Sweary Parrot back on board

Alex Pesticidus, London November 18th, 2004

It is part of Naval law, and has been since 1794, that every vessel must have as part of its crew, a tropical bird with a wide vocabulary of profane words and phrases. The long running Maritime tradition was started by famous Pirate Captain Bluebeard, who sported one of the creatures on his shoulder, and runs from smaller vessels taking on a Parakeet, right up to Aircraft Carriers which are required to recruit a large Macaw.

This particular parrot has been involved in several comic escapades, the like of which you couldn't make up to be any funnier. For example, the potty-mouthed bird was once locked in a cupboard while Naval Top Brass were given a tour of the vessel, but despite the precautions, Sunny could clearly be heard squawking out a series of sexual swearwords from behind the cupboard door. The comic effect was greatly increased when Admiral Sir Alan West decided to ignore the stream of slightly muffled profanities emanating from the cupboard and carry on with his briefing.

The crew were particularly embarrassed last March, when a torrent of foul language and sexual profanities turned the air blue during the visit of the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. Luckily though on that occasion, Sunny kept a civil tongue in her beak, and even she seemed genuinely shocked and embarrassed by the extreme baseness of the Prince's language.