britannia yacht song

The Story Behind the Royal Family's Yacht, Britannia

The ship hosted four royal honeymoons in its 44 years of service.

Often referred to as the last royal yacht, the Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, and despite some efforts , there are no signs of a new one in the near future. Though its seafaring days may be behind it (the ship now serves as a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, Scotland), the Britannia remains an important artifact and a peek behind the curtain of royal life—it even garnered a prominent place in the fifth season of The Crown . Below, a few of its most notable moments throughout history.

It was the first royal yacht designed for ocean travel.

The ship was built by John Brown & Co at the same shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland in the same location the famous ocean liners the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were constructed. With 12,000 horsepower, the ship could travel at a maximum 22.5 knots (approximately 25 miles per hour), ideal for ocean-going diplomacy. Prior to its launch in 1953, the royal family used ships from the Royal Navy or even passenger liners for the overseas portions of the royal tour.

In its 44 years of service, the HMY Britannia traveled around 1.1 million miles.

It was commissioned just two days before the death of King George VI.

The King was already in failing health by the time the designs for the HMY Britannia were submitted, and the hope was that traveling might help alleviate some of his symptoms. However, just two days after the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland received the order the King passed away on February 6, 1952.

It would take just over a year for the ship to be completed, during which time its name remained a secret—it wasn't announced until the ship's official launch in April of 1953, less than two months before the Queen's coronation . Elizabeth cracked a bottle of English wine (in the post-war era, champagne was considered too extravagant for the launch of a ship) and announced, "I name this ship Britannia … I wish success to her and all who sail in her."

It was created to double as a hospital.

When Britannia was first envisioned, less than a decade after the end of World War II, the designers sought to make it as functional as possible, crafting a space that could be converted from an ocean-going royal residence to a seafaring hospital during any possible future wartime. The main veranda was laid out and re-enforced so that it could support a helicopter landing and the laundry was made much larger than on a standard naval vessel to accommodate the potential patients. Though the ship was never actually put to that purpose, it was pressed into service on a rescue mission to help evacuate European nationals from South Yemen in 1986.

The ship was home to a lot of history.

Long before it became a floating museum, the Britannia had an eye for history. The gold and white binnacle housed on the ship's veranda deck was originally part of the HMY Royal George , a royal yacht that served Queen Victoria . Likewise, some of the bed linens used by Queen Elizabeth aboard the vessel were originally made for Victoria's bed for one of the previous royal yachts.

Britannia's steering wheel was lifted from her namesake, the racing yacht HMY Britannia , built in 1893 for King Edward VII .

It was redesigned to be less opulent.

Despite the sense of luxury that the term "royal yacht" inspires, the Queen and Prince Philip were actually concerned when they began overseeing the project in 1952 that the original interior design plans by the design firm McInnes Gardner & Partners were too lavish for a country still recovering from the war. The interiors were ultimately redesigned by Sir Hugh Casson and received very minimal updates throughout her 44 years of service.

But it still had homey touches—by royal standards.

Suffice to say that even low-key royal living is a fairly high class. In addition to the 56-seat State Dining Room, which hosted luminaries including Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, Nelson Mandela, and multiple US Presidents, the ship also sported a formal staircase where the Queen would greet guests, separate bedrooms and sitting rooms for both Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh, and a phone system designed to match the unique configurations of Buckingham Palace's telephones.

In the early years of the Britannia's life it was also home to the Queen's Rolls-Royce Phantom V which was hoisted and lowered from a special garage compartment at port so that the Queen could drive her own car at each location. The space was ever so slightly too small, forcing the bumpers to be removed in order to get it into the garage without damage and then refitted when the car was removed. Ultimately Elizabeth began using cars provided for her at port instead and the garage was converted into a storage area for beer.

The steering crew couldn't see where they were going.

Life on board the HMY Britannia was far from typical for her crew. To begin with, due to the prestige and pressure of the position, the commanding officer of the royal yacht was always a flag officer, most commonly a Rear Admiral, although the first two to serve were Vice Admirals, and Britannia 's final CO was a Commodore.

While working, the crew reportedly used hand signals to communicate rather than shouting orders, in order to maintain a sense of quiet and calm for the royal residents. It was also the last ship in the royal navy where the crew members slept in hammocks, a practice that they maintained until 1973.

Perhaps the most unusual element of the ship's functioning, though, was the steering. While on most ships, the steering wheel sits on the bridge, overlooking the front of the vessel, Britannia 's was on the deck below, in the wheelhouse, which meant that the yachtsmen who were actually doing the steering couldn't see where they were going. The crew got around this rather surprising pitfall by using voice pipes from the bridge to confer navigational orders.

