HMS Invincible just sailed off to the scrap yards.

Invincible came into service right before I joined up. It was a big deal at the time because Thatcher’s Axe inflicted a series of massive cuts on the armed forces right before I signed on the dotted line. HMS Invincible was actually sold to Australia and her sister ships were cancelled until General Galtieri showed up to become their unlikely saviour. The Falklands War caused a bit of a rethink about the role of the Royal Navy, you see.

I had requested to serve on HMS Invincible but ended up on a submarine – almost the exact opposite. Both my ships are now long retired.

HMS Southampton has been sitting, stripped bare of the systems that made her a ship of war – out in the channel, waiting for her appointment at the breaker’s yard.

HMS Revenge has gone to the limbo where all the other retired nuclear submarines sit until indefinitely comes. No one can decide what to do with them so they sit and they glow, their reactors pumped full of concrete and their empty hulls labelled with warning signs localized to the language of the far future.

When I joined up there were still ships around from the 60s (the 60s!) and Invincible was new and shiny.

And now she is old and decrepit and on her way to the razor blade factory.