21st Century Necromancer

Famous warships with history, glory, and legend – this criterion, if applied in the United States, would undoubtedly qualify the Missouri docked in Hawaii, and as a battleship that was once armed with nuclear shells, its deterrent power is certainly sufficient.

Even without resorting to this most renowned of American warships, its three sister ships and the numerous decommissioned ships preserved at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania would give the American people a suitable selection of vessels.

But for the United Kingdom, this is an embarrassingly difficult problem.

The United Kingdom once was not without famous warships, such as the old lady Warspite, which fought through World War I to World War II, the world's first aircraft carrier, the Hundred-Eyed Giant, and battleships like HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney from the Big Seven, and the King George V-class including HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York...

Even at the end of World War II, when the British Empire was in decline, the Royal Navy still possessed ships that ranked among the top three in tonnage in the world.

However, the post-war impact and rapid technological development meant that the British Empire continued to decline and could no longer maintain a strong global navy, leading to the Royal Navy's lamentable situation of having no aircraft carriers available, from nearly 100 various types, including escort carriers, during World War II.

Those famous warships that had distinguished themselves in World War II history were all decommissioned and scrapped by the Labour Party, leaving only The Belfast preserved.

The British Government officials negotiating with Hood behind the scenes were all cursing the Labour Party's betrayal of the country. If only they had preserved a few more warships at the time, they would not have fallen to such dire straits, being forced to consider the old Victory at Portsmouth.

What is HMS Victory? It is Lord Nelson's flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar, the largest sailing warship built by England in the age of sail. Nelson used it to defeat the French navy and, along with the Duke of Wellington, thwart Napoleon's attempt to dominate Europe.

The famous signal "England expects that every man will do his duty" flown by Lord Nelson on HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar became not only the motto of the Royal Navy but the spirit symbol of the entire British Empire.

One could say that HMS Victory symbolizes the former glory and brilliance of the British Empire, as well as their spirit and beliefs.

If a comparison must be made, it is like the Great Wall of China for the Chinese, the Declaration of Independence for the United States – it symbolizes the most important spiritual belief of a nation.

But now, to protect their country, the British people must bring out the two warships that symbolize the former glory of the empire, one to give to others, one to summon, to once again defend the nation...

Although the British can convince themselves that this is to protect their country, and even if HMS Victory had a soul it would agree with such a decision, the fact that the nation has declined to the point where old veterans must once again don their armor is something hard to swallow for the proud and ashamed British, who are not like the French People, who are better at surrendering than fighting.

But the British have no other choice.

During World War II, the British built a plethora of surface vessels, and combined with the old ships left from World War I, the Royal Navy of the British Empire indeed had a large number of powerful and distinguished warships.

But many of these famous ships had died, had sunk, had made their heroic sacrifices, lying at the bottom of the sea, unable to see the sun at the end of the war.

The Hood sank in the Denmark Strait, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse sank in the Peninsula of Malay, the Royal Oak was destroyed in its home port, the Queen Elizabeth was sunk by frogmen, the Courageous, the Glorious, the Gladiator, the York, the Exeter...

Those ships that survived World War II didn't fare much better, because as the war ended, the inability of British finances to bear the burden led to a large number of naval ships being decommissioned and dismantled, the Rodney, the Nelson, the King George V, the Duke of York, the Renown...

Even the Warspite, which had seen through both World Wars, played full-time during World War II, and was arguably the most renowned and distinguished ship of the Royal Navy, was tragically sold and scrapped after the war.

Although Admiral Cunningham once lobbied fervently for her preservation, hoping she could be kept, the British Government gave up on retaining the Warspite due to financial issues and other considerations, and sold her for dismantling.

Yet this old veteran, praised as "the most venerable of ladies," threw a final act of defiance at the end of her journey. On April 19, 1947, the Warspite was towed from Portsmouth to the breakers' yards.

On her way, she encountered a severe storm. The gale snapped the tow cables, and soon she also broke her anchor chains. After drifting at sea for several days, she ran severely aground in Prussia Cove, Cornwall.

After multiple unsuccessful attempts to tow her, the people had no choice but to dismantle her on-site over several years, starting in 1950.

This old warship, which had served the Royal Navy for over thirty years, joined her companions who had fallen at sea, finding her final resting place there instead of being torn apart into scrap metal in a port.

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"How has this country fallen to where it is today?" Standing on the deck of the Hood, watching the British people unlatch the Belfast's anchor and set this half-a-century silent old ship into motion again, Artoria asked Chen Yu with a sorrowful expression.

Although this was no longer the country she once founded, and these English were even her enemies at one point, Artoria still felt sadness and heartache for the state to which the once mighty Britain had deteriorated.

"Perhaps they shed too much blood in the wars, or perhaps the nation took the wrong path from the very beginning," Chen Yu replied, not as deeply moved as Artoria, and spoke in the tone of an observer: "The First Industrial Revolution brought this nation to its pinnacle, the overseas colonies provided them with a prosperous foundation, but pillage and enslavement could not exchange for true strength. When the tides of the era rose, they naturally fell from their once lofty position."

In fact, there are not a few nations that have fallen from a position of domination like this. In Europe, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany... all once claimed supremacy for a time, but today, most of them have declined beyond recognition. Even the currently most powerful United States is expending great effort on how to maintain its dominant position.

Only the Great Eastern Power truly achieved greatness and prosperity since ancient times. Despite its own rise and fall throughout history, it has been able to flourish again. It must be said that only a country with a genuine historical heritage could accomplish such a feat.

Because the legacy has never been broken, because we have once suffered hardship and decline, we know how to become a strong nation and how to learn from the wealth and wisdom left by our ancestors, so as to avoid repeating the same mistakes.