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Jake Holman: I was home. What happened? What the hell happened?
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[Jake Holman (Machinist Mate 1st Class ) teaching Po-han (Engine Room coolie) the engine room]
Jake Holman: Valve.
Po-han: Wow.
Jake Holman: Valve.
Po-han: Wow.
[points to valve, more emphatically]
Po-han: Wow.
Jake Holman: Yeah, okay... wow.
[pointing to another valve]
Jake Holman: Main steam stop valve.
Po-han: Main steam stop wow.
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Captain Collins: Holman, I'll have you shot as a mutineer!
Jake Holman: Well shoot something!
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Frenchy Burgoyne: [exchanging marriage vows; slowly and with feeling] We're mixing our lives together, Maily, and we'll never be able to unmix them again, and we'll never want to. I take you for what you are, and all that you are, and mix you with all of me, and I don't hold back nothing. When you're cold, and hungry, and afraid, so am I. I'm going to stay with you all that I can, take the best care of you that I can, and love you 'til I die.
Maily: I will always love you and honor you and serve you, and stay as near to you as I can, and do everything for you, and live for you. I won't have *any* life except our life together. I will just love you, Frenchy, all of me, loving you forever.
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Captain Collins: Pray for an early spring... or permission to open fire.
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Jake Holman: Hello, Engine; I'm Jake Holman.
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Jake Holman: [Holman enters the engine room after boarding the San Pablo. He looks around the room, smiles and places his hand on the machinery] Hello, Engine; I'm Jake Holman.
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Po-han: Dead stim!
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Jake Holman: [Last Lines] I was home. What happened? What the hell happened?
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Jake Holman: Hit him. He's getting tired.
Po-han: Maybe he tired hit me.
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Jake Holman: I told you not to talk to sailors, didn't I?
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Frenchy Burgoyne: If they obey orders then the Navy takes care of them. It's a way of life that appeals to a certain kind of man.
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Captain Collins: Do you know what this is? Desertion in the face of the enemy.
Jake Holman: I don't got no more enemies. Shove off, Captain.
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Jameson: If they obey orders then the Navy takes care of them. It's a way of life that appeals to a certain kind of man.
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Captain Collins: [addressing the assembled crew of the USS "San Pablo"] Today we begin cruising to show the flag on Tungting Lake and the Hunan Rivers. I want all honours rendered smartly. At home in America, when today reaches them, it'll be Flag Day. For us who wear the uniform, every day is Flag Day. It is said there will be no more wars. We must pretend to believe that. But when war comes, it is we who will take the first shock, and buy time with our lives. It is we who keep the faith. We serve the flag. The trade we all follow is the give-and-take of death. It is for that purpose that the people of America maintain us. Any one of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats, and a trespasser in the bunk in which he lies down to sleep.
Captain Collins: [turns to his Executive Officer] Mr Bordelles, make preparations for getting underway.
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Captain Collins: [Addressing the assembled crew of the USS "San Pablo" as it remains laid up at Changsha for the winter, surrounded by unfriendly locals] The "San Pablo" is now in a state of siege here, and will be all winter. The water level in the channel is already too low for us to leave before spring. There will be no liberty. No contact with the shore except a guard mail trip to the consulate once a week. Each of you will get a chance to make this trip once. They have singled out "San Pablo" for destruction, using their new weapons of boycott and propaganda. They expect in the end to haul down the flag in shame and disgrace. We will not let them do that. When the time comes, we will defend our flag with our life's blood. They will watch us every minute. They will gloat over every rust streak down our sides, every sign of military slackness. They expect to destroy us. But it will only make us stronger. That's all. Carry on.
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Captain Collins: [Observing, from the bridge of the USS "San Pablo," as Mr. Jameson heads out on a Chinese junk on his way back upriver to his mission at China Light] The next incident, they could just as well turn on him and kill him.
Ensign Bordelles: Well, at least he's off our necks, sir.
Captain Collins: Our primary mission is still to defend American lives - even if they are damned fools.
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Frenchy Burgoyne: Welcome aboard the Sand Pebble
[referring to the ship San Pablo]
Frenchy Burgoyne: . That's what we call her. We're Sand Pebbles.
The Sand Pebbles Quotes
Extended Reading
