Charles Laughton
(as Bligh)
Captain William Bligh:
[pointing at three sailors] You, you, you, step forward! You three are a disgrace to salt water! Ten days half rations.
Charles Laughton
(as Bligh)
Captain William Bligh:
Can you understand this, Mr. Byam? Discipline is the thing. A seaman's a seaman. A captain's a captain. And a midshipman, Sir Joseph or no Sir Joseph, is the lowest form of animal life in the British Navy.
Charles Laughton
(as Bligh)
Captain William Bligh:
During the recent heavy weather, I've had the opportunity to watch all of you at work on deck and aloft. You don't know wood from canvas! And it seems you don't want to learn! Well, I'll have to give you a lesson
Charles Laughton
(as Bligh)
Charles Laughton
(as Bligh)
Captain William Bligh:
What's your name?
Seaman Thomas Ellison: Thomas Ellison, sir. Pressed into service. I've got a wife, a baby!
Captain William Bligh: I asked your name, not the history of your misfortunes.
Seaman Thomas Ellison: Thomas Ellison, sir. Pressed into service. I've got a wife, a baby!
Captain William Bligh: I asked your name, not the history of your misfortunes.
Franchot Tone
(as Byam)
Lord Hood:
Have you anything to say before the sentence of this court is passed upon you?
Byam: Milord, much as I desire to live, I'm not afraid to die. Since I first sailed on the Bounty over four years ago, I've know how men can be made to suffer worse things than death, cruelly, beyond duty, beyond necessity.
[turns to Captain Bligh]
Byam: Captain Bligh, you've told your story of mutiny on the Bounty, how men plotted against you, seized your ship, cast you adrift in an open boat, a great venture in science brought to nothing, two British ships lost. But there's another story, Captain Bligh, of ten cocoanuts and two cheeses. A story of a man who robbed his seamen, cursed them, flogged them, not to punish but to break their spirit. A story of greed and tyranny, and of anger against it, of what it cost.
[turns to Lord Hood]
Byam: One man, milord, would not endure such tyranny.
[turns again to Captain Bligh]
Byam: That's why you hounded him. That's why you hate him, hate his friends. And that's why you're beaten. Fletcher Christian's still free.
[back to Lord Hood]
Byam: Christian lost, too, milord. God knows he's judged himself more harshly than you could judge him.
[turns to Fletcher Christian's father]
Byam: I say to his father, "He was my friend. No finer man ever lived."
[addresses the court again]
Byam: I don't try to justify his crime, his mutiny, but I condemn the tyranny that drove 'im to it. I don't speak here for myself alone or for these men you condemn. I speak in their names, in Fletcher Christian's name, for all men at sea. These men don't ask for comfort. They don't ask for safety. If they could speak to you they'd say, "Let us choose to do our duty willingly, not the choice of a slave, but the choice of free Englishmen." They ask only the freedom that England expects for every man. If one man among you believe that - *one man* - he could command the fleets of England, He could sweep the seas for England. If he called his men to their duty not by flaying their backs, but by lifting their hearts... their... That's all.
Byam: Milord, much as I desire to live, I'm not afraid to die. Since I first sailed on the Bounty over four years ago, I've know how men can be made to suffer worse things than death, cruelly, beyond duty, beyond necessity.
[turns to Captain Bligh]
Byam: Captain Bligh, you've told your story of mutiny on the Bounty, how men plotted against you, seized your ship, cast you adrift in an open boat, a great venture in science brought to nothing, two British ships lost. But there's another story, Captain Bligh, of ten cocoanuts and two cheeses. A story of a man who robbed his seamen, cursed them, flogged them, not to punish but to break their spirit. A story of greed and tyranny, and of anger against it, of what it cost.
[turns to Lord Hood]
Byam: One man, milord, would not endure such tyranny.
[turns again to Captain Bligh]
Byam: That's why you hounded him. That's why you hate him, hate his friends. And that's why you're beaten. Fletcher Christian's still free.
[back to Lord Hood]
Byam: Christian lost, too, milord. God knows he's judged himself more harshly than you could judge him.
[turns to Fletcher Christian's father]
Byam: I say to his father, "He was my friend. No finer man ever lived."
[addresses the court again]
Byam: I don't try to justify his crime, his mutiny, but I condemn the tyranny that drove 'im to it. I don't speak here for myself alone or for these men you condemn. I speak in their names, in Fletcher Christian's name, for all men at sea. These men don't ask for comfort. They don't ask for safety. If they could speak to you they'd say, "Let us choose to do our duty willingly, not the choice of a slave, but the choice of free Englishmen." They ask only the freedom that England expects for every man. If one man among you believe that - *one man* - he could command the fleets of England, He could sweep the seas for England. If he called his men to their duty not by flaying their backs, but by lifting their hearts... their... That's all.
Charles Laughton
(as Bligh)
Captain William Bligh: Casting me adrift 3500 miles from a port of call. You're sending me to my doom, eh? Well, you're wrong, Christian! I'll take this boat as she floats to England if I must! I'll live to see you, all of ya, hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fleet!