What is the longest name of a Royal Naval Vessel

[muuranker]

Prompted by watching a TV programme about the Dame Rhona something (Australian customs vessel), and studying for my VHS certificate at the same time, I wondered about the length of the name - and the bore of having to spell it out and problem of including it in a call where one is required to repeat it three times - or six, in the case of a Mayday

Comments

[wellinghall]

Almost maintaining the long tradition of the Royal Navy taking over French ships ...

[muuranker]

There may be an earlier charlie-oscar-mike-mike-alpha- oh for goodness sake, let's rename ourself the Valient or Arc Royal or something .... But the name seems (according to internet searches) to first occur with any fame with Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves, French resistance hero.

I wonder when "the French" stopped being "the enemy". Although, of course, it is a generational thing: I don't think anyone under 30 today would know this, but people of more mature years know of it, and perhaps some very old people know it.

[wellinghall]

I wonder if there is a correlation between "really long names" and "ships that came under fire / sank / ran aground just before they received the full warning message".

[wellinghall]

Until the ?mid 1930s, we were planning for war against France. And against the USA.

And Vichy France really was the enemy from 1940 until 1944/5.

[didiusjulianus]

This has reminded me in a roundabout way that Our World (see iplayer) this week on the BBC News channel is about St Helena.