Factual error: Commander Garnett, previously the chief engineer, becomes executive officer and starts wearing the line officers' star above her rank rings. This does not happen. An engineer is not trained to command a ship.
Necrothesp
13th Jul 2017
The Last Ship (2014)
26th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: Sean says he was the coxswain on HMS Achilles. However, in the previous episode's flashback to the beginning of the red flu outbreak when Achilles was still in operation he was shown wearing lieutenant's rank insignia. The coxswain is the senior rating aboard a Royal Navy submarine and holds the rank of chief petty officer or warrant officer; he is certainly not a commissioned officer.
13th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: The dead Royal Navy submarine captain wears a beret. British submarine captains still wear the traditional submarine captain's white-topped peaked cap if they wear headgear at all. His cap badge also features the king's crown, which has not been worn since George VI's death in 1952, instead of the current queen's crown.
13th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: The Royal Australian Navy special forces operator Wolf Taylor is a 'senior chief'. There is no such rank as senior chief petty officer in the RAN. The two most senior non-commissioned ranks are chief petty officer and warrant officer (the latter a non-commissioned rank and not the same as an American WO).
9th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: Sean, a member of the Royal Navy, refers to one of his own officers as a "Lootenant"; no British serviceman would ever use this American pronunciation, we pronounce it "Leftenant".
8th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: Dr Scott's official personnel record shows that she received her only medical degree, an MD, from Cambridge University. However, British universities do not award an MD as a first medical degree; in Britain, unlike the USA, this is a very prestigious (and rare) postgraduate research degree only awarded to very highly-qualified doctors. The medical qualification degree at Cambridge is an MBBChir (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery), which is equivalent to an American MD. Although Americans expect doctors to have an MD, it is extremely unlikely that an official personnel record would give false information. The record also shows that her first degree was a BS in chemistry from Oxford. Oxford does not award a BSc degree (as they are called in Britain); most of its undergraduate degrees, even in science, are BAs.
8th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: The depth gauge on the Royal Navy submarine shows depths in American English 'meters' instead of British English 'metres'. Since British submarines are British-built and use British equipment, this would never happen.
8th Sep 2016
The Last Ship (2014)
Factual error: Ruskov introduces himself as a vice-admiral. However, he wears the sleeve insignia of an admiral of the fleet, two ranks higher: a wide stripe and four regular stripes (instead of the wide stripe and two regular stripes of a vice-admiral). On his epaulettes he wears the four stars worn by an admiral of the fleet until 1962, instead of the single large star of a modern admiral of the fleet or the two regular stars of a vice-admiral. Given Ruskov, it is inconceivable that he would reduce his own rank or wear the insignia of a higher rank but not use it.