MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
HMS Portland with a female commander leaves for Atlantic patrol
Type 23 frigate HMS Portland left on Monday from Davenport naval base for the Atlantic to provide on-going protection and reassurance to British interests in the region, which includes the Falklands and other South Atlantic islands. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThose nasty Brits are feminising the South Atlantic!
Jan 17th, 2014 - 06:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0“The first woman to be appointed to command a major warship in the Royal Navy.”
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:05 am - Link - Report abuse 0So no pressure then................
Good luck, Commander Sarah West, Good Luck and God Speed.
I'm sure that if she couldn't take the pressure in her stride she wouldn't have the job. She'll have already been tested to breaking point. She'll be fine but like you said. Good luck HMS Portland.
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0Bet she has trouble parking it ;-)
Jan 17th, 2014 - 09:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0Only if it has to be parallel parked though. :-)
Jan 17th, 2014 - 10:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0Tbf the royal navy has managed to collide with australia random bits of underwater rock the isle of sky and a french nuclear sub but that was probably deliberate:)
Jan 17th, 2014 - 10:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0@4 Commander West assumed command of HMS Portland (F79) on 21 May 2012. HMS Portland underwent a 50-week refit in 2012 including upgrading of her sonar, Sea Wolf mid-life overhaul and gun replacements. That was followed by 3 months of sea trials. I would expect Commander West to have got the hang of “parking” it by now.
Jan 17th, 2014 - 11:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0However, this may be one of the first foreign news articles to mention Britain's brand-new, top secret naval base at Davenport. It can be noted that the article deliberately, I assume, fails to identify which Davenport. There are three. Of those, I believe that the one in Essex is most likely. There's a lot of rivers in that area!
put the money you invest in moving that wreck, in building schools and in hiring professeurs for the ignorant islanders
Jan 17th, 2014 - 11:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Have I missed the biannual protest from Argentina about the UK militarizing the South Atlantic?
Jan 17th, 2014 - 11:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0There's normally one each and every time that the ship assigned to Atlantic Patrol (South) changes.
6 Martin Woodhead (#)
Jan 17th, 2014 - 11:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0Jan 17th, 2014 - 10:57 am
Them and every other navy has done something similar at one time or another. The ones that can put to sea at least.
@8
Jan 17th, 2014 - 12:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“put the money you invest in moving that wreck, in building schools and in hiring professeurs for the ignorant islanders”
Shows how uneducated you are-try some research Paulcedron (if you are capable of such a concept):
The wrecks attract tourists and money.
A modern school was built in Stanley around 1990 (please keep up, you're out of date by over twenty years).
No professors needed-FIG sends Islanders to UK universities free of charge so why have professors in the Falkland Islands?
However if the Falkland Islanders wanted a substandard education where they would get nazi-style indoctrination and go to really crap universities they could always be sent to Argentina, where anyone who can just about read and write qualifies for a degree.
11 Pete Bog (#)
Jan 17th, 2014 - 12:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Jan 17th, 2014 - 12:33 pm
“However if the Falkland Islanders wanted a substandard education where they would get nazi-style indoctrination and go to really crap universities they could always be sent to Argentina, where anyone who can just about read and write qualifies for a degree.”
Have you ever seen a film called 'Idiocracy'?
@8 “Wreck”? The argie so-called “destroyers” were all commisioned in the early 80s. Every other navy calls the same type of vessel a frigate. These vessels are suffering from engine problems, a lack of spares, lack of training and are unarmed due to their naval ordnance being expired. The Espora class corvettes are inactive due to a lack of maintenance and a lack of spares. The little Drummond class rowboats were commissioned in the 70s and 80s. Rarely put to sea due to lack of spares, maintenance and cost issues. The rest of the argie “fleet” is no better. Some of its patrol vessels were commissioned in the 40s. On the other hand, HMS Portland was commissioned in 2001. The argie “navy” has nothing comparable. Most likely HMS Portland could sink all 13 argie “warships” by itself!
Jan 17th, 2014 - 03:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@11 You missed a point. Argie “professeurs” are bottom-grade teaching assistants. One called “axel_arg” gets on here occasionally. A typical dummy. Knows nothing and thinks he knows it all. Supposedly, he conducted a “survey” to determine the “truth” of the Falklands “dispute”. And he went off and consulted all sorts of argie sources. Then he wanted people to give him their email addresses so he could send it to them. Just how thick can you get?
@12 Argieland doesn't have proper “teachers”. It has “indoctrinators”. Also liars and prevaricators.
9 Rufus
Jan 17th, 2014 - 04:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yeah, isn't there normally some cr*p about the UK sending Nuclear submarines to the South Atlantic as well?