It was a royal honeymoon essential.

No fewer than four royal couples celebrated their honeymoons in the HMY Britannia 's honeymoon suite (the only room onboard with a double bed.)

Princess Margaret started the tradition in 1960 for her Caribbean honeymoon with Anthony Armstrong-Jones , a quiet, formal affair where dinners were taken in full evening dress every night. Things didn't go quite as smoothly for Princess Anne on her honeymoon with Captain Mark Phillips in 1973—storms and 20-foot waves left the couple stricken with seasickness for the first week of their Caribbean cruise. Prince Charles and Princess Diana famously spent their 1981 honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise aboard the yacht. The crew managed to duck the press so efficiently they garnered the nickname "the ghost ship." The final royal honeymoon aboard the Britannia was taken by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson , Duchess of York in 1986 when the couple traveled around the Azores.

And a family vacation spot.

In addition to her diplomatic duties on royal tours and her service as a post-wedding retreat, the Britannia was also a vessel for family vacations. During the summer months, the royal family would often take off on what became known as the Western Isles tour, cruising around the western isles of Scotland. During the trip, the family would play games and have barbecues on the islands. The stairway off of the veranda was sometimes even converted into a waterslide for the younger royals. The tour often included a stop off at the Castle of Mey to visit the Queen Mother, then making berth in Aberdeen so that the Queen could travel to her favorite summer home, Balmoral .

The Queen openly wept when HMY Britannia was decommissioned in 1997.

With so many memories around the yacht, it's not hard to understand why the decommissioning of the Britannia was upsetting for the royal family. Though plans were initially drawn up for a replacement yacht, the government ultimately determined not to fund the effort. After the Queen officially took her leave of it in 1997, the ship was placed in the port of Leith in Scotland where it serves as a floating museum and events venue . All of the clocks on board remain stopped at 3:01, the exact time that Her Majesty disembarked for the last time.

It was used for a reception for Zara Phillips before her wedding.

Though it's no longer used as their private vessel, the Britannia 's connection to the royal family didn't end in 1997. In 2011 on the night before her wedding, the Queen's oldest granddaughter Zara Phillips contracted the ship for a reception. Though her grandmother wasn't in attendance Zara celebrated her upcoming marriage to Mike Tindall onboard along with her mother and her cousins Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate, Princess Eugenie, and Princess Beatrice.

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.

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The Kings Yacht – HMY Britannia

The Kings Yacht – Britannia’s Story

The Kings Yacht – HMY Britannia — 2 Comments

Video by K1 Britannia, the structures which will leverage the Britannia replica for charity around the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtQRGBWaqy4&feature=youtu.be&nohtml5=False#t=20.334535

If you wish to see her original gaff spar it is hanging, impressively, from the ceiling in the Duke of York pub in West Cowes. It was made by Fifes of Fairlie who made most of the large UK spars for these leviathans. It is, I guess, forty feet long and two feet in diameter. The spar was made from first turning a log into a constant diameter and then halving it along its length. The two halves were then hollowed out until the wall thickness was about two and a half inches. One half was turned end for end and the two halves were then glued together to make a stable, strong and light spar. This would have been used with rings to support the vertical weight of the sail but as strikes began to appear, wire mousings would have been added with wooden spacers and battens to allow the rings to negotiate them. These are fitted to the Duke of York’s spar but the original wire mousings have been replaced by rope. The spar was discovered hanging in a warehouse when a ceiling was removed and the now owner bought it for £2000 but if he sells it any profit will be split with the original owner 50/50. The spar was to be put in place by Claire Lallow Boatbuilders and their gang appeared one evening as dinner was being served. They passed it through an opening from a removed window and as it entered the building, it was realised that a hole would need to be punched through an existing wall and this was quickly achieved. Nobody’s dinner was interrupted, it was just another night out in Cowes.

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Rule Britannia!

It all started with a poem, written by James Thomson

It all started with a poem, written by James Thomson and first performed on 1st August 1740. Thomson’s poem had a chorus that went like this:

"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

"Britons never will be slaves."

Five years later the poem became a song, first performed in London and an instant hit, eventually far eclipsing the poem in its fame.

It was at a time when Britain was still some way from global sea dominance -- but over time, as the Royal Navy acquired that power and reputation, the words changed again. The version passed onto us by the Victorians and widely sung today – most notably at the Last Night of the Proms – is this one:

“Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves.”

