British warships get iPod docks, surround sound
By Evan Blass 
posted February 1st 2006 11:00PM
posted February 1st 2006 11:00PM
Here's a question for our British readers: does it
bother you at all that your government is spending your tax quid on outfitting each berth in the Royal Navy's six new,
£6 billion Type 45 Destroyers with iPod docks and
surround sound (along with CD players and Internet access, but hey, those are obvious necessities)? The first of these
new warship-cum-luxury-liners, the HMS Daring (the others are the Dauntless, Diamond, Defender, Dragon, and Duncan),
left her dry dock in Glasgow today with a ceremonial send-off, complete with confetti and missle-firings. Unfortunately
for the people on shore waving and watching for their loved ones, most of the crew immediately headed below deck to
their mini-apartments, cranked up the Spice Girls, and began applying some bronzer in anticipation of their first
[Via GigaOm]
I design ships for the US Gov't, and I can easily say that one of the biggest factors in deciding to put this type of entertainment technology on ship is the fact that the labor cost of crewing a ship is exorbinant.
If you do any kind of cost benefit analysis you are much better off having happy sailors who will hopefully serve more than the required four years. Why? Because recruiting and training someone is far more expensive than keeping on an already trained sailor.
You know what is a hell of a lot less expensive than recruiting and training a new sailor? An iPod and some speakers.
Also I would like to echo what Mike said before me. I like engadget, but give me a break; you easily offended a ton of very good people with your posting.
Nearly everyone here seems to be justifying whether or not ipod docks should or shouldn't be fitted to this thing but no one's mentioned the obvious yet:-
Why do we as a species spend so much time/money/recources on tools which sole purpose is to kill each other?
We should have stayed in the caves.
on a more light hearted note HMS duncan! WTF is that about
By the type our British workers get to finish fitting the ships iPods will be obsolete.
I'm willing to grant Engadget the benefit of the doubt, and I certainly hope that this article was posted tongue-in-cheek. However, the execution was terrible and Engadget deserves every bit of criticism doled out.
#37 encapsulted it brilliantly. I had the honor of serving many years in Britain and numerous deployments with Her Majesty's military while in the US Army. The professionalism, dedication and downright ability of the British military is nothing to make light of.
Quality of life issues are among the top concerns of any good commander, and often the most benign things can make a huge difference. Whether it's the availability of fresh fruit or the occassional beer, or a RELIABLE internet connection or iPod dock, these otherwise simple things can become major factors where morale is concerned. And poor morale cannot be countered with all the neatest, gee-whiz killing tools.
Save your incredulousness for when taxpayer dollars/pounds are being spent to install iPod docks and surround sound systems in prisons.
Servjng in the RN at sea is like being in prison, Except prisoners have more luxuries, than a sailor, without the chance of being drowned or killed in action
I'm all in favour of giving the RN personal some better entertainment because they do spend a lot of time at sea. We wouldn't want them living in little metal cages would we?
one possible problem - HMS Daring doesn't come into service until 2009. By that time, even if the iPod is still the ubiquitous MP3 player, surely the iPod dock connector will have changed shape. I hope they don't make the docks built-in!
in response to number 10....tax is higher over here not in the uk...
in response to all the others slagging off the British...give them a break they stood by us when most of the rest of the world turned its back. At least let them have some luxuries if they are going to fight in a war that we started...
Regarding Comment #9
Your ranting would be better received if you could spell. Yes, we get it, British war ships and thus a British band. The point still stands, they are out of date.
Let me just say that I intended this to be a lighthearted post, and certainly not a dig against military personnel, the Royal Navy specifically, or Brits in general. I have a lot of respect and admiration for those people who protect democracy, and certainly agree with the above commenters who rightly argue that they deserve some entertainment during extended periods abroad. Plus, I love spending time in the UK.
That being said, the post was meant to imply that perhaps iPod docks and 5.1 are a bit much- would not aux jacks and stereo speakers suffice?
Again, please don't take this (perhaps poor) attempt at humor as indicative of my personal feelings regarding the military, because it is not.
Evan Blass
I think it's fantastic. I have allot of trouble sleeping at night. Listening to music or a podcast really helps me fall asleep (wake and repeat). I think it would be wonderful thing to have especially if you are crammed into a small bunk surrounded by a hundred other sailors. If I was a sailor I would be looking forward to the weekly engadget podcast to break the monotony of the tour.
I want this for our AMERICAN Navy!
does it bother you at all... ?
No, not at all. Britannia rules the (sound) waves !
=P
Arizona Glover.
http://paulsbaker.blogspot.com/
blah blah blah.
The real story here is why does the British navy have some weird obsession with using ship names that start with the letter D.
Someone should let them know that there are other letters in the alphabet available.
Thanks for the response Evan.
Being an avid engadget reader I should have guessed that you were being sarcastic.
Some of the comments were quite offensive and uninformed however :(
Cheerio (haha, British joke)
#51 - The Royal Navy, as with most other large surface fleets, has a naming convention for its ships. While not always followed to the letter they break down as follows:
Capital ships (Battleships, Battlecruisers, and Aircraft Carriers) usually have traditional (and often "inspirational") names. HMS Ark Royal, HMS Illustrious, and HMS Repulse for example. Destroyers and Submarines are usually treated as "letter classes", where the class name is a letter of the alphabet; all ships in the class have names starting with this letter. In the case of the type 45 it's the D class, hence every ship in the class starting with D. The American navy tends to go for cities, states, territories and so on, for example all current US aircraft carriers being named after Admirals or Politicians.
#54:
My post was meant to be lighthearted given the other posts on here.
Nonetheless, good info about the naming conventions.
Hey Americans.
We all know that you are so jealous of our brand new fleet of ARSE KICKING warships but it's ok. Please do not worry, whenever there is a NATO exercise we will let some of the American sailors on board to inspect it. And to have a few beers in the ships pub. Does the US Navy have pubs on board yet?
Anyway, good solid Scottish built ship, a proud addition to the already wicked UK Navy. This is what makes Great Britain "Great".
Na na na naaaaaaaa nah!
Murray, Scotland UK (NZ)
Mr. Blass,
Thank you for your response to the criticisms expressed by myself and others. Even if I do find your article's wording to be offensive, I am glad that the concerns of your readers do not go unheard. Please keep up the reporting, though perhaps reign in the sarcasm. In a wholly textual medium, inflection is difficult to get across.
That's all fine and dandy. But what about the other branches? What about the British Army and Royal Marines? They are more deserving of that kind of stuff; since they, y'know, actually FIGHT the wars?
Frankly quite a good idea but when you consider that the lifespan of a warship is around 25-30 years isn't that stretching the longevity of the Ipod?
BTW, #39 I guess you've never been in the infantry because the amenities on board a navy ship are luxurious compared to a slit trench.
Cheers!