The second of the Royal Navy’s new generation of submarines, HMS Ambush, will have its launch ceremony in December 2010 without actually getting into the water.
Military top brass shouldn’t be too embarrassed. It happens to the best of them. When Isambard Kingdon Brunel built the world’s largest steamship the Leviathan, he couldn’t get it to sea first time round – and he killed several people in the 1858 attempt. For Brunel, it went from bad to worse, though. The ship never fulfilled its fantastical promises and eventually became a floating music hall before being broken up for scrap. For the sake of us all, let’s hope the nuclear HMS Ambush fares better – if it ever launches.
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