
The reasons HMS Queen Elizabeth has two ‘islands’ - smacktoward
http://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/the-reasons-hms-queen-elizabeth-has-two-islands/
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twic
> The captain has a day cabin just behind the bridge for use at sea but as is
> usual on a carrier, his spacious main cabin is down aft with the other
> officer accommodation. There is a small lift that allows him to quickly get
> up or down from the bridge to the operations room which is situated seven
> decks below.

> The Commander Air, “Wings” gets a day cabin in the aft island but does not
> have his own lift, like the Captain up forward.

I know there's a perfectly good practical reason for the Commander Air not
having a lift, but i do love the idea that we British are still playing silly
little status games even at sea!

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gozur88
Status can be conferred in lieu of extra pay :)

In all seriousness, symbols of status are important in the military, and not
just to stroke the top guy's ego. They reinforce the notion of hierarchy,
which is something without which you lose battles you might have won.

Besides, if there's any people who know how to prepare for and execute surface
warfare, it's you British. Clearly you've done _something_ right over the
years.

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hackcasual
The US uses nuclear power for it's Nimitz and Ford class carriers, so there is
no need for extensive exhaust.

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akhatri_aus
These ships can't use the Suez canal which can be problematic

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blackguardx
The primary size constraint of US ships is the Panama canal.

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diggernet
The Suez restriction is due to politics and tolls, not size.

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sgt101
The reason is very simple : after the Falklands war the Royal Navy adopted a
design rule which states that all surface ships must have two islands. You can
see it in the 45, 23 and 26.

My guess is that this is because of the fires which took Sheffield out of
combat, the initial damage from the Exocet warhead was substantial, but what
killed Sheffield and Coventry was the fire afterwards. The investigations
afterwards showed that a split superstructure would have allowed continued
operation including withdrawal from the combat space and low allocation of
rescue resources.

I think/guess that this would have been critical should aggressor forces been
slightly more substantial; it would have been very easy to get into a
situation where the capability to manage the rescue and recovery of struck
ships would have been lost, and this would have led to a substantial
escalation in casualties and probable collapse of the fighting capability of
the formation - hence to a strategic opportunity for aggressor forces.

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junto
Is anyone else disturbed by the fact with all that money spent on this, they
choose this horrendous decor for the chairs styling?

[http://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/08/H...](http://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/08/HMS-Ark-Royal-Bridge.jpg)

~~~
zimpenfish
That screams "competition winner".

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21
The title is highly confusing. I believed that it was about the Queen (person)
owning two physical (land) islands.

But HMS Queen Elizabeth is a ship and the islands are the two towering
structures on it.

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dionidium
The HMS portion makes it clear that we're talking about a boat

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Ship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Ship)

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gozur88
<wince>. A _ship_.

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dionidium
I do not accept or acknowledge "a ship is bigger than a boat" hegemony.

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gozur88
But if you call it a ship, then it can have a boat and you don't have to say
things like "they launched the boat's boat".

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dsfyu404ed
With twice as many towers the enlisted personnel on Royal Navy carriers will
have twice as many people pissed off at them when there's a minor slip up.

