Royal Navy admiral blasts 'bonkers' move to make ships gender neutral and says it's an 'insult to a generation of sailors'

A Royal Navy admiral has blasted a “bonkers” move to make ships gender neutral and to stop referring to them as "her" or "she".

Admiral Lord Alan West, former First Sea Lord, has lashed out after the Scottish maritime museum begun referring to ships it exhibits as “it”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s today programme, Lord West called the move “stark staring bonkers and “political correctness gone mad.”

"It's a sort of insult to generations of sailors, the ships are seen almost as a mother to preserve us from the dangers of the sea and also from the violence of the enemy. To change it in this trite fashion is just absolutely stupid.

"We've done it for centuries as that's how we refer to them, we have to be very careful with little tiny pressure groups that make people change things. It's a very dangerous road we are going down.

"I don't think it's dated at all...sometimes things that are dated are there for very good reasons and I am very proud of some of those facts."

The row started after the museum was “forced” into calling ships “it” by vandals.

Director David Mann said the words “she” and “her” on a sign explaining the history of one of its’s vessels were scratched out last week at the museum, in Irvine, Ayrshire.

Mr Mann has now vowed to update all signage around the building with gender neutral terms.

He told The Times: “The Scottish Maritime Museum is a charity, which works hard to preserve our country’s maritime heritage for everyone to enjoy. Like other maritime museums and institutions, we recognise the changes in society and are committed to introducing [a] gender-neutral interpretation.

“As a small charity, however, we are doing this in a phased way so that we are not taking our limited funds away from important preservation activity, introducing gender-neutral signs when new interpretation is required.”

The museum holds a nationally recognised collection of historic vessels, artefacts and the largest collection of shipbuilding tools and machinery in the country.