Admiral Lord Alan West, former First Sea Lord (pictured), said the Scottish Maritime Museum’s plans to introduce ‘gender-neutral’ terms for its vessels are ‘stark staring bonkers’
A former Navy boss has slammed a maritime museum’s decision to stop referring to boats as ‘she’, branding the move an ‘insult to generations of sailors’.
Admiral Lord Alan West, former First Sea Lord, said the Scottish Maritime Museum’s plans to introduce ‘gender-neutral’ terms for its vessels are ‘stark staring bonkers’.
So infuriated by the news, he rang BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning where he described the changes as ‘absolutely stupid’.
For centuries, ships have been referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’ and given feminine names.
But the museum said it will now refer to them as ‘it’ after signs on exhibits bearing the words ‘she’ and ‘her’ were vandalised.
Critics have accused them of caving in to a few politically correct protesters.
Admiral West told the show: ‘It’s a sort of insult to generations of sailors, the ships are seen almost as a mother to preserve us from the dangers of the sea and also from the violence of the enemy. To change it in this trite fashion is just absolutely stupid.
‘We’ve done it for centuries as that’s how we refer to them, we have to be very careful with little tiny pressure groups that make people change things. It’s a very dangerous road we are going down.
‘I don’t think it’s dated at all…sometimes things that are dated are there for very good reasons and I am very proud of some of those facts.’
The Scottish Maritime Museum (pictured above) will be introducing a ‘gender-neutral’ term for vessels
The Clyde Puffer (pictured above) is on display at the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine
The Scottish Maritime Museum is making the move after signs for their boats have been vandalised with someone scratching out the words ‘she’ and ‘her’
A Royal Navy spokesman told The Daily Telegraph it agreed with Admiral West: ‘The Royal Navy has a long tradition of referring to its ships as ‘she’ and will continue to do so.’
David Mann, director of the museum in Irvine, North Ayrshire, said it is looking to phase in the use of gender-neutral signs that ‘recognise the changes in society’.
He said he has been forced to act after an incident last week in which vandals scratched out the words ‘she’ and ‘her’ on a sign explaining one vessel’s history.
Mr Mann said it is the second time the ‘very expensive’ signs have been targeted and the museum – which holds an important collection of historic vessels, artifacts and shipbuilding tools – cannot afford to keep repairing them.
He said: ‘The Scottish Maritime Museum is a charity which works hard to preserve our country’s maritime heritage for everyone to enjoy.
‘For the second time this year, the museum has been targeted by a vandal, who has destroyed one of the interpretation signs which follow the universally adopted maritime tradition of referring to vessels as female.
People on social media accused the museum of ‘political correctness getting out of hand’
The waterfront near the museum (pictured above) which is home to few small vessels
‘Like other maritime museums and institutions, we recognise the changes in society and are committed to introducing gender-neutral interpretation.
‘As a small charity, however, we are doing this in a phased way so that we are not taking our limited funds away from important preservation activity, introducing gender-neutral signs when new interpretation is required.’
The museum, which reflects Scotland’s strong shipbuilding heritage, posted news of the vandalism on social media and invited comments.
‘We can’t afford to replace all signs but new signs are gender neutral. Get in touch, we would love to discuss it,’ the post said. It met an angry response.
One poster said: ‘This isn’t how it works. You don’t get to erase history – like it or not, ships have always been referred to as she.’
Some people have said that the museum (pictured above) is bowing to politically correctness
Another wrote: ‘Political correctness is getting out of hand, the few are trying to bully the majority, there is room in this world for everyone.’
A third insisted: ‘All vessels are ‘she’.’
Someone else posted: ‘The work of a maladjusted moron, all vessels are ‘she’ amazingly no vessel has ever been recorded as having either set of genitalia either…’
A fifth person added: ‘Seriously again, in a world as screwed up as this one someone is choosing to scratch out signs in a museum. Idiot doesn’t even cover what these morons are.’
No one is certain why ships are regarded as female. While old sailors have explained the use of ‘she’ saying, ‘Like a woman, a ship is unpredictable’, experts say a more likely suggestion relates to the idea of goddesses and mother figures playing a protective role in looking after a ship and crew.
But Lloyd’s List – which has provided shipping news since 1734 – has used ‘it’ for ships since 2002.