- Lt. Joe Rossi: Now, that's the word of God. And it's good. But I don't think He'd mind if I put my oar in. These are eight men we knew and liked, guys like us. Guys we ate with and slept with and fought with. Well, we were just a little luckier than they were. We'll miss them. All of them.
- Capt. Steve Jarvis: [to a departing German U-boat after it has rammed his survivor lifeboat] Go on, laugh, you apes! You've had your blood and fire to make you laugh, but I swear to God our time is comin'! We'll pay ya back! We'll hunt ya down and slice ya like a piece of cheese!
- Lt. Joe Rossi: Oh, they can't hear you.
- Capt. Steve Jarvis: No, but God can.
- Chips Abrams: I got faith in God, President Roosevelt, and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the order of their importance.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: [about Wright's gun crew] They're takin' 'em kinda young these days, ain't they?
- Ens. Wright: We're *getting* them young, Mr. Rossi, we're not taking them. Those boys all volunteered for this duty.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: Don't get me wrong, Ensign, I'm not objecting to their youth. I'm all for it.
- Ens. Wright: They've all been trained for this job.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: Well, I hope so, because just between you and me, Mr. Wright, I don't think *my* men could hit the deck with their hats.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: These nights are killers, aren't they?
- Cadet Robert Parker: Yeah, I lie in my bunk with my clothes on and try to sleep, but every time that engine slows, my heart speeds up. In time, I think I can train myself to have an iron nerve, like you have.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: Yeah, let me tell you something about my "iron nerve," son. It's made of rubber just like everybody else's, so it'll stretch when you need it. People got a funny idea that being brave is not being scared. I don't know, I always figured, you weren't scared, there's nothing to be brave about. The trick is, how much scaring can you take? I got an idea you can take plenty.
- Johnnie Pulaski: If a torpedo ever connected with this ship, we'd go up like a match connected to cellophane. You ain't got a chance!
- Boats O'Hara: [Repeating] You ain't got a chance.
- Johnnie Pulaski: And "Boom!" You're in the hero department!
- Boats O'Hara: Yeah.
- Johnnie Pulaski: Just like that and the next thing you know, you're pickin' a milky way outta your ears.
- Whitey Lara: Okay, okay, so what?
- Johnnie Pulaski: Whatta ya mean, "Okay?"
- Chips Abrams: Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I think you got the wromg angle. The way I see it if your ship's number is up, you're gonna get it.
- Whitey Lara: Yeah, and suppose my number ain't up?
- Chips Abrams: Then, brother, the torpedoes can connect right where yer sittin' and still nuthin' will happen.
- Boats O'Hara: Well, I want no torpedoes where I'm sittin'. I'm a sensitive man, I am.
- Johnnie Pulaski: [to Chips] Whatta you know about it? You carpenters got sawdust for brains!
- Chips Abrams: Listen, I was shippin' out when your buttons was safety pins. I was in a tanker in the last war. I got torpedoed so much, I got water on the knee.
- Lieutenant-Commander: [Seeing the battered Liberty Ship pulling into the harbor in Mermansk] It's a miracle!
- Rear Admiral Williams: That isn't a miracle; it's American seamanship.
- other: [title card] "Today in the face of this newest and greatest challenge of them all, we of the United Nations have cleared our decks and taken our battle stations. It is the will of the people that America shall deliver the goods. It can never be doubted that the goods will be delivered by this nation, which believes in the tradition of 'Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!'" Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Chips Abrams: So you want a safe job, hunh? Go ask the Czechs and the Poles and the Greeks. They were figuring on safe jobs. They're lined up in front of guns digging each other's graves. The trouble with you, Pulaski, is you think America is just a place to eat and sleep. You don't know what side your future's buttered on.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: No matter how many tanks and planes and guns you pile up, no matter how many men you got, it doesn't mean a thing unless the men get the stuff when they need it.
- Boats O'Hara: I'm thinking plenty. And I ought to make you smell knuckles for the duration.
- Chips Abrams: No, no, no. You got your brains in your fists.
- Boats O'Hara: But that's what he needs.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt: From the freedom-loving peoples of the United Nations to our merchant seaman on all the oceans goes our everlasting gratitude. With their aid, we shall build a bridge of ships to our allies, over which we will roll the implements of war. We shall see to it that men and materials will be delivered where they are needed and when they are needed. Nothing on land, in the air, on the sea, or under the sea shall prevent our complete and final victory.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: Baby, there's one thing you gotta understand. Maybe we guys know more about what's going on than most people. We've been hanging around Axis ports for a long time and we've seen what they do. What we've seen ain't nice. So we... we can't sit around holding hands with all that going on.
- Lt. Joe Rossi: The Front? The Front's right off Sandy Hook; it ain't more than 10 miles from here.
- [a reference to the U-boats hunting in New York and New Jersey coastal waters]
- Boats O'Hara: A hundred? That's only a spit in the ocean. It will take thousands, they're building them ships so fast.
- Whitey Lara: [at Parker, who is about to close the door to the galley] Leave it open, sweetheart. When I got it off Hatteras, six guys was caught in the fo'c'sle 'cause the door buckled, and they couldn't bust her loose.
- Cadet Robert Parker: Sorry.