Can our shrinking military keep Britain safe? We ask if defence cuts have allowed Russia to move its forces ever closer to our coast. A former head of special forces dismisses the government’s key plan to replace regular soldiers with part-timers. Dispatches: Britain's Defence Squeeze, Channel 4 2015
The Royal Navy seemed to be a little short of ships. ibid.
Almost as many admirals as there are warships. ibid.
The world’s largest ship recycler. Welcome to India II, BBC 2012
13th January 2012: the Costa Concordia cruise ship collides with a rock near an Italian island and begins sinking. It’s the largest passenger shipwreck in history. Costa Concordia Disaster: One Year On, National Geographic 2013
Costing an estimated $400 million it will be the most expensive and challenging salvage operation ever attempted. ibid.
At 9.45 p.m. the ship hits the rock. ibid.
Why it took so long to abandon ship ... there was confusion on board. ibid.
The ship starts to lean to its left side. ibid.
Twenty minutes after the impact no-one has called a general emergency ... the announcers repeat the same reassuring message. ibid.
But the standing toast that pleased the most
Was – the wind that blows, the ship that goes,
And the lass that loves a sailor! Charles Dibdin, The Lass That Loves a Sailor, 1811
And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Mark 4:36-41
And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timbers of curious workmanship. And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship.
Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men. Book of Mormon I Nephi 18:1&2
Almost 15,000 men worked in the Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast. Titanic: Birth of a Legend, 2005
Bridge – Radar – got a spook. The Enemy Below 1957 starring Robert Mitchum & Curt Jurgens & Theodore Bikel & Al Hedison & Russell Collins & Kurt Kreuger & Ralph Manza & Frank Albertson & Biff Elliot & Doug McClure et al, director Dick Powell, radar bloke
I’m sick of this war. It’s not a good war. ibid. captain of U-boat
There's no end to misery and destruction. ibid. Mitchum
I want something better for them than war, and I think it’s possible. ibid. doctor to captain
I don’t want to know the men I’m trying to destroy. ibid. captain to doctor
It did not go entirely unnoticed that the reaction was rather different when the US warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner in a commercial corridor off the coast or Iran – out of ‘a need to prove the viability of Aegis’, its high-tech missile system, in the judgement of US Navy commander David Carlson who ‘wondered aloud in disbelief’ as he monitored events from a nearby naval vessel. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she … Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain, re loss of Titanic
The ocean has always been the cradle of rebirth. Poseidon 2006 starring Kurt Russell & Josh Lucas & Richard Dreyfuss & Jacinda Barrett & Emmy Rossum & Mia Maestro & Mike Vogel & Kevil Dillon & Freddy Rodriguez & Jimmy Bennett & Stacy Ferguson et al, director Wolfgang Petersen, MC on stage
But as the sun was rising from the fair sea into the firmament of heaven to shed light on mortals and immortals, they reached Pylos, the city of Neleus. Now the people of Pylos were gathered on the sea shore to offer sacrifice of black bulls to Neptune lord of the Earthquake. There were nine guilds with five hundred men in each, and there were nine bulls to each guild. As they were eating the inward meats and burning the thigh bones [on the embers] in the name of Neptune, Telemachus and his crew arrived, furled their sails, brought their ship to anchor, and went ashore. Homer, The Odyssey III
So the wind filled the belly of the sail, and the dark wave sang loudly about the stem of the ship, as she went, and she sped over the wave, accomplishing her way. But when they came to the wide camp of the Achaeans, they drew the black ship up on the shore, high upon the sands, and set in line the long props beneath, and themselves scattered among the tents and ships. But he in his wrath sat beside his swift-faring ships, the Zeus-sprung son of Peleus, swift-footed Achilles. Never did he go forth to the place of gathering, where men win glory, nor ever to war, but wasted away his own heart, as he tarried where he was; and he longed for the war-cry and the battle. Homer, The Ilyad I
The shipwreck: the sailor’s ultimate nightmare … It’s always been lodged deep in our psychological makeup … Shipwrecks changed the course of our history. Sam Willis, Shipwrecks: Britain’s Sunken History I: Home Waters to High Seas, BBC 2016
In November 1703 a massive storm tore across the south coast destroying everything in its wake in a maelstrom of chaos. Which spawned wind speeds of over a hundred and forty miles an hour. The only bona fide hurricane ever to hit our shores. ibid.
The Mary Rose returned to the surface after over four hundred years. ibid.
Over 20,000 Spanish soldiers and sailors had lost their lives. ibid.
One in five ships never returned. ibid.
The anxieties that built up in Georgian Britain about wreckings at sea. Sam Willis, Shipwrecks: Britain’s Sunken History II: A World Turning Upside Down
The Scilly Islands were inaccurately charted and notoriously treacherous. ibid.
Longitude … a problem facing all British ships at the time. ibid.
These slave ships would carry up to five hundred men, women and children shackled and manacled in the hold … This was a gruesome trade. ibid.
Dozens of slave ships were wrecked in this period. ibid.
The sea and her mastery of it would help Britain become the greatest economic powerhouse the world had ever known. Sam Willis, Shipwrecks: Britain’s Sunken History III: Civilising the Sea
In the war against the shipwreck one name stands out as commander-in-chief: Samuel Plimsoll. Ibid.
They were once as much a part of the Great British seaside as fish and chips. Pleasure steamers linking industrial cities to seaside resorts … The excursion steam was the first form of mass transport … What they did was to democratise luxury. Timeshift: The People’s Liners, BBC 2016
While the sixties swung, the steamers were shunned. ibid.
A sailor’s existence was dreadful. Fancy being cooped up in a horrid ship, with the hoarse, hump-backed waves trying to get in, and a black wind blowing the masts down, and tearing the sails into long screaming ribands! Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Egypt: This floating superweapon appears to have carried more people than a modern aircraft carrier. Ancient Impossible s1e3: Ultimate Weapons, History 2014
These were no ordinary warships – they were the Iron-Clads. Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Colour s1e2: Weapons of War, History 2015
A floating palace whose name really did rule the waves. A workplace for 250 sailors. And one extraordinary family’s home from home. Britannia: Secrets of the Royal Yacht I, Channel 5 2017
This is the story of Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia … The world’s most famous motor-yacht. ibid.
Britannia had sailed every ocean … hosting heads of state … Britannia always represented a little piece of home. ibid.
On 4th February 1952 the John Brown shipyard received confirmation to start building this new palace at sea. ibid.
This labyrinth of pipes and gauges is the beating heart of Britannia. The two-geared steam turbines developing a total of 12,000 shaft horsepower allowed the yacht to reach speeds of 22.5 knots. ibid.
In the course of three days the Royal Yacht and her crew saved the lives of 1,082 people at Aden. ibid.
The running costs were £10 million a year. ibid.