Names of Aircraft Carriers

 

I’m not going into the argument as to whether we need two new aircraft carriers, but it does appear that the names, Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, could have been chosen with more imagination.

The current three smaller carriers; Ark Royal, Illustrious and Invincible have names in the British tradition and as these will have been retired by the time the new carriers are in service, the reusing the names, as has been done many times in the past, would be appropriate. After all, one Illustrious with its twenty-one Swordfish was a hero of Taranto, the most significant naval battle outside of the Pacific in World War II.

Or are we in an era where the names for everything are dumbed down and made anaemic?

Over the last few years, we’ve had the renaming of Tiger Bay to Cardiff Bay, British Airways naming jumbos after cities instead of heroes like Drake, Clive and Grenville, and government, both national and local, using names that are boring, so they won’t offend anyone.

So the naming of the carriers falls into a pattern that makes life less colourful and interesting.

The letter was published in The Times, but it was rather dumbed down.

Sir, The names of our two new aircraft carriers, Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales (report, July 26), could have been chosen with more imagination.

The current three smaller carriers, Ark Royal, Illustrious and Invincible, have names in the British tradition and, as these will have been retired by the time the new carriers are in service, reusing the names would be appropriate.

After all, one Illustrious was a hero of Taranto, the most significant naval battle outside the Pacific in the Second World War.

JAMES MILLER
Newmarket, Suffolk

Perhaps that agrees with my point about not offending anyone.