The notion of Britannia ruling the waves was probably the central tenet of the British Empire over the two hundred or so years from the 1740s to the 1940s and explains much of the song’s endurance. It was also the reason why the loss of the Hundred Pound Cup (to be known as the America’s Cup) to the yacht America in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, was so painful.

It wasn’t until some 150 years after Thomson’s poem that Britannia took on a more solid form. It was in the shape of a yacht built for and owned by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales; a racing cutter called Britannia that was built to a design by George Lennox Watson, who went on to design four America’s Cup challengers.

The yacht was launched on 20th April 1893 and had a terrific first season. The Prince of Wales’s yacht won 24 races from 43 and was clearly the dominant yacht of the time. Yet it was Valkyrie II that headed to New York for the Cup match in the autumn of that year.

Dunraven and Valkyrie lost 3 – 0 to Vigilant in the US, and we can only wonder what might have happened should the Prince of Wales have felt a Cup challenge was appropriate for the heir to the throne. In 1894, Britannia cleaned up with seven wins from seven races in a series in the south of France, and then proceeded to beat Vigilant by seven minutes in a race at the Mount’s Bay regatta in Cornwall.

Britannia’s legend was quickly built, she was a consistent winner amongst the Big Class, until it started to fade with rule changes and political turmoil in the early part of the nineteenth century.

It was King George V – Albert Edward’s son – who brought both Britannia and the Big Class back to life however, after he had Britannia refitted to race once again. It coincided with Sir Thomas Lipton’s fourth tilt at the America’s Cup in 1920 and was the beginning of a boom period in sailing these fantastic boats, as the English circuit grew in strength.

It was also a period in which the British came closest to winning the Cup. Lipton narrowly lost in 1920 after taking the first two races from Resolute. In 1934 Sir Thomas Sopwith also established a 2-0 lead before capitulating to Harold Vanderbilt’s Rainbow. It was this series that provoked the headline, “Britannia rules the waves and America waives the rules.”

Despite getting a bit long in the tooth by now, Britannia was still racing, converted to the new J Class rule that was used for the America’s Cup from 1930. She was never competitive as a J, but nevertheless managed a lifetime record of 231 race wins, with 129 further podiums.

Britannia’s end was perhaps the most controversial part of her career. King George V had decreed that his boat should not outlive him. After his death on the 20th January 1936, she was stripped of spars and fittings, and then on the 10th July that year, towed out to the deep water south of St Catherine’s Deep near the southern tip of the Isle of Wight. There she was sunk by HMS Winchester. A sad end for such a distinguished racing yacht.

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Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023

Step aboard The Royal Yacht Britannia

Start your tour at our entrance on the Ground Floor of Ocean Terminal.

Please pre-book your tickets to guarantee admission.

A great day out for all the family, explore each of the five decks at this top attraction in Edinburgh and discover what life was like on board Queen Elizabeth II's former floating palace. 

9:30am - 4pm

(Last Admission 6pm)

Ticket information, opening times and more.

Buy Tickets

Pre-book your tickets to visit The Royal Yacht Britannia, top attraction in Leith.

Homemade soups, sandwiches and cakes, along with speciality teas and coffees.

Apply for 12 months' free admission after your first visit.

Stay at our luxury floating hotel, Fingal, Tripadvisor's No1. UK Luxury Hotel, AA Hotel of the Year Scotland.

Find souvenirs and gifts from Britannia's online Gift Shop.

Visiting Britannia

Start your tour at our entrance, currently located on the Ground Floor of Ocean Terminal. Please note that tickets purchased in person are by card/contactless only. 

Click on the Visit page  for more information before you visit.

Step aboard to enjoy a great day out!

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Inside the Royal Yacht Britannia

We explore how the royal yacht britannia, the royal family’s former yacht, became one of britain’s best-loved attractions….

Words by Kirsten Henton & photos by Euan Myles

This year marks two major milestones for the iconic Royal Yacht Britannia , the Royal Family’s former yacht, aboard which they would cruise the Western Isles of Scotland each summer. Celebrating both 70 years of service and 25 years as a multi-award-winning floating museum and visitor attraction, this regal yacht is more popular than ever.

Since dropping anchor in Edinburgh’s historic port of Leith and opening to the public in 1998, a year after it was decommissioned, Britannia has captivated some six million visitors. It’s a spectacle of refined elegance crammed full of fascinating royal and naval history.

