So, as I understand it - the Brits had a frigate there but the Commodore was ordered to hold his fire....
Well, why bother having a frigate there?
Save yourself some money - and get rid of the frigate and just have a bunch of inflatable rafts running about since you aren't going to use the fire power of the frigate anyway.
This is NOT the much vaunted British Navy of old. That was a Navy that controlled the world.
Now they can't even control some beach boats sent out by a two bit country like Iran to capture their people and equipment.
And....its the second time in a couple of years this has happened so its not some fluke.
It's a symptom -
If the British Navy is at this level of "fright" - we, the United States, are indeed alone.
Of course, there was the time when a two person motor boat was able to come alongside a U.S. N. war vessel and blew up and almost sank our destroyer. Killed our sailors. Because we forgot that it is a very old naval precept to always always always defend and protect the ship - especially in a hostile harbor. To allow a harbor craft to come alongside without challenge is inconceivable.
These people need to re-read some of the old naval literature - going back about 500 years.
Well, we are not only alone, we are also going down the same road.
It's hard to let go of the past. Many still identify the British with their forebears who fought at Waterloo, the Somme, etc. However, the fact is that a vast majority of today's inhabitants in the UK, France and Germany are, by definition, descendants of those who survived WWI ie cowards & weaklings.
IOW, they owe their positions simply because their potential competition was never born. An entire generational warrior class, numbering in the millions, were erased from gene pool, never to return. I call them BINO, FINO & GINOs, respectively. They speak the same language, look somewhat the same, and even claim the region's history, but it is not them.
Today's situation can be traced back to 1914, not just 1979, et al.