Face-Off on the High Seas

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on the high seas. As she spoke, the fleet was continuing to grow. In addition to the warships already under way, the government requisitioned at least three British Petroleum tankers to serve as fuel transports for the attack force, which eventually could include as many as ten civilian ships. The navy was drawing heavily on the little-known Royal Fleet Auxiliary, whose 24 ships belong to the British Defense Ministry but whose officers and crew are technically members of the British merchant marine. The Fleet Auxiliary excels at carrying out high-speed naval refueling operations at sea, even while zigzagging in the dark beside their "customers."

In the port of Southampton, the 45,000-ton, 1,600-passenger cruise ship Canberra was stripped of her luxury fittings, chandeliers and heavy curtains. Two helicopter landing pads were fitted onto the liner's decks, one of them across an empty swimming pool. Military rations, munitions, armored vehicles and other equipment were put aboard, and 2,000 marines and paratroopers filed up the gangways. Many members of the Canberra's crew volunteered to serve for the possibly hazardous South Atlantic duty; in addition, some 30 nurses were accompanying the troops; the Canberra might be used as a hospital ship.

As the British moved south, pilots of the Harrier attack aircraft began practicing combat missions and making wave-skimming flights to avoid radar detection. Pilots later plan to fire some of their weapons close to the carrier to accustom crews to the noise of combat. Marines conducted regular calisthenic-and weapons-training sessions on the carrier flight decks, and helicopter crews worked on their tricky approaches and landings. For relaxation, officers aboard the Invincible were shown a Walt Disney wildlife film. Subject: the Falkland Islands. Prince Andrew joined in the laughter about the penguins.

The greatest weakness of the British task force is that it lacks airpower: the range of the Harriers is not much more than 100 miles. To help correct that flaw, the government has dispatched Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft armed with torpedoes and "smart," target-seeking bombs to Ascension Island, a British colony, some 3,500 miles from the Falklands. The Nimrods have a range of 5,755 miles and can be refueled in the air. In addition, C-130 Hercules military transports are flying into Ascension to be ready for use in the Falklands.

Beyond establishing a blockade, British battle strategy is top secret, but TIME has learned that a likely second phase of the British effort, if it came to war, would be the reoccupation of South Georgia Island, 800 miles from Port Stanley, and a blockade of Argentina's naval base at Comodoro Rivadavia. A third stage might be the seizing of Port Stanley itself by marines and paratroopers under air cover from the Harriers and Nimrods. But the British faced several major problems. The first is what U.S. experts were calling "sustainability"; resupplying troops and fleet if a blockade continued for several weeks. The common assumption was that supplies would be stocked at Ascension, but it was not certain that such stores would be available soon enough. Even then, the British faced the daunting prospect of maintaining a long supply line under conditions of war. Many military experts also question the ability of the British to retake the islands with the