Somewhat randomly, Britannia, and the bold tartan trews worn by the guides, were fixtures in my family for over a decade. Having taken early retirement, my father, Richard Henton, who has a lifelong interest in the Royal Navy, subsequently worked as a guide aboard Britannia from 2003 to 2014.

As he puts it: “The nice thing about working on Britannia was being associated with a truly prestigious icon that was instantly recognised internationally. I also had a certain affection for the Royal Yacht since I remember her launch back in 1953.”

The decades following WWII witnessed great change globally. War-torn countries from Europe to Eastern Asia endured significant financial and social hardships, while colonised countries that had formed the backbone of European empires, many of whose citizens had fought and died in two World Wars, actively sought their independence.

Seismic events such as the Partition of India, unrest in Palestine and Malaya (now Malaysia), and the later Suez Crisis all signalled the complexities of this new order. In addition, the Commonwealth came to prominence. Plus, Britain had a new monarch. Following the death of King George VI on 6 February 1952, 25-year-old Elizabeth was proclaimed queen and a new chapter in British history began.

It was into this changing world that Britannia was launched. In fact, the shipyard received the official order to commence work on the new Royal Yacht from the Admiralty on 4 February 1952, just two days before King George VI died.

THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Although plans for a new Royal Yacht were temporarily shelved owing to WWII, work began on Britannia in 1952 at the renowned John Brown & Co. Shipyard in Clydebank, where liners including the Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth were also constructed. Although officially launched on 16 April 1953, it wasn’t until 11 January 1954 that Britannia was commissioned into active service with the Royal Navy.

The 412-foot-long (126-metre) yacht was one of the last fully-riveted ships to be built. It was seen to have quite the modern form with a crisp clipper bow and a sleek cruiser stern. Meanwhile, down in the engine room, two steam-powered turbines generated 12,000 horsepower and a maximum speed of 22.5 knots (around 25 mph).

Curiously, the ship’s wheel, which was taken from its 1893 namesake, Edward, Prince of Wales’s (later Edward VII) Royal Cutter Britannia, is located in the wheelhouse for security reasons. This meant that yachtsmen at the helm couldn’t actually see where they were going. Instead, they followed instructions via voice pipes from the bridge above.

The ship’s name also remained a mystery to all but a few until its christening. When Queen Elizabeth II smashed a bottle on the bow in April 1953, some 30,000 people, mainly shipbuilders and their families, turned out in the pouring rain to hear her proclaim “I name this ship Britannia” for the first time, although it was never painted onto the hull.

THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA: UNDERSTATED INTERIORS

Stepping aboard Britannia, you might expect some serious luxury. However, as Laura McCall, of the Royal Yacht Britannia reveals, luxury wasn’t the look the Royal Family were going for at all: “The initial designs were considered to be too opulent and, instead, more of a ‘country home’ feel was chosen by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip… it’s elegant yet reflects the post-war austerity in which the ship was built.”

This period also necessitated the ability to convert Britannia into a hospital ship, should it ever be required. Over in the state apartments, it’s a homely affair. What’s more, it remains relatively unchanged, a time capsule of chintzy chairs, surprisingly narrow single beds and considerably ordinary decor.

Of course, the grand state dining room, magnificent staircase, and teak sun lounge with its giant picture windows – said to have been our late Queen’s favourite spot – quickly remind you that it was still a floating palace fit for royalty.

THE ROYAL YAHCT BRITANNIA: LIFE AT SEA

Britannia offered an escape for the Royal Family. It was a private bubble, which Queen Elizabeth II described as “the only place I can truly relax.”

McCall says: “King Charles enjoyed summer holidays on Britannia and in later years, [it] was where His Majesty brought his own sons for family trips to the Western Isles.” It has also hosted four royal honeymoons and, McCall continues, was where “the Royal Family entertained everyone from prime ministers and presidents to the celebrities of the day, including Frank Sinatra.”

For the 220 yachtsmen, known as ‘yotties’, who served aboard Britannia, life was very different to other postings. The rules were unusual, for starters. As Acting Captain J S Dalglish, the officer in charge of commissioning Britannia, later wrote: “Everything in the yacht is done in complete silence. We used no… broadcasting device for getting orders round the vessel, but instead the telephone etc. below decks, and signs and signals above.”

THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA: THE SOFT ART OF DIPLOMACY

It wasn’t all high days and holidays, however. Britannia was a mobile ambassador, a vessel that ferried the next generation of royals looking to represent Britain through diplomacy, trade, even the odd humanitarian mission.

It also played a vital role in connecting Britain with the expanding Commonwealth, formed of mainly ex-British territories all the way from New Zealand to Jamaica. In her Christmas Day broadcast in 1953, Her Majesty The Queen said: “The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace.”

