Goodbye Britannia
Twenty years ago today the Royal Yacht was decommissioned. We reveal 20 facts about her life
DABBING away a tear, the Queen said an emotional farewell to her beloved Royal Yacht Britannia as it was decommissioned at Portsmouth Dockyard on December 11, 1997. Tony Blair’s new Labour government had decided to retire the glamorous ship after 44 years in service to save money – a decision that the Duke of Edinburgh has since said was wrong.
However, 20 years on, the ship has since found a new lease of life as a tourist attraction in Leith docks, Edinburgh, and now plans are afoot to build a new Britannia to help boost trade deals following Brexit.
Here we reveal some fascinating facts about the vessel… Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia was launched by the Queen from the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Glasgow on April 16, 1953. A 30,000-strong crowd braved the rain to watch as she announced the name and smashed a bottle of Empire wine against her bows. Champagne was considered too extravagant due to post-war rationing. Designed to be a symbol of the nation’s pride and the flagship of the Royal Family, Britannia was the 83rd royal yacht. The first was HMY Mary, built in 1660 as a gift from the Dutch for Charles II. Britannia was the second to bear the name, after a racing cutter built for the Prince of Wales in 1893. Then the largest yacht in the world, Britannia cost £2million to build, was 412ft long and weighed in at nearly 6,000 tonnes. It was designed to be a “floating palace” which could be used as an embassy at sea and entertain heads of state. Over the years those who dined aboard would include Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. With no rivets showing, teak decks and brass fittings, Britannia was supremely elegant – unlike most ships her name wasn’t even on the side. Aboard there was a state dining room capable of seating 52 guests, a state drawing room, a large sun lounge and private sitting room. Although grand, the Queen intervened to cut the cost of the yacht’s extravagant décor in the original plans commissioned by her father King George VI, who died in 1952. Both she and the Duke of Edinburgh personally approved fabrics, paintwork and even door handles and lampshades.
There were separate bedrooms for the Queen and Prince Phillip, each with a single bed but an interconnecting door. With its comfy sofas and photos of family members, “The overall idea was to give the impression of a country house at sea,” said Sir Hugh Casson, Britannia’s architect.
However the Queen’s request for a real fireplace was turned down on safety grounds – an electric one was added instead. DECKBORNE DIPLOMACY: Hosting President and Nancy Reagan in 1983 The ship did boast a garage for the Queen’s Rolls-Royce, a 24-hour laundry and even a knighting stool. But, with austerity in mind, some items were recycled such as bed linen from the previous yacht HMY Victoria and Albert. Britannia was crewed by 220 Royal Yachtsmen, 21 officers and captained by an admiral with a 26-strong Royal Marine band sometimes on board too. She was the last ship in the Navy where sailors slept in hammocks. To preserve quiet they habitually gave orders via hand signals and wore special plimsolls. To maintain royal poise the crew also had to make sure the gangplank’s angle never exceeded 12 degrees. On state visits Britannia carried five tonnes of luggage, 45 staff including a surgeon and hairdresser plus bottles of the Queen’s favourite Malvern water for making her tea. During a typical three months at sea 2,200 toilet rolls and 244 tins of Brasso would be used. A hundred chickens could be roasted at a time in the ship’s two ovens. Her maiden voyage in 1954 saw Prince Charles and Princess Anne travel from Portsmouth to Malta to meet their parents at the end of their Commonwealth tour. The Duke of Edinburgh made two round-theworld voyages to Commonwealth countries covering 72,430 miles. Each August Britannia traditionally sailed to the Cowes Week regatta off the Isle of Wight and then took the Royal Family on a tour of the west coast of Scotland, stopping off for private picnics on remote islands. Britannia was the venue for four royal honeymoons. Princess Margaret and Antony Daily Express Monday December 11 2017 Armstrong-Jones dined nightly in full evening dress on theirs in the Caribbean in 1960. Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips suffered sea-sickness from storms on their 1973 honeymoon. During Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s Mediterranean idyll in 1981 she famously joined the crew in the mess, playing the piano for a chorus of What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor? The Duke and Duchess of York cruised to the Azores in 1986. Designed to double up as a hospital ship in wartime, accommodating 200 patients, Britannia did see action – rescuing 1,082 refugees from a civil war raging in Aden in 1986. In 2010 declassified papers revealed plans to use Britannia as a floating nuclear bunker. In the event of an impending attack the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Home Secretary were to set sail on the yacht from north-west Scotland. The Overseas Trade Board estimated that events held on board the yacht helped raise £3billion for the Treasury between 1991 and 1995. But in 1997 plans to refurbish or replace the ageing vessel – which cost £11million annually to run – were ditched by the new Labour government, which decided to retire the vessel. One of Britannia’s last voyages was to Hong Kong for the return of the British colony to China in July 1997. Prince Charles recalled: “There was a kind of exasperated sadness experienced by all and sundry,” about the decommissioning. “Britannia is the one place I can relax,” the Queen once said. So it was not surprising that, at the decommissioning ceremony, as the band played Auld Lang Syne and the ship’s white ensign was lowered, she cried for the first time in public. Princess Anne also wept. All the clocks on board were stopped at 15:01 – the time the Queen was piped ashore. Britannia had travelled 1,087,623 nautical miles around the globe, made 696 visits to foreign ports and 272 visits in British waters. In 2011, during an interview to mark his 90th birthday, Prince Philip told TV’s Alan Titchmarsh that taking Britannia out of service was a mistake: “She should have had her steam turbines taken out and diesel engines put in. She was as sound as a bell and she could have gone on for another 50 years.” Former prime minister Tony Blair has said he regrets having made the decision. In 1998 Leith won a contest to be Britannia’s new home. She attracts 350,000 visitors a year and has been named number one UK attraction by TripAdvisor. The Queen’s granddaughter, Zara Phillips and husband Mike Tindall held their pre-wedding reception on board in July 2011. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson recently backed plans for a £100million new royal yacht.