- Lady Hamilton: Brandy is the best preservative for the dead.
- Lady Frances Nelson: But is it for the living?
- Adm. Lord Horatio Nelson: Captain!
- Capt. Blackwood: Yes, my lord?
- Adm. Lord Horatio Nelson: Five hours I've watched you trying to pass me in your damned Temeraire. When we come to battle, I'll thank you to keep to your proper station.
- Capt. Blackwood: Yes, my lord, and what is that?
- Adm. Lord Horatio Nelson: Behind me!
- Master George Matcham: Perhaps I expect a perfect hero to be a perfect saint.
- Capt. Hardy: That we all do. Naw! England has no need of a saint at this hour of her history, Master Matcham, but she has very dire need of a hero.
- Master George Matcham: But you must know him as well as anyone alive, then.
- Capt. Hardy: Yes, I suppose I do. Well, let's say I know the man at sea. The man ashore - that seems a different matter.
- Capt. Hardy: Your uncle is great both in what he is and what he does. How could he have done what he has done without being what he is?
- Master George Matcham: You mean, win battles?
- Capt. Hardy: I mean far more than winning battles. Every schoolboy knows exactly how the Nile and Copenhagen were won. But does every schoolboy know what they were won with?
- Lady Hamilton: [to Lord Minto] You knew me when I first met him. Was I quite such a vulgar, drunken slut?
- Lady Hamilton: That Hamilton bitch! That I am. But I'm the woman he wants and who can make him happy.
- Adm. Lord Horatio Nelson: I may be vain in such matter, but dammit, I like people to know what I've done.
- Lady Hamilton: Why can none of you understand? England needs a live, healthy Nelson - not a Nelson broken and sick and half-dead from longing.
- Master George Matcham: What about his honor?
- Lord Minto: Now that's not a word I'm accustomed to use as I never really know what it means.
- Lord Minto: That question - what does one person see in another person - has been asked since the beginning of time; and will be asked until the end of it. And, dear, young Master Matcham, there is never, never, any answer.
- Capt. Hardy: I never cared for French wine. I prefer rum. Wouldn't you know it, there isn't any. What kind of an admiral's lady is it that doesn't keep rum? Nothing but foreign muck. Oh, here's something - gin. A whore's drink. In the circumstances, quite suitable, don't you think?