He that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.

The sole business of a seaman onshore who has to go to sea again is to take as much pleasure as he can.

What will not attract a man’s stare at sea?—a gull, a turtle, a flying fish!

The Mediterranean has the colors of a mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet—you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray.

Being thus arrived in good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stale earth, their proper element.

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.

Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

Ashore it’s wine, women, and song; aboard it’s rum, bum, and concertina.

We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!

The sea hath no king but God alone.

The sea hath fish for every man.

I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.

Seamen are the nearest to death and the furthest from God.