As the Royal Navy’s new largest ship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth – longer than the Houses of Parliament, weighing 65,000 tonnes and costing £6.2bn – is being officially named by the Queen today, someone at the BBC has got into a spot of bother with an admiral.
The Telegraph reports that business correspondent Justin Rowlatt on the Today programme this morning was chastised by the former First Sea Lord, Admiral Lord West, for describing the mighty vessel as a “boat”.
It was during an interview Rowlatt was conducting with Ian Booth from the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (yep, that’s a thing) that he made the slip: “These are vast boats. Is it true that the 679 crew of the HMS Queen Elizabeth will need a GPS system to get around the ship?”
Within minutes, West had called the show to correct Rowlatt’s use of language.
Rowlatt responded: “And I should say, Admiral Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, no less, has phoned in to correct me. At one point I referred to HMS Queen Elizabeth as a boat. Apparently that’s a little bit disrespectful. She should always be referred to as a ship, so I’m sorry to have belittled this magnificent vessel.”
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