I expect Andrew was always a self centred idiot taking no one’s advice. Wasn’t possible that no one knew what he was up to but the system let its principals get away with far more than we knew before modern tech exposed more. Diana spending nights with James Hewitt smuggled into the private apartments was known by the Palace, as was PoW and his long running romance with Camilla. And, Prince Phillip..
People in royal servitude have by tradition been given a little latitude, not because of noblesse oblige but more as recompense for the compromises and lack of personal freedom their position puts them in for life. A life some of them never asked for and to which some were genetically unsuited.
That said, in today’s world not much stays secret forever. And, Andrew is a major twat, so nothing can excuse him. I do feel sorry for the King and the current PoW trying to stop their boat from sinking in this tawdry storm not of their making.
I loved the first book and bought a set of six signed screen prints of pages from A Humument in 1978. They’re lovely little prints, but I haven’t yet got round to framing them..
The classification of the ship as a battleship has been questioned. The Center for Strategic and International Studies) wrote that the term has historically been used for warships with large guns such as 16-inch ones and heavy armor, which Trump class would lack; and that the ship’s profile is more typical of a guided-missile battlecruiser.
(Wikipedia)
So naturally in true Trump style it is a cut-price “battleship” not a real one.
If it ever gets built. The last time the USA decided to build a new class of warship to replace some of the functions of battleships (the Zumwalt class) they turned out to be so rubbish they stopped after making three.
Oh and the plan is to build it proudly in the USA - at a shipyard owned by the South Koreans.