The continuing decline of the Royal Navy is a travesty. Today, it'a a shadow of its former self. When I joined the RN in 1991, the numbers, both in ships and manpower, were on the decline. This was expected. The cold war had just ended, Saddam Hussein was under containment after his adventure into … read more

The Commanding Officer of HMS Somerset, a type 23 Frigate, has 'made waves' (forgive the pun) by becoming the first CO to write a blog. The blog can be found at http://hms-somerset-co.blogspot.com Reading this blog brought back a lot of memories. I particularly like this post which highlights one of … read more

I've just watched the news conference given by the returned sailors and I'm riled to say the least. Not from what the sailors said but from the reaction of some idiots on forums and some newspaper columnists in the papers today. I think people have been watching too many Hollywood war movies. I'd … read more

Thank god we're not Americans. If it was yank sailors that had been arrested by the Iranians they would have either fired back, in which case they would have all been shot due to being heavily outnumbered, or Bush would have taken a hard line, in which case it could have led to another war and the … read more

I can't believe that Iranian forces have captured Royal Navy sailors again. I sailed through Iranian waters a few times myself during my years as a matelot, and tension always rose because of the number of Iranian FPB's (Fast Patrol Boats) that came close to us. We always had to close to a high … read more