What do Britain’s admirals do all day?

Tuesday – Wednesday blog

As I read about how Ayatollah Starmer is struggling to find just one working Royal Navy ship to send to the Middle East to help protect the British airbase on Cyprus, I remembered a chart I used in a blog I wrote in 2015. It shows the number of ranks in the RAF and Royal Navy:

In 1939, the Royal Navy had 367 fighting ships, around 200,000 sailors and 53 admirals. That’s one admiral for every 3,773 sailors. In 2025, the Royal Navy has 25 warships (many of which are actually out of action being refitted or just lacking sufficient crew), 32,225 sailors (including reserves) and 40 admirals. That’s one admiral for every 805 sailors. I realise that today’s warships probably require fewer crew than ships in 1939. But applying 1939’s figures, we would only need around nine admirals for our much-shrunken navy, rather than the 40 we actually have.

Our 40 admirals are also rather expensive:

• 3 full Admirals – salary £165,284 to £185,000
• 27 lowest rank of Rear Admiral – salary £108,201 to £119,000
• 10 Vice Admirals – salary £125,908 to £152,000

Moreover, the Royal Navy also has 63 commodores. I’m not a military man so have little knowledge of what the Royal Navy’s different ranks do. But I assume that captains are generally those in charge of ships. Incidentally, the Royal Navy has around 260 captains for its 25 warships. So, in one of my more cynical moments, I might be tempted to wonder what most of the Royal Navy’s 40 admirals and 63 commodores and 260 captains actually do all day.

Is the Royal Navy beyond satire?

Here’s how one YouTube satirist viewed Britain’s pathetic attempts to find just one seaworthy ship to send to the Middle East:

And here’s President Trump ‘thanking’ Ayatollah Keir Al-Coward Starmer for Britain’s support: