Few years ago I met an ex RN Lt who served on HMS Dainty.
Hmmmmm.......
Hello Sailor!
When the American invasion ship USS Ponce visited Pompey in the 80s with it's complement of 400 US Marines, I remember our skipper on HMS Woodlark warning the crew that Flag Officer Portsmouth had decreed that in view of the name, any punch ups with the US matelots or Marines would be deemed to have been started by RN personnel.
As to the whole question of a boat's gender, one of the panelists on the news quiz made a good point. Why stop at gender ? If a ship decides that it wants to be a train (say) who are we to stand in it's way ?
