Favoring winds

As you know, I like what artists refer to as objets trouvés—things I spot around me, wherever I happen to be. And a while ago I spotted this on the mean streets of NoVa:

Now, HMS Hood (in her last incarnation) was the last cruiser built for the Royal Navy (commissioned in 1920), which was sunk in the Denmark Strait in May 1941 while in pursuit of the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and battleship Bismarck. There were three survivors; 1415 men went down with Hood.

WRT this particular vanity plate, I kind of wondered about the connection—was it a naval history buff? The small badge decal is indicative of something closer:

That’s Hood’s badge (Ventis secundis, “with favorable winds”, was her motto), so I’m thinking that the driver is related to someone who might have served on her at some point.

Or—and I suppose one has to consider this, in these days of stolen valor—someone who’d like people to think so.

Nah—I’m going with the relative.