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It has circulated on the Internet and elsewhere in particular since a 1995 iteration that was represented as an actual transcript of such a communication released by the office of the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations. There appears to be no evidence that the event actually took place, and the account is implausible for several reasons.[1] It is thus considered an urban legend, a variation on a joke that dates to at least the 1930s,[2] sometimes referred to as "the lighthouse vs. the carrier" or "the lighthouse vs. the battleship". The U.S. Navy has a webpage debunking it,[3] although this did not stop the former U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell using it as a joke in a 2008 speech.[4] Other speakers have often used it simply as a parable teaching the dangers of inflexibility and self-importance, or the need for situational awareness. In 2004 a Swedish company dramatized it in an award-winning television advertisement.
