Taken from an Indian Navy Website. Why don't we tell the rest of the World that our Governments given up on us. I think we need to put some adverts in the Times looking for Admirals, Captains and Government Officials. The key requirement will be back bone. Whatever happened to ships of wood and men of steel. Do NOT let our Government get away with letting the Royal Navy shrink in size to around 17 ships over the next ten years. It makes me sad that someone in the Indian Navy can make comments like this and we cannot even argue our case. Come on Lads..... Lets get stuck in an tackle the Pirate issue...
The Gulf of Aden is awash with Somalian pirates who have been cheerfully capturing merchant vessels and holding them and their crews to ransom, all this despite the presence of American and European warships supposedly there to prevent these nefarious activities.
All the commanders (or their on-board PR men) say, when invited to explain why they can’t prevent the piracy or do anything about the pirates’ lairs, well known to all of them, is to say that they can’t do anything because it might put the captured crews at hazard.
Well the Indian navy is taking a more robust attitude, sinking a pirate boat a month or so ago and now capturing 23 of them as they tried to pinch merchant vessel the MV Gibe.
A couple of hundred years ago the Royal Navy cemented its reputation as the master of the seas through the audacious exploits of the captains of its fast, heavily-armed frigates against piratical riff-raff like these Somalis.
Captain Jack Aubrey in Patrick Brien’s collection of novels is how we envisage them.
Now the British are agonising about building two huge (and probably useless and vulnerable) aircraft carriers at a time when they have neither the frigates, or apparently the will, to carry on in the glorious traditions of the Royal Navy and police the seas.
They should take a leaf out of the Indian navy’s book.
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