Quotes About Naval

at the commencement of the battle-cruiser action the German Von der Tann had fought an unimpeded ship-to-ship duel with the British Indefatigable. In fourteen minutes' firing with her eleven-inch guns the Von der Tann had sunk the Indefatigable without receiving a single hit from the Indefatigable's twelve-inch.

Armoured cruiser operations with a fleet of Dreadnoughts (though Jellicoe misguidedly thought otherwise and lost three at Jutland) were now ruled out owing to their near equality in speed. The battle cruisers could have filled these fleet duties if they had not possessed an armament that was bound to tempt a commander in chief to place them in line for the sake of their big guns, risking a hit on their vulnerable vital areas.

Weakly protected battle cruisers should never have indulged in a sustained gunnery duel, especially when there were four vastly more powerful fast battleships available in the same scouting force. Armoured cruisers should never have been there at all. Destroyers obscured the enemy.

The British suffered worse casualties than in any previous naval battle, and more than twice as many as the Germans. But the material losses were not so heavy as at first appeared. Because of the very rapid development of the Dreadnought-type ship, the Invincible and Indefatigable were already outdated. The Queen Mary was a more modern battle cruiser, but she was much less valuable to the British than was the brand-new Lützow to the Germans.

The torpedo won Jutland. It nearly won the war for the Germans. But in the end it defeated them by drawing in the United States on the Allied side.

When dawn broke over the North Sea on May 31st, fifty-eight Dreadnought battleships and battle cruisers were steaming north or east toward the greatest naval collision of arms between surface ships of modern times. Thirty-seven were British, twenty-one were German.

Gentlemen, Admiral Lord Nelson wrote, of the officers aft on the quarterdeck and the seamen of the fo'c'sle: 'Aft the most honour—forward the better man!'" The

My observations of Japanese naval fighting men, their abilities and equipment led me to believe that they gave a better account of themselves than we did.

Competition in armament, both land and naval, is not only a terrible burden upon the people, but I believe it to be one of the greatest menaces to the peace of the world.

I know of no more important subject to the peace of Europe and the world than the reasonable reduction of armaments, especially in Europe, and of naval armaments throughout the world.

a large and ridiculous gunner told me that I looked like an out-of-work chorus boy. He was very startled when I told him that was exactly what I was, but that I found it easier to get work as a naval officer, a job requiring considerably less talent.

When Vasco da Gama breached the Indian Ocean, the playing field had just been vacated by the one force capable of repelling him.

Later in the war, the German naval cipher would be changed every day at midnight, and it was the duty of the night duty team to crack it before daybreak. But that was some years ahead.

British battleships were driven by between 30 and 100 megawatts of power.

The railroad network of the German Empire made the Kaiser's realm the most advanced military power in the world, and Britain's precarious naval supremacy began to seem less relevant than it had been.

If it had not been for the English I should have been emperor of the East, but wherever there is water to float a ship we are sure to find them in our way.

Nearly all the vessels we saw were war craft.

letters of marque;

As it seeks to rule the seas once again, China desires tangible symbols of its past as a naval power. Finding a sunken Chinese ship or coins in Kenyan waters would be powerful in this regard.

his naval namesake. He spoke German as a

What is American strategy first of all? So American strategy is to command the seas, right? The foundation of our power is sea control. Nobody can invade us, but we can invade them.

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

The Midway battle was crucial. In exchange for 307 lives, the Yorktown and a destroyer, and 147 airplanes, the American fleet had destroyed four Japanese carriers, more than three hundred planes, a cruiser and a destroyer, and nearly five thousand Japanese sailors and airmen. It has been called, with justification, "the turning point" in the Pacific war.

We will maintain heading until he's committed, then I want a hard skew-turn to starboard. As hard as you can make it, Chief. I want our starboard broadside on him as he passes below us, and then I want to cut down across his stern and stick it right up his kilt. Clear? (Honor Harrington)