Long term followers of this account will be under no illusions as to the bad things that can happen when military vessels tangle with commercial shipping.

I think we can assume the captain of HS Kallisto here is not a fan.

Somewhere off Piraeus this morning Kallisto - or HS Kall as we probably need to start calling it - decided to cut across the bows of the Maesk Launceston.

The resulting conversation with the brass is unlikely to feature biscuits.

Meanwhile the Maersk Launceston is presumably checking the container manifest on the off chance that someone was shipping a job lot of T-Cut and a bucket of grey paint. It looks suspiciously like it'll buff out.

Regardless of what led to this - and it's worth noting that the starting point of the COLREGs is an exasperated sigh and a reminder that both of you are responsible - the result for Kallisto was never going to be in much doubt.

As a mine countermeasures vessel, Kallisto is mostly built out of fibreglass. The idea is to make it harder for magnetic mines to do their thing of exploding enthusiastically, but it does lead to certain deficiencies in the "not being cut in half by container ships" department.

It's basically like being sent to see in a Reliant Robin.

It's a minesweeper's job to head out and find things capable of sinking it, of course, and in this ambition Kallisto has apparently raised the bar.

At some point someone might also try raising the stern.

For reference, in happier times HS Kallisto looked like this.

You'll notice it's a lot longer.

The collision with Maersk Launceston has essentially severed most of the ship behind the funnel.

I get the feeling that the upper echelons of the Greek Navy, whilst preparing their debrief, may be reaching for a certain word to describe their feelings towards the captain that they can't quite place.

Perhaps the history of HS Kallisto may provide it...

HS Kallisto was built by the British, and served as HMS Berkeley. As one of the Hunt Class, I'm fairly sure naval humour had a collective name for its crew...

Because although often shortened just "berk", the rhyming slang of "Berkeley Hunt" is a long-standing way to avoid frightening your maiden aunt whilst calling someone an absolute -

Well, calling them the sort of person who leaves a perfectly serviceable ship looking like this.

There are two bits of good news.

Firstly only two people were injured, apparently neither seriously.

Secondly the MoD is trying to flog the identical HMS Atherstone and might just have found a buyer.

I'm sure the crate of port now headed to Maersk's HQ is a coincidence...

PS - there's some drone footage available of the remains being hauled in, and it's quite something