Totally believable they could not preserve her complete, but I’d have thought several museums would have competed for bits of her flight deck, island, the plates with her name on etc.Certainly not settling for ‘reconstructions’.

As for Maggie insisting on the 2nd carrier be EAGLE will win her some praise, but I suspect she is gone on schedule unless poll tax and Euro go differently ITTL- I would be interested in her surviving a bit longer as a) I like to see her reaction to the gulf war, b) British Rail is likely to survive given She resisted breaking it up c) Spitting Image might last longer with Mrs T about.
 
You know, this is an entirely believable turn of events.

Ship names are something where the sovereign retains a little more power and influence than the norm, so it would certainly take some dramatic efforts by the Iron Lady to turn it around.

On the whole, I think EAGLE is the better name for the ship. Much as it is good to honor the royal family, PRINCE OF WALES has a surprisingly lackluster history on previous hulls, and EAGLE certainly has a great deal more luster at this point in this timeline. It will also give it a little more protection in years to come from budget cutters at Treasury, too.

Agreed

As well as the name Eagle you could also pick from

Endeavour
Enterprise
Excalibur
Excellent

0r

Empire & Empress in honour of the British Empire

or

even name one of them 'Effingham' as a slight to the Argie's
 
Well i would have tried to get the 3rd one named eagle and try to not have it canceled i guess instead as a more meanigful trick or the 4th one if ur selling the 3rd to india.

And i still advocate in trying to sell the 3rd carrier of the class to india as suggested earlier . In the same slip ur building the first ship of the class so they have work to do. But you will have to work on it . Maybe have the PM get the idea to keep shipbuilding going as a thought is my best guess and to try to promote exports of frigates and stuff with 1billion plus export order with the carrier.
Cause labor wont do it unless the agreement is done already i think and the british should really have to poke india about a full blown carrier not the lights their going for and to avoid the otl russian carrier traversty.
 
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And i still advocate in trying to sell the 3rd carrier of the class to india as suggested earlier .

A great idea if you can manage it; but I remain skeptical it was really possible - unless the UK government was willing to heavily subsidize it for New Delhi.

But hey, I'm open to being persuaded otherwise.
 
Great chapter. Really great, though sad... Have to say, though, while I have...mixed views on Maggie Thatcher, with the naming I'm 100% supportive.

Also...

From that point on the closest anyone would ever get to sampling what it was like to be aboard HMS EAGLE would be by visiting the Carrier display in the Fleet Air Arm museum at Yeovilton where a one third section of the flight deck including the island superstructure were recreated. While it is impossible to recreate the spectacle of an operational aircraft carrier flight deck within the confines of a hanger the display certainly gives a good impression of what it would have been like with the hangar filled with preserved aircraft that all flew from EAGLE’s deck at some point. Within the “island” a visitor would see recreations of many of the ship’s compartments such as Flyco, the bridge, Operations Room, aircrew refreshments bar and other compartments. Many of the displays were recreated using items salvaged from the former HMS EAGLE and other ships of the same era.

Now this brings back memories. I visited there when I was a young teenager - amazing place.
 
It would have been interesting to see a HMS Enterprise and the USS Enterprise on NATO naval maneuvers.
There was about ten years between the hydrographic survey vessel HMS Enterprise's entry in to service and USS Enterprise being deactivated where they could have.
 

Errolwi

Monthly Donor
There was about ten years between the hydrographic survey vessel HMS Enterprise's entry in to service and USS Enterprise being deactivated where they could have.

HMNZS Endeavour (tanker) and RSS Endeavour (Singaporean LPD) were presumably involved in the same exercises occasionally. They could cross-deck heli's?
 
I suppose it's not too difficult to envision a scenario where the light cruiser HMS Enterprise is operating with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
 
I'm actually a bit surprised that there isn't a USS Eagle since the eagle is quite an important national symbol.

Sure, the coast guard's got its nazi sailing ship but it's not the same.
 
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Yeah, it just sounds like a name that you'd expect to find on a USN capital ship what with the bald eagle being the national bird and it appearing prominently on the national seal.
These days all US ships tend to be people , places or historic battles with an occasional exception for a famous ship. Birds, in WW2, would indicate a mine hunter or similar.
 

SsgtC

Banned
Yeah, it just sounds like a name that you'd expect to find on a USN capital ship what with the bald eagle being the national bird and it appearing prominently on the national seal.
Yeah, USN ship naming conventions are all kinds of jacked up. Destroyers, frigates and aircraft carriers are named for people. Submarines are named for cities, States, denizens of the deep and people. Cruisers are named for famous battles and people. And auxiliaries are all over the map with no rhyme or reason to their names
 
These days all US ships tend to be people , places or historic battles with an occasional exception for a famous ship. Birds, in WW2, would indicate a mine hunter or similar.
Yeah, USN ship naming conventions are all kinds of jacked up. Destroyers, frigates and aircraft carriers are named for people. Submarines are named for cities, States, denizens of the deep and people. Cruisers are named for famous battles and people. And auxiliaries are all over the map with no rhyme or reason to their names
I wonder what sort of POD we'd need for the USN to decide that cool ship names are cool? :)
 

SsgtC

Banned
I wonder what sort of POD we'd need for the USN to decide that cool ship names are cool? :)
This started during the Cold War. The USN figured out real damn fast that it's very hard for politicians to cancel a ship named after a city in their state or after their state. Or for a war hero. It results in a lot of bad press. So the USN changed how they named ships. Look at their WWII naming conventions:

Battleships: named after States
Large Cruisers: insular areas and territories
Cruisers: cities
Aircraft Carriers: famous battles or famous ships
Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts: famous people, decorated military members
Submarines: Denizens of the deep
Repair ships and patrol boats: birds
Oilers: Rivers
Ammunition ships: volcanoes
 
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