A few days ago I read a report of a report about the sinking of HMS Sheffield, a large and important ship, in the course of a war fought to save the Falkland Islands, a war which as well as costing many lives and much treasure, has had the effect of blocking our orderly withdrawal from this relic of our imperial era.
It seems that the captain of this ship was a submariner and the first lieutenant an aviator, neither with much surface ship experience. A combination which, inter alia, failed to take effective action when an inbound missile was detected, some minutes before impact.
It seemed ironic that I should read about this at just about the same time of year as we fought our most well known naval battle, the Battle of Trafalgar, a battle which was a resounding victory, despite the rather imperfect arrangements for assigning officers to ships. It might not have been as bad as the army of the day but birth, breeding and money still counted for a lot. And while I dare say birth, breeding and money do not hold sway as they once did, the arrangements for assigning officers to ships still appear to have left something to be desired, close on two hundred years later.
One wonders who will get to be put in charge of our fine new aircraft carrier without aircraft, glimpsed only a few weeks ago when we arrived at Portsmouth on the catamaran from Ryde. See reference 1. If it is also without escort group, the sort of small fleet that aircraft carriers from the US sail around with, the job might be seriously challenging.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/pensioners-outing.html.
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