Naval/Maritime Quotes

[Drebbel]

This thread is for all your comments/questions/corrections/additional info to the maritime quotes on the subsim main page.

[Rockstar]

"The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire."

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"Any ship can be a minesweeper ... once."

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"Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky."

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[Torplexed]

"Damn the Torpedoes! It's a Tom Petty album."
----------- Admiral David Glasgow Farragut overheard at Sam Goody.

[Kapitan]

My old signature.

Men after this mornings adventure i am compelled to remind you that we are ment to be monitering thier anti submarine exercise............NOT participating in it.

There are two types of ship at sea, submarines and targets.

Some ships are designed to sink… others require our assistance.

Diving officer i believe we are airborne.

Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners (Winston Churchill)

Battery acid is kinda tangy but it takes the skin off your lip

Submariners are a bunch of intelligent misfits that somehow seem to get along, understand each other and work well together.

A billion dollar house and the roof leaks.

Submariners are a special brotherhood, either all come to the surface or no one does. On a submarine, the phrase all for one and one for all is not just a slogan, but reality.
(VADM Rudolf Golosov of the Russian Navy)

[Etienne]

"Before dropping anchor, ensure that the bitter end is properly secured."

[Safe-Keeper]

May I add one?

You propose to make a ship sail against the winds and tides by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

Something like that. Saw it in Civ 4.

[Kapitan]

Igor Britanov 1993 said submarine life is not just a service but a religion

[Paul Roberts]

In the interest of proper attribution:

On the front page today there's a quote from Eleanor Rickover: "They also serve who only stand and wait."

She may have said it, but she was quoting John Milton. The words are the last line of his poem, "On His Blindness."

[Drebbel]

Thanks Paul ! I just edited the info, now the complete poem is included.

[Sonoboy]

Here's a nice site that is full of quotes:

http://www.submarinesailor.com/quote.asp

[DAB]

"I Say Sir, my ends diving. Whats your end doing"

The first Lieutenant of a K-Boat (British) reporting from the engine room that the Submarine had decided upon itself to flood ballest tanks, but only up aft (c.1917)

[Ishmael]

Here's a quote from my father, Raymond W. Scott, Able Seaman before I went to sea the first time.

"Just remember son, no matter where you are at sea, you're never more than seven miles from land...Straight Down."

I always found that statement oddly comforting for some strange reason.

[Sailor Steve]

Okay, I'm an idiot. I told Drebbel I couldn't find this thread, and the next day I saw the link leading directly from the quote of the day to here. :damn:

Anyway:

I just read today's (February 22) quote "I have not yet begun to fight!". I was going to post this on the General Topics thread but couldn't find it.

John Paul Jones's ship was the Bonhomme Richard. Many American Warships have been named after it, the one I'm familiar with being an Aircraft Carrier my destroyer did escort work for in VietNam. We called her the "Bonny Dick". We called our own ship (USS Brinkley Bass) the "Wrinkly Ass", so we weren't insulting the carrier.

What is not common knowledge is the beginnings of the name. The great statesman Benjamin Franklin was America's ambassador to France, and he was also John Paul Jones's sponsor, which means he raised the money to buy Jones a ship to fight with. One of the many things Franklin was famous for was his 'Poor Richard's Almanac', a yearly book full of information for farmers and pithy, wise and humorous sayings. There was no direct translation of 'Poor Richard', so when Jones named his ship for Franklin the best he could do was 'Goodman Richard', or Bonhomme Richard.

[Etienne]

What is not common knowledge is the beginnings of the name. The great statesman Benjamin Franklin was America's ambassador to France, and he was also John Paul Jones's sponsor, which means he raised the money to buy Jones a ship to fight with. One of the many things Franklin was famous for was his 'Poor Richard's Almanac', a yearly book full of information for farmers and pithy, wise and humorous sayings. There was no direct translation of 'Poor Richard', so when Jones named his ship for Franklin the best he could do was 'Goodman Richard', or Bonhomme Richard.

Poor Richard translate to "Pauvre Richard". Bonhomme is, well, either a cartoon character or "That guy"... But I suppose the meaning could have changed in the interval.

[Bill Nichols]

There is a store near where I work that sells military-related paraphenalia (ballcaps, coffee mugs, etc.). They have a crystal paperweight for sale that is inscribed as follows:

"Don't give up the ship" - John Paul Jones

It's sad... the quote is not by JP Jones. In fact, it's not even from from the right war! "Don't give up the ship" was said by the Captain of USS Chesapeake in the War of 1812, just before his crew surrendered to HMS Shannon. :dead:

[Onkel Neal]

New quotes from lesrae and TLAM added to future updates.

(Has anyone see Drebbel?)

[Sailor Steve]

I just read the quote of the day on "To our wives and sweethearts, may they never meet". It is attributted to Patrick O'Brian, and must have been in one of his books; but the first of those books was printed in 1970, and the quote comes from several years earlier-Hogan's Heroes, to be exact.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058812/quotes

On the other hand, there is an older reference, and definitely naval in origin: Ernest Shackleton:
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2001/01/res_shackleton.html

[Tanyrhiew]

Thw wives & sweethearts quote is a traditional RN toast dating from before Trafalgar:

At mess dinners it used to be a custom, not often observed now, to propose what was known as the toast of the day. The list that seems to be most commonly followed dates from before Trafalgar, and is:

Monday - our ships at sea

Tuesday - our men

Wednesday - ourselves, because no one else is likely to both

Thursday - a bloody war or a sickly season (to ensure quicker promotion)

Friday - a willing foe and sea room (The two preceding seem to be of historical interest only)

Saturday - wives and sweethearts - may they never meet (reply is made by the youngest officer present)

Sunday - absent friends.


original link (http://www.readyayeready.com/tradition/customs-of-the-navy/9-wardroom-customs.htm)

[Tanyrhiew]

Another traditional RN piece that O'Brien used was a common ditty amongst midshipmen and went thus:

'Our Captain was very good to us,
He dipped his prick in phosphorous
It shed a light, all through the night
And steered us through the Bosphorous!'

Young people haven't changed that mnuch in the last two hundred odd years.