Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Navy
Britain’s best bulwarks are her wooden walls.
T. Augustine Arne—Britain’s Best Bulwarks.
Our ships were British oak,
And hearts of oak our men.
S. J. Arnold—Death of Nelson.
The royal navy of England has ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.
Sir Wm. Blackstone—Commentaries. Vol. I. Bk. I. Ch. XIII.
Cooped in their winged sea-girt citadel.
Byron—Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 28.
Right—that will do for the marines.
Byron—The Island. II. XXI.
The wooden walls are the best walls of this kingdom.
Lord Keeper Coventry—Speech to the Judges, June 17, 1635, given in Gardiner—History of England. Vol. III. P. 79.
Hearts of oak are our ships,
Gallant tars are our men.
Garrick—Hearts of Oak.
Hearts of oak are our ships,
Hearts of oak are our men.
Garrick—Other version of Hearts of Oak.
All in the Downs the fleet was moor’d.
Gay—Sweet William’s Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan.
Now landsmen all, whoever you may be,
If you want to rise to the top of the tree,
If your soul isn’t fettered to an office stool,
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule—
Stick close to your desks and never go to sea,
And you all may be Rulers of the Queen’s Navee.
W. S. Gilbert—H. M. S. Pinafore.
Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea
Or skirts the safer shores
Of all that bore to victory
Our stout old Commodores.
Holmes—At a dinner given to Admiral Farragut, July 6, 1865.
The credite of the Realme, by defending the same with Wodden Walles, as Themistocles called the Ship of Athens.
Linschoten—London. Preface to English Trans.
Lysander when handing over the command of the fleet to Callicratidas, the Spartan, said to him, “I deliver you a fleet that is mistress of the seas.”
Lysander. See Plutarch—Life of Lysander.
There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.
Macaulay—History of England. Vol. I. Ch. III. Pt. XXXII.
Now the sunset breezes shiver,
And she’s fading down the river,
But in England’s song forever
She’s the Fighting Téméraire.
Henry Newboldt—The Fighting Téméraire.
Tell that to the Marines—the sailors won’t believe it.
Old saying quoted by Scott—Redgauntlet. Ch. XIII. Trollope—Small House at Allington.