Britannia was a vital tool the Royal Family used to honour those promises and strengthen ties with nations previously stitched into its empire.

THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA: THE MUSEUM

Today, people visit Britannia from all over the globe. According to my father: “The highlight of being with visitors was their evident interest in all aspects of life on board and observing their reactions to what many considered to be the decidedly non-luxurious aspects of the Royal Family’s  accommodation and the generally cramped nature of the ship’s company.”

He adds: “Those from Commonwealth countries and the USA showed particular interest since they had often seen Britannia when she visited their own countries.”

Planning a visit? My dad’s top tip is not to rush it but to give yourself sufficient time to look around properly – at least an hour and a half. Personally, I can’t recommend a trip to the Royal Deck Tea Room enough. Go for a scone and a glass of something bubbly, stay for the views to Fife and the Antony Gormley statue gazing across the Forth.

Britannia’s arrival in Leith opened a new chapter in the yacht’s story. Now, as Britain welcomes a new monarch, she continues to tell the tale of the royals of the 20th century.

To book your tickets for The Royal Yacht Britannia, go to royalyachtbritannia.co.uk

This is an extract, read the full feature in the July/August 2023 issue of Scotland, available to buy here from 16 June. 

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The Royal Yacht Britannia Has a Fascinating History—Here's Everything You Should Know

It doesn't get more majestic than Queen Elizabeth II's yacht.

“Britannia is special for a number of reasons,” Prince Phillip once said. “Almost every previous sovereign has been responsible for building a church, a castle, a palace or just a house. The only comparable structure in the present reign is Britannia. As such she is a splendid example of contemporary British design and technology.”

Although she retired from service in 1997, today the Britannia, one of many of the world's grandest yachts , is docked in Edinburgh, where she is open as a visitors’ attraction and host of private events. Below we give you all the Royal Yacht Britannia facts you might want to know, from who owns the yacht now to why she was decommissioned to how fast she is to how to get tickets to visit. Britannia was, after all, the one place the queen said she could “truly relax,” so why not see why for yourself?

Royal Yacht Britania Facts and History

On February 4, 1952, John Brown & Co shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, received the order from the Admiralty to build a new Royal Yacht to travel the globe and double as a hospital ship in times of war, according to the royal yacht's website . King George VI passed away two days after, sadly, and so on April 16, 1953, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II announced the yacht’s new name as the ship was revealed.

"I name this ship Britannia,” she said. “I wish success to her and all who sail in her." Britannia was commissioned into the Royal Navy in January 1954 and by April of that year sailed into her first overseas port: Grand Harbour, Malta.

The queen and The Duke of Edinburgh worked with interior designer Sir Hugh Casson for the ship to serve as both a functional Royal Navy vessel and an elegant royal residence. Queen Elizabeth II selected deep blue for Britannia’s hull, instead of the more traditional black. Its Naval crew included 220 Yachtsmen, 20 officers, and three season officers—plus a Royal Marines Band of 26 men during Royal Tours.

All of them might have had to change uniform up to six times a day, so the laundry service on board worked nonstop. The yacht also engaged in British overseas trade missions known as Sea Days and made an estimated £3 billion for the Exchequer between 1991 and 1995 alone.

The ship’s wheel was taken from King Edward VII’s racing yacht, also named Britannia, according to Boat International , and the 126-meter ship could reach speeds of 22.75 knots, or a seagoing cruising speed of 21 knots, according to Super Yacht Times . Other fun facts: The yacht could produce her own fresh water from sea water, and shouting was forbidden aboard to preserve tranquility, favoring hand signals for Naval orders instead.

Over the next 44 years, the Britannia would sail the equivalent of once around the world for each year, in total visiting 600 ports in 135 countries. Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones were the first of four couples to honeymoon on the ship in 1960, gifting them all privacy to sail to secluded locations. Prince Charles and Princess Diana followed in 1981 on the Mediterranean as well as Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips before them in 1973 in the Caribbean and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in 1986 in the Azores.

For family vacations aboard the ship, games, treasure hunts, plays, and picnics were organized, and on warm days the children could play in an inflatable paddling pool on the Verandah Deck.

In the Sun Lounge, the queen especially enjoyed taking breakfast and afternoon tea with views through large picture windows, a space you can see replicated in the TV show The Crown. Although no filming took place on board the Britannia for the show, researchers ensured scenes aboard it were accurate. In the queen’s bedroom, the resemblance is seen down to the decorative wall light fittings and embroidered silk panel above her bed that had been specially commissioned.

