Storm in a teacup? Royal Navy in Mayport

Breaking news today that Royal Navy sailors occasionally drink alcohol and sometimes get drunk. That seems to be the headline news on some papers today, who are terribly seized about the fact that when HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH pulled into Mayport, Florida, six of the roughly 1200 crew present were arrested after a night out.

The story appears to be that following a night out in town, where local proprietors complained they weren’t warned the Brits were coming (to be fair, neither were the staff of the White House in 1812), and that they didn’t tip very well (e.g. 10% or UK norms). To add insult to injury some of the crew got rather drunk and a few got arrested.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

This could the story of any of thousands upon thousands of runs ashore in the many centuries that the Royal Navy has been in the business of being the world’s premier war winning navy. The reality is that we ask a great deal of the young men and women who volunteer to go to sea, who put up with difficult, challenging and at times very dangerous working environments and who do so for months at a time.

It is easy to forget that the environment into which we send our sailors is incredibly dangerous, and given the slightest provocation, is actively trying to kill you. Add to this the requirement to spend months away from home living in cramped confines, a few feet away from high explosives, fuels, the Club Swingers abandoned stinky gym kit and other toxic and flammable nasties, and you quickly realise that  working on a warship in the deep ocean is not a benign club med cruise, but somewhere that demands your respect and full attention, lest you make a mistake that could have catastrophic consequences.

The crew of HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH are young, a very significant proportion of them are on their first sea draft, and this will almost certainly have been their first ‘foreign’ run ashore. They have been worked incredibly hard now for 18 months, taking their ship out from initial sea trials to commissioning and now to fast jet operations. This is coupled with heavy refit periods at home and a relentless pace of activity to keep to a very tight timetable for which there is little room for error or delay. To put it mildly, if anyone out there deserves a beer or two, it’s the crew of HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Matelots since the dawn of time have been coming ashore ready to tell tall tales and draw up even taller bar bills. This is exacerbated by the age of our sailors – many of whom are young, possibly a little inexperienced about the world and who instead of hanging round their local town centre on a Saturday night causing trouble most weeks, have demonstrated they have the drive and willpower to volunteer to make a success of themselves and serve their Country too.

The Royal Navy has in recent years perhaps lost the art of the really epic run ashore in foreign ports. A general reduction in interesting port visits in recent years, or runs ashore in to the same operationally superb, but morale sapping port means the opportunity for a spontaneous night out that will become the tale of legends has declined. In a Navy busy supporting operations in the Med or Gulf, the ports they pull into like Bahrain or Souda Bay in Crete are friendly and welcoming, but not necessarily conducive to a really great night out.

While sailors will continue to get drunk, the locations are less exciting and the opportunities to bond with mates in exotic locations are diminished. There is a sense that for every awesome (and almost certainly anecdotal) story of a great night out involving camels, shenanigans with locals and waking up on the wrong ship as its about to put to sea, there are many more tales of ‘two pints in the local weatherspoons then back to the ship before it starts raining’.

This loss of the opportunity to really have a good time out has combined with a very different breed of sailor – while Jack will still be Jack, todays sailors are driven by different drivers. Anecdotally alcohol use as a whole appears to be far less today than 15 years ago – the days of walking into a dockyard Wardroom Bar at lunchtime and discovering a large cast of extras from the Cruel Sea downing beer like it is at risk of becoming extinct have gone forever. The modern sailor will be far more likely to be doing time in the gym or being online with mates than they will necking cans back every night.

There has been a marked culture change away from drinking heavily to drinking occasionally for many (but not all) sailors. The opportunity of a run ashore after a long time at sea when drink restrictions are in force seems to have led to some sailors to have possibly too good a night out.

This in itself is not an issue, nor is it remotely newsworthy. Just look back to the opening episode of the 1978 series of Sailor to see large numbers of sailors getting drunk in a bar surrounded by some very scantily clad dancing girls before stumbling back on board to realise that in 40 years, very little has changed in some behaviours – and the hangovers and retribution from the Captains Table are likely to be just as severe as before.

What has changed though is the manner in which a non-story involving the arrest for minor offences of 0.5% of a ships company has quickly become global news, being picked up across broadcasters in the US and UK.  This demonstrates the invidious nature of social media, which permits people to post information on twitter and for it to quickly get recycled to fill copy on news feeds.

We are now expecting our junior personnel to operate effectively in an environment where if they make a mistake, then it can quickly get escalated out of control to become a story. The reality is our people are now expected to operate it an environment where a single mistake or letting their hair down can quickly have serious consequences at the national media level. This is a very big pressure to put on the shoulders of junior personnel.

This puts significant pressure on people who are, essentially, going for a beer after work. In turn this makes the long handled screwdriver of control and warnings to people about ‘DO NOT MESS UP’ ever more likely as the inevitable reaction in some quarters will be to over react.

One has to hope that the overreaction is minimal and that people see this event for what it is – a reminder that the fantastic people who volunteer to defend our islands do, occasionally, have a bit too much to drink and do some silly things. This does not mean they are not worthy of our respect, nor that the QUEEN ELIZABETH should implement a ‘no fun’ regime as an overreaction.

Indeed as one Army commentator noted, this is the sort of story that will serve as an excellent recruiting opportunity for many future sailors. When the crew comes home, they will get a chance to tell their friends that they had “an excellent night out in the US, had all manner of drinks, got into a fight with a mate, got tasered when running away from police and still got to take part in helping get the F35 strike fighter operating at sea – BEST JOB EVER!” That’s a pretty compelling pitch to many young men and women looking for adventure and excitement in their lives.

Lets hope that this quickly blows over and normal service resumes as we look to hearing the good news about the welcome return of fixed wing carrier aviation to the Royal Navy by the end of this month. After 8 years absence, we’re nearly back in the game – surely that calls for a drink?