The sea cracks against the ship. Fear whispers, screams, falls silent, hushed. Spewed from our country, forgotten, bound to the dark edge of the earth … alone, frightened, nameless in this stinking hole of hell … we’ll remember England together."
-- Wisehammer (Act One, Scene One)

Importance: This quote is taken from the prologue-like first scene of the play. Its poetic language is juxtaposed with the visually violent image of a convict being whipped. As such, the combination of poetic language and painful visual evoke the tension in the worlds of the convicts, i.e. the threat of punishment co-existing with experiences of raw, painful humanity. The quote also evokes the experiences of the convicts in the hold of the ship transporting them to punishing exile, and the presence and power of England that seems to inhabit and / or control their lives and longings.

We are talking about criminals, often hardened criminals. They have a habit of vice...
-- Captain Tench  (Act One, Scene Six)