In 1997, the ship was decommissioned after the government decided the costs to refit it would be too great. On its final day in her service that followed a farewell tour around the U.K., the queen openly wept as the Band of HM Royal Marines played "Highland Cathedral."

"Looking back over 44 years we can all reflect with pride and gratitude upon this great ship which has served the country, the Royal Navy and my family with such distinction," Queen Elizabeth II said. All clocks on the ship stopped at 15:01, the exact time the Queen disembarked from the yacht for the final time, and they would remain at that time until the present.

How to Tour the Royal Yacht Britania

Today the yacht is owned by Royal Yacht Britannia Trus t, and all revenue it generates goes to the yacht’s maintenance and preservation. Ticketed entry allows you to step into state rooms like the Sun Lounge, the State Dining Room and State Drawing Room, in addition to the working side of the ship in the Crew’s Quarters, Laundry and gleaming Engine Room. Along the way you will see original artifacts from the shop—95 percent of which is on loan from The Royal Collection.

How to Visit the Royal Britania

You can visit the Britannia any day of the year on Edinburgh’s waterfront. Hours vary by season, and you can find them listed and purchase tickets on the yacht’s website . Private tours are also available, and you can visit the Royal Deck Tearoom, where the Royal Family hosted cocktail parties and receptions, for drinks, meals and scones. Additionally, the Britannia hosts special ticketed events for New Year’s and other occasions, and event spaces can be booked as well.

While you are in Edinburgh, you can also stay on the Fingal , a neighboring yacht-turned-floating-hotel, which is a seven-minute walk from the Britannia, and dine at its Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar, which serves breakfast, afternoon tea, dinner, and cocktails.

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

• 20th Century

10 Facts About Royal Yacht Britannia

Peta Stamper

28 nov 2022.

The 83rd and last in a long line of royal yachts, HMY Britannia has become one of the most famous ships in the world. Now permanently moored at Edinburgh’s Port of Leith, the floating palace is a visitor attraction welcoming some 300,000 people aboard each year.

For Queen Elizabeth II, Britannia was the ideal residence for state visits and peaceful royal family holidays and honeymoons. For the British public, Britannia was a symbol of Commonwealth. For the 220 naval officers who lived aboard Britannia , and the royal family, the 412-foot-long yacht was home.

Having travelled more than a million nautical miles over 44 years of service to the British Crown, Her Majesty’s beloved boat was decommissioned in 1997. Here are 10 facts about life aboard HMY Britannia.

1. Britannia was launched by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 April 1953 using a bottle of wine, not champagne

Champagne is traditionally smashed against a ship’s hull during launching ceremonies. However, in a post-war climate champagne was seen as too frivolous, so a bottle of Empire wine was used instead.

Britannia launched from the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland.

2. Britannia was the 83rd Royal Yacht

King George VI , Elizabeth II’s father, had first commissioned the royal yacht that would become Britannia in 1952. The previous official boat had belonged to Queen Victoria and was rarely used. The tradition of royal yachts had been started by Charles II in 1660.

George decided that the Royal Yacht Britannia should both be a regal vessel as well as a functional one.

3. Britannia had two emergency functions

Britannia was designed to be converted into a hospital ship in time of war, although that function was never used. Additionally, as part of the Cold War plan Operation Candid, in the event of nuclear war the ship would become a refuge off the north-west coast of Scotland for the Queen and Prince Philip.

4. Her maiden voyage was from Portsmouth to Grand Harbour in Malta

She carried Prince Charles and Princess Anne to Malta to meet the Queen and Prince Philip at the end of the royal couple’s Commonwealth tour. The Queen stepped aboard Britannia for the first time in Tobruk on 1 May 1954.

Over the next 43 years, Britannia would transport the Queen, members of the Royal Family and various dignitaries on some 696 foreign visits.

The HMY Britannia on a visit by the Queen to Canada in 1964

Image Credit: Royal Canadian Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

5. Britannia hosted some of the 20th century’s most notable figures

In July 1959, Britannia sailed the newly opened Saint Lawrence Seaway to Chicago where she docked, making the Queen the first British monarch to visit the city. US President Dwight Eisenhower hopped aboard Britannia for part of the journey.

In later years, Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton would also step aboard. Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, took their honeymoon cruise on Britannia in 1981.

