The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island. Sir William Blackstone
Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash. Winston Churchill.
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. Thomas Babington Macaulay