Now don't mistake me. I'm not advising cruelty or brutality with no purpose. My point is that cruelty with purpose is not cruelty - it's efficiency. Then a man will never disobey once he's watched his mate's backbone laid bare. He'll see the flesh jump, hear the whistle of the whip for the rest of his life.

It is a matter of supernatural indifference to me whether you contaminate the natives or the natives contaminate you. I have but one concern - our mission. Let one of you provoke an incident which endangers it and I shall cause that man to curse his mother for giving him birth.

Midshipmen - be a dull navy without them. Now get that slut off my ship.

While our mission remains unfulfilled I'm not in any port, Mr Fryer, I'm command where you may find one day it's always lonely. You see, command allows no intimacies. You can hardly expect unquestioning obedience from last night's partner in a debauch.

I'm not leaving you Mr Christian, not ever. Go to the dirtiest little corner of the world I'll be there, right behind you, with a rope in my hand.

The king's navy will not rest until every mutineer is captured and executed. Wherever you go, wherever you hide a thousand ships will search you out.

We need only persuade the British people of something they already know - that inhumanity is its poorest servant.

[to Captain Bligh] But I assure you, sir, that the execution of my duties is entirely unaffected by my private opinion of you.

John Mills: There's no chance for people like us to go back to England, give Bligh a bad name and walk free men ourselves. And anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't got the sense that God gave geese.