6. The crew were volunteers from the Royal Navy

After 365 days’ service, crew members could be admitted to the Permanent Royal Yacht Service as Royal Yachtsmen (‘Yotties’) and serve until they either chose to leave or were dismissed. As a result, some yachtsmen served on  Britannia  for over 20 years.

The crew also included a detachment of Royal Marines, who would dive underneath the ship each day while moored away from home to check for mines or other threats.

7. All royal children were allocated a ‘Sea Daddy’ on board the ship

The ‘sea daddies’ were primarily tasked with looking after the children and keeping them entertained (games, picnics and water fights) during voyages. They also oversaw the children’s chores, including cleaning the life rafts.

8. There was a ‘Jelly Room’ onboard for the royal children

The yacht had a total of three galley kitchens where Buckingham Palace ‘s chefs prepared meals. Among these galleys was a chilled room called the ‘Jelly Room’ for the sole purpose of storing royal children’s jellied desserts.

9. It cost around £11 million every year to run Britannica

The cost of running Britannia was always an issue. In 1994, another expensive refit for the ageing vessel was proposed. Whether or not to refit or commission a new royal yacht entirely came down to the election result of 1997. With repairs at a proposed cost of £17 million, Tony Blair’s new Labour government were unwilling to commit public funds to replace Britannica.

HMY Britannia in 1997, London

Image Credit: Chris Allen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

10. All the clocks on board remain stopped at 3:01pm

In December 1997,  Britannia was officially decommissioned. The clocks have been kept at 3:01pm – the exact moment the Queen went ashore for the last time following the ship’s decommissioning ceremony, during which the Queen shed a rare public tear.

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Name Royal Yacht Britannia

Construction

As 83rd in a long line of royal yachts that stretches back to 1660 and the reign of Charles II, BRITANNIA holds a proud place in British maritime history. Plans to build a new royal yacht to replace the VICTORIA AND ALBERT III began during the reign of King George VI. But The King died in 1952, four months before the keel of the yacht was laid. His daughter, Princess Elizabeth, succeeded him to the throne and the new Queen, together with her husband, Prince Philip, took a guiding hand in the design of the yacht, personally approving plans prepared by Sir Hugh Casson, Consultant Architect and selecting furniture, fabrics and paintings.

On April 16 1953, Her Majesty's yacht BRITANNIA rolled down the slipway at John Brown's Clydebank Shipyard, on the start of her long and illustrious career. Commissioned for service in January 1954, BRITANNIA sailed the oceans for 43 years and 334 days. During that time she steamed a total of 1,087,623 nautical miles, carrying The Queen and other members of The Royal Family on 968 official visits and calling at over 600 ports in 135 countries. In June 1994, the Government announced that Her Majesty's yacht BRITANNIA would be taken out of service.

On 11 December 1997, BRITANNIA was decommissioned at Portsmouth Naval Base in the presence of The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and fourteen senior members of The Royal Family. Some 2,200 past and present royal yacht officers and yachtsmen, together with their families, came to witness the ceremony. Following BRITANNIA's decommissioning, proposals were put forward by cities around the UK, all competing to secure the ship. In April 1998, the Government announced that Edinburgh had been successful in its bid to bring BRITANNIA to the historic port of Leith. It was fitting that at the end of her active life, BRITANNIA should return to Scotland and to a familiar port for her final berth. The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust undertook to preserve this important 20th century icon, in keeping with her former role, and has safeguarded the yacht's place in the nation's heritage for future generations.

BRITANNIA is now a five star visitor attraction and one of the UK's premier corporate hospitality venues.

Built by John Brown’s Shipyard on Clydebank

Commissioned for service

Sailed the oceans for 43 years and 334 days, carrying the Royal Family on 968 official visits and calling at over 600 ports in 135 countries

Picked up refugees from an outbreak of civil strife and ferried them to the relative safety of Mogadishu

Government announced that Her Majesty's yacht would be taken out of service

Decommissioned at Portsmouth Naval Base

Vessel moved to port of Leith, Scotland for preservation as a visitor attraction

Classic Boat: Rule Britannia, May 2003 Norman Middlemiss, Shipping - Today & Yesterday: A Diamond Jubilee Tribute - 60 years of Royal yachts and launches,   pp22-24, June 2012   

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The Royal Yacht Britannia : A History of Queen Elizabeth II’s Favorite Palace

By Lisa Liebman

The christening of The Royal Yacht Britannia serves as a cheeky season opener to  The Crown . Black-and-white Pathé News–style footage shows a soon-to-be-crowned Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) cheered on by shipbuilders as she launches her new 412-foot yacht. “I hope that this brand-new vessel, like your brand-new queen, will prove to be dependable and constant. Capable of weathering any storm,” she says about the royal replacement for the  Victoria and Albert III . By the series’ season finale, set 44 years later, both the sovereign and the floating palace she christened  Britannia will have hit rough seas—the cost of repairing the creaky old vessel and the modern role of the monarchy both in question. Ultimately, the yacht that undertook 968 official voyages all over the world, hosting dignitaries—including 13 US presidents—at receptions and banquets, was dry-docked near Edinburgh, Scotland, where it continues to be a popular tourist attraction. Here are some of the most buoyant facts about the palace the Queen famously said was “the one place where I can truly relax.”

