There were no icebergs in sight and the HMS Westminster was berthed in Dublin Port, but that did not stop the children from the charity Gingerbread referring to the Titanic or feeling seasick. The vessel arrived in Dublin for its goodwill visit for the weekend, having completed a training exercise in the Outer Hebrides. From Dublin it will return to its base in Plymouth.
The sun was shining and the sea sparkling as the group of 12 children and their chaperones from Gingerbread, the national organisation for one-parent families, boarded the type 23 Duke class frigate on Saturday afternoon.
The tour brought them up and down ladders from the bowels of the ship to the operations room. There, surrounded by complex computer screens, lots of buttons and flashing lights, they were told what it is like in war, how incoming missiles were detected and avoided, and about firing missiles.
The tour of the bridge was of great excitement to the children, but they were disappointed with the size of the steering wheel which is more Sony PlayStation than the wheel used by Captain Hook which they expected.
Nothing got past the children. Eight-year-old Stephen Blake from Laois wondered why there were two missiles, having spotted two missile-firing joysticks. Spying toilet roll on the wall of the operations room, seven-year-old Sophie Meehan asked an obvious question: "What if you're in the middle of a war and you have to go to the toilet?"
"You have to hold it," was the obvious answer.
At the end of the tour, the children agreed it was excellent, but it didn't seem to persuade them around to a life at sea. They were glad to get back on to dry land, where they wouldn't feel seasick or have to worry about sinking.