cultures. In North America and much of the North Atlantic, and Northern Pacific, species such as cod, tuna, swordfish, mahi mahi, grouper, snapper, halibut, salmon, and sharks are identified closely with nautical life. Shellfish are also popular, especially clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, shrimp, prawns, lobsters, and crabs.
Nautical Icons by Category
Boats and Boating
sailboats
ships
tugs
fishing boats
rowboats
anchors
winches
windlasses
oars
ropes
chains
horns
Fishing
hooks
lures (flies, jigs, plugs, spoons, etc.)
lines and cables
sinkers
fishing rods
fishing reels
rod and reel outfits
gillnets
cast nets
dip nets
pound nets
weirs
gaffs
spears and gigs
harpoons
rakes
dredges
scrapes
traps
Navigation
maps
charts
compasses
tools of measurement
sextants
stars
buoys
fog horns
Marine Life
starfish – sea stars
sea horses
sea urchins
crabs
lobsters
shrimp
prawns
clams
oysters
scallops
gulls
terns
herons and egrets
eagles
ospreys
sea birds
sea otters
manatees
seals
sea otters
walruses
dolphins
porpoises
whales
Structures
lighthouses
lightships
bridges
piers
docks
boat houses
fish houses
beach houses
dams