Originally Posted by
meleagertoo
Seldom has anyone on this forum allowed themselves to dig such an indefensible hole out of such blind yet dazzlingly incorrect pedantry.
Fella, the sex of the person a ship is named after has even less to do with it than language. If it did by your very own logic the HMS Queen Elizabeth must be a 'she' and the otherwise identical P o W would be a 'he'. What would HMS Ashanti be? ..."They"...? Idiotic beyond belief! Petard, hoist. QED
You rang?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Petard_(G56) is well worth a read in view of *her* very distinctive achievements.
Although I'm really quite surprised that HAS59 is making such heavy weather of such a time- honoured tradition, he has made an old salt smile which, with the utmost respect, is a good thing. Let our Russian friends refer to their, or anyone else's, ships any in way they like in Russian, or any other language for that matter, and just let sensible British users of the English language carry on doing what they have been doing since time immemorial.
Jack