An extended counterfactual imagines what might have followed if Princess Anne had been allowed to join the Royal Navy, an ambition her father reportedly supported while the wider royal establishment did not. The imagined career could have made her the service's first female Admiral of the Fleet and perhaps First Sea Lord. The speculation then jokes about how her royal status and forceful reputation might have affected budget arguments and meetings with other NATO navy chiefs. None of those promotions occurred, and the sequence is explicitly a mental picture rather than a claim about naval history. Royal expectations closed off the possible military career before it could be tested.
Notable Point · 2:24:49-2:27:48
Princess Anne and a naval career that never happened
A speculative aside imagines Princess Anne pursuing the naval career she reportedly wanted and perhaps reaching Admiral of the Fleet or First Sea Lord.