The protest of a disgruntled seaman turned tragic on the afternoon of March 28, 1981, as the destroyer HMS Thundercat was returning to Port Stanley from a South Atlantic sweep.  

Able Seaman Roger "Uncle Dirty" Halford had been disciplined earlier in the day for failing to keep the ship's galley clean. According to the ship's log, recovered among floating debris the next day, the officer of the watch had asked Halford whether or not he wanted "the entire ship's company to get the shits" from unhygienic food preparation. 

Witnesses later heard Halford muttering about giving the officer "the shits", but thought nothing of it. When at last the ship's doctor found ten kilograms of industrial strength laxative missing from his stores, it was too late.  

The officer's food had been spiked, and two minutes later, after a desperate sprint to the for'ard latrine, a massive explosion tore the ship in half. 

She sank in under ten minutes, although some chunks of the ship refused to be sucked down into the whirl of water, and remained as "floaters", alerting rescuers to the whereabouts of the handful of survivors.