Mind you, if they think we “militarizing the South Atlantic” with HMS Portland, wait until one of the “Daring” class Destroyers is sent down there on patrol.
Now there is a great piece of kit!!
Mistakenly - I alluded to the location of Davenport in a posting during 2013.
Jan 17th, 2014 - 05:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Knowing - as I now do - that 'walls have ears', I feel that we should not talk about the 'Essex Option'.
It is absolutely untrue that the Manchester naval base in Davenport is operating because of the Chinese.
They absolutely did not extend the Manchester Ship Canal across the City as a practice run for the Nicaragua Canal.
The Manchester canal network is sufficiently complex - a bit like the London Tube map - so that insurgents can never know which route the Type 23s are taking to set off on patrol to the South Atlantic.
(And, yes, the canals and the Mersey are regularly dredged)
Heaven help any enemy that causes Sarah West to put on her War Face.
She is better looking that CFK
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0More intelligent,
More robust, better qualified, and better educated,
More loyal and trustworthy,
This young lady also has a very big punch,
On the other hand, what can CFK bring to bear?
Broken ships, broken promises, she is weak, cannot enforce her own uttering,
Abt the only advantage she has is more plastic....
An extremely attractive lady looking at her photo.
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Home grown as well,
Jan 17th, 2014 - 07:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#10 a d I havnt evewn mentioned ipods yet.
Jan 18th, 2014 - 10:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0I suppouse I could take the mick out of the argentine navy but that would just be cruel
6
Jan 18th, 2014 - 12:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Tbf the royal navy has managed to collide with australia random bits of underwater rock ...”the isle of sky ”
Don't you mean the Royal Airforce...?
HMS Nottingham - I remember it!
Jan 18th, 2014 - 01:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Then there was the sub that ran aground on a submerged sand-bank, etc, etc.
Planes crash.
Shit happens. It's called human error. Embarrassment, money, sacking, ... and life moves on.
One warship deployed is better than nothing in a sea surrounded by enemies, but two ships would be a much better deterrent than just one good ship, commanded by a fearless lady!
Jan 18th, 2014 - 03:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Philippe
We will have to wait for the Uruguayo Defence Minister to announce that a British Nuclear Submarine has been seen off the Plate.
Jan 18th, 2014 - 04:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That usually gets the argies knickers in a twist.
@23 Just tell him its Nessie or Ogopogo.
Jan 19th, 2014 - 05:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@23 Chris, I can imagine the Russians, the Chinese, hell anyone with a halfway decent navy, doing the submarine equivalent of buzzing the coast of Uruguay just to see how long it takes them to pass the sightings on to Argentina and watch them scream blue murder.
Jan 20th, 2014 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0This, as an example of my sense of humour, is probably why it's a good thing that I'm not involved with submarines...
@13 Conq
Jan 20th, 2014 - 10:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I guess that @8“hiring professeurs for the ignorant islanders”
was meant to read, hire Argentine professors to turn the Falkland Islanders from intelligent people into people that cannot run a piss up in a Brewery.
After indoctrination from Argentine professors the Islanders would be great at:
Losing all their money instead of having an annual surplus.
Becoming highly unpopular with just about everyone (except Cuba Syria Venezuela and Iran).
Asking for military protection from Argentina's forces ensuring any invasion threat would be met by a wall of white flags.
Although the shipwrecks in Stanley harbour would be added to if the Argentine navy showed up (hope the tourists find them more interesting than the Lady Elizabeth though).
Creating unemployment.
Ensuring no work would be done after lunchtime for a couple of hours.
Messing up the environment.
Ensuring plenty of power blackouts.
The loss of trade when the Argentine professors instruct the Islanders in the art of putting so many trade tariffs on exportable products that the Islanders lose £millions.
The Argentine professors would instruct the Islanders to totally p**s off the oil industry by nationalising the companies involved.
And most importantly, how to completely misrepresent history.
Also think of the diplomatic skills the Islanders would learn.....
Feel free to add to the 'cutting edge' knowledge the Falkland Islanders would learn from an influx of Argentine professors......
We need to understand what the term “Professor” means in SA.
Jan 21st, 2014 - 07:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It is nothing more than “University Lecturer” and that at a “University” that cannot get onto the world league of universities. Never forget that most “Universities” in SA are nothing more than privately run and operated institutions of VERY questionable merit.
I have helped three young people who are at “University” to get to grips with Excel as their “Professor” clearly hasn't a clue what the hell she is doing.
I would really like to help others but they need a good command of English for me to be able to help them and despite many so called “English Schools” there is only one with real merit in MVD and that is The British School, run by the British Embassy, the rest are con merchants.
And it is much, much worse in argieland.
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