On 21st October 1805 the Royal Navy, commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson won a famous and decisive victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar (for an excellent overview try here.) Trafalgar Day, for the benefit of TheEye’s overseas readers, is the annual celebration and […]

It seems that the country of Nelson and Drake is busy doing what it does best – forgetting our history. From the Coventry Telegraph, and probably elsewhere: A QUARTER of children say Captain Jack Sparrow is Britain’s most famous seaman. That’s according to a new survey which puts our knowledge of […]

Considering the depleted state of the Armed Forces these days, Gibraltar is currently the busiest we’ve been for ages hosting Royal Navy ships. In fact this year has seen more naval activity so far than in the whole of 2010. The US nuclear submarine Florida (pictured right against the South […]

Haven’t seen much in the UK press about the buildup of British forces in the seas around Libya…except for HMS Cumberland and the obvious jibes about her imminent scrapping. However locally there are signs of more activity than that. Yesterday and for the third time within the space of a […]

And you thought that the military strategy confusing our enemies by scrapping ships, tanks and aircraft was just because Labour had spent all of our money on Transexual Gypsy Liaison Officers: One of the UK’s most senior naval officers has described the Armed Forces’ preparations to tackle climate change. Senior British […]

A very poignant picture from the Navy News. After 50,762 hours at sea and 621,551 miles sailed the massive decommissioning pennant stretched from the main mast, along the flight deck and into the Solent. Doesn’t it remind you of Turner’s Fighting Temeraire being towed away to be broken up? Here’s […]

For those of you immune to the charms of spoof postings on property websites selling Ireland here’s a genuine For Sale post, and the product really is available. HMS Invincible. Availability is listed as In Stock, which is handy for Christmas. Buyer collection only, which is a pain if your tugboat […]

The first British warship to visit Cuba since before the 1959 revolution sailed into Havana Bay yesterday, to the strains of “God Save the Queen.” played by a Cuban Navy band. In the first formal visit since 1957 when the frigate HMS Bigbury Bay was in Havana, HMS Manchester is […]

On Softpedia we read that: A hacker claims to have gained full access to the website of the British Royal Navy and the underlying database through an SQL injection attack. The public disclosure was made by a Romanian self-confessed security enthusiast who uses the online handle of “TinKode.” TinKode writes […]

This blog has always had a strong military slant, and, well, this post is the product of two unconnected thoughts. Over on A Tangled Web, Mike Cunningham has written a post on the saving and restoration of Sir Francis Chichester’s old yacht Gypsy Moth IV. He writes: I read that […]