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| The Royal Yacht Britannia |
While travel is restricted in present times due to the Coronavirus, it's nice to share some of my travel experiences with readers. One such occasion was enjoying afternoon tea on board HM Queen Elizabeth's Royal Yacht with my sister Isobel during our visit to Edinburgh last August.
Here's an account of our visit which featured in Irish Car+Travel Car Guide 201 magazine in January 2020.
Afternoon Tea on the Royal Yacht Britannia
By Trish Whelan, Car+Travel magazine
The Royal Yacht Britannia, permanently docked at the Ocean Terminal at the Port of Leith in Edinburgh, is busier than ever in its retirement attracting over 300,000 visitors a year.
The proposal to bring Britannia to Edinburgh was prepared by Forth Ports PLC as part of their plans to regenerate the historic Port of Leith.
Queen Elizabeth’s former floating royal residence for over 40 years is now one of Edinburgh’s top visitor attractions, cared for by the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, a registered charity that is a wholly self-funding, not-for-profit organisation.
Britannia was built at the shipyard of John Brown & Co Ltd in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire and was launched by Queen Elizabeth in April 1953.
Her maiden voyage was from Portsmouth to Malta in 1954.
At 412 ft (126m), the Royal Yacht had a crew of 21 officers and 250 Royal Yachtsmen.
As ambassador for Great Britain, we learnt that Britannia played a major role in stimulating trade and promoting good relations across the world. During its 44 years of life, the ship travelled over a million nautical miles around the world - the equivalent of once round the world for each year of her working life, conducting 696 Royal visits overseas and 272 in home waters, and calling in at ports in 135 countries. When on royal duties, HMY Britannia was escorted by a Royal Navy warship.
It also hosted many world figures including Kings and Queens; Presidents and Prime Ministers have also stood on the ship’s decks. US Presidents Dwight D Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were welcomed onboard.
In the State Apartments, honours were presented, men knighted, and business deals worth billions of pounds to the UK were sealed.
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| The very elegant sitting room. |
You too can step on board the ship as my sister, Isobel, and I did during the summer. Entry is through the Ocean building at the Port where you first go through a museum displaying all the facts about the ship. Here you see many of the original artefacts, pictures and items of furniture that were on Britannia when she was in service including the original Wheelhouse.
From there you get to tour the five decks, returning across a gang way to a tall, narrow building on the wharf and climbing up to the next level to return to the ship. A lift is provided for those who may need it.
As you move between decks you get a wonderful feel for what life on board was like for both the royals and the crew.
We got to see a retired Rolls-Royce Phantom V 6.0 litre V8 engine state car first (pictured above) registered on 1 August 1967 and costing £10,793 and threepence, parked on the wharf below (the ship) and an original 1948 Series 1 Land Rover stationed on board the ship, one of the first ever made with a 2.5 diesel engine and 110bhp used for trips on land (pictured below).
The tour takes in the wheelhouse, originally situated on the deck below the Bridge from where Britannia was commanded. There would normally be three men in the wheelhouse, one to steer the ship, and two to operate the brass engine telegraphs on either side of the wheel. These telegraphs were linked by mechanical rod gearing to the engine room five decks below and were used to pass orders on the ship’s speed and movement.
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| The wheelhouse |
This was the only ship in the Navy where the sailors were called by their first name and, to preserve the tranquility befitting a Royal residence, shouting was forbidden with orders often given by hand signal.
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| The captain's suite with photos of past captains |
We also saw the Captain’s suite and the bunk beds of the crew with not much room to store their uniforms.
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| A section of the crew's quarters |
The huge laundry room was a revelation with what resembled old fashioned equipment. We learnt that the Captain (often) had to change his uniform many times in one day, depending on the occasion.
Be surprised that Britannia’s state rooms are not as grand as you may have expected as the Queen wanted the ship to give the impression of a homely country house at sea.
As you view each of the state rooms through glass walls along the corridors, the information concerning each is relayed via a recording in your headphone supplied by the tour. It means you can move along the corridors at your own pace.
You get to see the Queen’s Bedroom and working desk where she undertook many affairs of state, Prince Phillip’s bedroom, the bedroom used by Charles and Diana on their honeymoon - and which was also used by important dignitaries.
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| The magnificent state dining room |
The State Dining Room boasts a magnificent dining table resplendent in official livery while the large and homely sitting room (pictured above) looks so inviting that you will want to dip below the cordon and relax in one of the armchairs and enjoy the lovely surroundings. It is a very tranquil area of the ship.
Here are some of the bedrooms included in the tour starting with the Queen's bedroom.
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| The Queen's bedroom |
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| Prince Philip's bedroom |
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| Charles and Diana's bedroom when they honeymooned onboard |
Another highlight was enjoying afternoon tea in The Royal Deck Tea Room which the Trust brought back to use in 2009.
The Royal Deck had previously been used by the Royal Family for cocktail parties and receptions and was covered with an awning to protect guests from the sun. Britannia can now host a variety of events and all the food is freshly made on board in the original Royal Galleys.
We were told that fudge sweets are favoured by Queen Elizabeth and you can see different varieties of the sweet being made onboard and get to take some home as a souvenir as well as choosing momentos from the souvenir shop.
Such large vessels require ongoing maintenance and this work is undertaken by the Trust’s in-house Maintenance Team of volunteers who work 365 days of the year.
Britannia was decommissioned on 11 December 1997 after a long and illustrious career. We learnt that the ship’s clocks were stopped at 3:01, the time that the Queen last disembarked. A fitting gesture.
We enjoyed ringing the ship's bell before we also disembarked after a truly memorable visit.
