Preventing conflict is top of the Royal Navy’s mission statement, members heard at the October supper meeting.
In an entertaining talk peppered with fascinating facts and observations, weapon engineer Captain Richard Hobbs regaled the club with tales of a thirty eight and a half year career in the navy.
He had joined up as a rating at the age of 16, lured by a glamorous beach shot of Malta in a recruitment brochure, and had risen up the ranks to become an officer before retiring at 55.
His talk, entitled That’s Life in a Blue Suit, was delightfully illuminated with photographs ranging from warships and submarines to scantily clad apprentice sailors at a fancy dress event.
He explained that it cost £40bn a year to run the navy, still one of the top six in the world despite massive cuts. Ninety per cent of imports and exports arrive by sea and the UK shipping industry contributes £10bn a year to the economy and provides work for 600,000 people in maritime trades.
The navy has many roles, he said, sometimes simply by presence, strategically positioning a warship at the mouth of the Baltic, for example, stabilising problems before they occur and providing security. Combating piracy, providing humanitarian aid, maintaining the UK’s role in NATO all take up a large amount of navy time as well as carrying out time-consuming exercises that enable them to be ready to fight, if necessary.
Showing slides of navy vessels he said that the cost of building a ship was astronomical.
“Defence is expensive and it’s a struggle to meet all the commitments due to cuts in the budget over recent years,” he said. In his view, co-operation with other countries would occur more and more.
The real assets of the navy are its people, around 30,000 in the UK, but staff retention was a main problem.
He described his career as wonderfully interesting and adventurous, and said he would recommend it to any young person today. “It’s not a job, it’s a way of life.”
A light-hearted quiz on ‘Jackspeak’ provided the opportunity for some club members to reveal their knowledge of matters maritime. They knew the origin of naval terms such as ‘up the creek’ that are now part of our everyday lexicon.