You must be joking "How many Battleships"?

The Daily Telegraph -  my favourite newspaper delivered daily to my door, has always had a stack of editing problems.
Today we have their so called history writer Ann Beveridge bashing out yet another saga about the sinking of the Royal Australian Navy light Cruiser The HMAS Sydney. It would seem every year this mysterious wartime occurrence is churned out, so if by chance this story has passed you by , this can be seen on line on the Sat edition of the Daily Telegraph  Nov 19. 2011.
Today this story Starts: ... THE Australian Battleship the HMAS Sydney sank 70 years ago to day on November 19, 1941.  No need to repeat what happened every man jack has heard this story umpteen times , it's enough for jolly jack to ditch his Tot.
History writers like in this case should checkout the facts before confusing the public.
A Battleship it was not, The HMAS Sydney was a light cruiser as in a type of  WARSHIP .
Warships come in many categories shapes and sizes, Starting from the larger Battleship, heavy cruiser, light cruiser,  destroyer, frigate. etc. Aircraft carriers are warships so are Submarines; its hardly likely one  would refer to a submarine  as a battle ship so why call a light cruiser a battleship.

The following incident happened in 2001? ...Excerpt from my memoirs follows.

A short time ago, I saw an article in a local newspaper that said eight

battleships were sunk during the Battle of Darwin. Knowing this to be

grossly incorrect, I sent them a fax informing them that this was

impossible because there were no battleships at the Battle of Darwin. I

also mentioned that, in fact, only five British battleships were sunk

during the entire course of the war, and named them all. The newspaper

printed my comments, which also mentioned the KGV association and

my telephone number in case anyone had any questions.

Consequently, I received a number of calls about this, one from a man

informing me that two more battleships were sunk in Alexandria

harbour in Egypt. I told him they had only rested on the bottom. He said,

.So did all the others!. The truth was that after being holed by limpet

mines placed by the enemy and because Alexandria.s harbour was so

shallow, they could go down only a couple of fathoms or so. These ships

. the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant, both with 15-inch guns

and of 31,000 tons . were seaworthy within a few days. In addition, for

the benefit of the sceptics, it must be pointed out that during the same

era, RMS Queen Elizabeth a Liner that weighed over 80,000 tons was also

in service.

I also received an apoligy for the mistake in reference to the eight Miscellaneous types of warships  sunk at Darwin, which should not have been called Battleships.

Just might slip this in about 'Flagships'.  A flagship is not which most people think it is, that is the biggest and best..
The fact is:  A flag ship can be as of many variables in size and function, even a rowing boat.
The provisio is the same, It must be carrying a 'Flag Officer. Such as an Admiral or Commodore.
The Rear Admirals Flag is white with a red St georges cross
 with two red balls, one in both left cantons, The Vice Admiral flag has only one red ball in the top left canton of his flag, the Full Admirals flag has no balls at all.

Time for my tot, so..."Up Spirits..... Standfast the holy ghost."

Vest back soon.

Question: Which British Admiral was referred to as "OLD GROG".








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