A museum boss is looking to get ‘gender neutral’ signs after a vandal took offence to ships being referred to as female.

Signs at the Scottish Maritime Museum which used the centuries-old tradition of referring to ships as female had ‘she’ and ‘her’ scratched out last week – which its director said is the second time this has occurred this year.

After the bizarre incident the museum posted on social media urging the vandal get in touch to discuss the issue.

And director David Mann told the Times they are now looking to phase in the use of new gender neutral signs adding that they ‘recognise the changes in society’.

He said: “The Scottish Maritime Museum is a charity, which works hard to preserve our country’s maritime heritage for everyone to enjoy.

“For the second time this year, the museum has been targeted by a vandal, who has destroyed one of the interpretation signs which follow the universally adopted and centuries old maritime tradition of referring to vessels as female.

“Like other maritime museums and institutions, we recognise the changes in society and are committed to introducing gender neutral interpretation.

“As a small charity, however, we are doing this in a phased way so that we are not taking our limited funds away from important preservation activity, introducing gender neutral signs when new interpretation is required.”