Lost at sea: the Spithead Review marking the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images
Diamond Jubilee: The Queen No Longer Rules The Waves -- The Telegraph
The Coronation was marked by a Spithead Review – but Her Majesty is being denied one now because the Royal Navy has been sunk by wave upon wave of spending cuts.
For mile upon mile they stretched, their flag-bedecked ranks receding into the haze. The ships of the Royal Navy, 165 of them, drawn up at Spithead on June 26 1897 to mark the diamond jubilee of Victoria, for 60 years Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and her dominions beyond the seas, and, since 1876, Empress of India.
There were 21 battleships and 44 cruisers, their names conveying the confidence of a world-spanning Empire: Victorious, Renown, Powerful, Terrible, Majestic and Mars. A vast, intimidating presence intended to impress on friend and foe alike the continuing potency of the British behemoth. And what was more, the assembly of this great fleet had required the recall of not a single ship from the Mediterranean or the far-flung squadrons guarding the imperial sea lanes.
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My Comment: They say that a picture tells a thousand words .... the above picture reveals how much the British Navy .... after ruling the seas for centuries .... has disappeared in just one generation.
A "generation" is 25-30 years, so it's been at least two generations.
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