Might have this completely wrong, but isn't that why people no longer join at such a young age?
Fourteen - or whatever it was - being perhaps too early to judge officer material?
Then there's the later question of how suitable Giles was - risking an international incident as well as life and limb.
Hilary Clare once said that AF "wasn't hands -on - she got it all out of books" Perhaps she read the wrong books about the Navy?