A ruler that has but an army has one hand, but he who has a navy has both. ~ Peter the Great

A navy (sometimes called a maritime force) is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includes anything conducted by surface ships, amphibious ships, submarines, and seaborne aviation, as well as ancillary support, communications, training, and other fields; recent developments have included space related operations.

Quotes

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 550.
  • 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.
  • Right—that will do for the marines.
  • The wooden walls are the best walls of this kingdom.
    • Lord Keeper Coventry, speech to the Judges, June 17, 1635, reported 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.
    • John 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.
  • Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea
    Or skirts the safer shores
    Of all that bore to victory
    Our stout old Commodores.
  • 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, Volume I, Chapter III, Part 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, Chapter XIII; reported in Trollope, Small House at Allington.
Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 180-181.
  • The legislature have anxiously provided for those most useful and deserving body of men, the seamen and marines of this country.
    • Lord Kenyon, C.J., Turtle v. Hartwell (1795), 6 T. R. 429.
  • Surely the navy must be the navy royal.
    • Holt, C.J., Tutchin's Case (1704), 14 How. St. Tr. 1122.
  • The naval dominion of England is of great consequence and use; for it is called dotem regni. If therefore the kingdom of England consists of land and sea, I hope we shall not stand at half defence, to defend the land and leave the sea.
    • Rot. Parl., 2 Rich. II., M. 25.
  • The condition of the British Navy is, no doubt, a matter of national importance and public interest.
    • Grove, J., Henwood v. Harrison (1872), L. R. 7 C. P. Cas. 613.
  • The salvation of this country depends upon the discipline of the fleet; without discipline they would be a rabble, dangerous only to their friends, and harmless to the enemy.
    • Per Cur., Johnstone v. Sutton (1786), 1 T. R. 549.
  • The navy is the most important defence of the country, in which every subject of the Queen has an interest of the deepest character.
    • Willes, J., Henwood v. Harrison (1872), L. R. 7 C. P. Cas. 627.
  • War itself is a great evil, but it is chosen to avoid a greater. The practice of pressing is one of the mischiefs war bringeth with it. But it is a maxim in law, and good policy too, that all private mischiefs must be borne with patience for preventing a national calamity. And as no greater calamity can befall us than to be weak and defenceless at sea in a time of war, so I do not know that the wisdom of the nation hath hitherto found out any method of manning our navy, less inconvenient than pressing; and at the same time, equally sure and effectual.
    • Foster, J., Case of Pressing Mariners (1743), 18 How. St. Tr. 1330.
  • It may not be fit, in point of discipline, that a subordinate officer should dispute the commands of his superior, if he were ordered to go to the mast head: but if the superior were to order him thither, knowing that, for some bodily infirmity, it was impossible he should execute the order, and that he must infallibly break his neck in the attempt, and it were so to happen, the discipline of the navy would not protect that superior from being guilty of the crime of murder.
    • Eyre, B., Sutton v. Johnstone (1786), 1 T. R. 503.

Peabody Museum of Salem

  • Our Mountains are cover'd with Imperial Oak
    Whose Roots, like our liberties, ages have nourished
    But long e're our Nation submits to the Yoke
    Not a Tree shall be left on the Field where it Flourished
    Should Invasion impend, every Tree would defend
    From the Hill tops they shaded, our Shores to defend
    For ne'er shall the Sons of Columbia be Slaves
    While the Earth bears a Plant, or the Sea rolls its Waves.
    • Caption from a bowl made in Liverpool, for export to the US
  • Encyclopedic article on Navy at Wikipedia
  • The dictionary definition of navy at Wiktionary
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