The sun room on the Royal Yacht Britannia as photographed in 1981. 

In a nod to the country’s post-war austerity, Elizabeth scaled back the design of the ship that her father, King George VI, had commissioned just two days before he died. Rather than following the opulent plan laid out by the Scottish firm McInnes Gardner & Partners, she opted for the understated elegance envisioned by architect Sir Hugh Casson, who described “running a lawn mower over the Louis XVIl adornments” in favor of simple white walls, lilac-gray carpeting, and “a bit of gilding in grand places.” Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Phillip, were said to have personally chosen the furniture—much of it, including linens, recycled from the  Victoria and Albert —fabrics (florals, chintz, toile), and paintings. 

Prince Charles and Princess Diana on board the Royal Yacht Britannia as they prepare to depart on their honeymoon cruise in 1981.

As a former Royal Navy Commander, Prince Phillip also saw to the ship’s technical details, and his Bluebottle racing yacht inspired the Britannia ’s navy-hued hull. Outer decks were made of two-inch Burmese teak. The steering wheel was reclaimed from Britannia ’s namesake, King Edward VII’s 1893 racing yacht; a wheelhouse wheel came from George V’s racing yacht; and a gold-and-white binnacle (housing the ship’s compass) was salvaged from King George III’s yacht and installed on the Veranda deck. Fittings from former royal ships were also reused. 

The drawing room on the Royal Yacht Britannia as photographed in 1978. 

The 4,000-ton yacht had a crew of 220 Royal Yachtsmen who lived on board, about 45 household staff, and occasionally a 26-member Royal Marine embarked to entertain dignitaries. The monarch often welcomed guests from the ship’s grand staircase. (Stairs leading from the Veranda to the Royal deck were sometimes transformed into a water slide for the kids.)  Britannia ’s apartments were designed like those of a first-class ocean liner. A 56-seat state dining room, where many of the gifts given to the monarch (a wood-carved shark from Pitcairn Island, a bejeweled gold statue from Bangkok) were displayed, was the scene of formal dinners with guests such as Sir Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Mandela, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. More intimate gatherings were held in the Queen’s official reception room, a smaller state drawing room with floral upholstered pieces, simple wood tables, an electric fireplace, and a Welmar baby grand piano bolted to the deck—played by everyone from Sir Noël Coward to Princesses Diana and Margaret. The teak-clad sun lounge, with rattan furniture and a toile loveseat, was Elizabeth’s favorite place—where she had her breakfast, afternoon tea, and also enjoyed her favorite Dubonnet and gin cocktails.

The Queen’s sitting room on the Royal Yacht Britannia as photographed in 1981. 

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A ship elevator reserved for royal use moved between the Upper and Shelter Decks. The latter is where four Royal Apartments (bedrooms), including the Queen and Prince Phillip’s connecting compartments, were located. Hers featured florals, his had red accents. Elizabeth’s understated Upper Deck private sitting room, done in pastels and neutrals, served as the office where she conducted state business. Phillip used his sitting room, with its wood desk facing a model of his first command, the HMS Magpie , as his study. Below deck there was a wine cellar, as well as a cargo hold that could carry a barge, speed- and sailboats, plus a royal Range Rover and Rolls-Royce. The yacht could also be converted into a hospital (though it never was).

The Queen shed a tear at the decommissioning ceremony for thye Royal Yacht Britannia.

As depicted in  The Crown, Britannia ’s final official trip was to Hong Kong in 1997, where Prince Charles attended the handover of the territory to China. By then, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration was complaining that the £11 million a year needed to keep the boat afloat couldn’t be justified. With Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, and all of their children in attendance,  Britannia was decommissioned at a ceremony in Portsmouth, England on December 11, 1997, with the monarch seen wiping away a tear. The yacht, now docked in Leith, Scotland, is open to the public as a museum and events space. (Prior to their wedding, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips’s daughter Zara Phillips and her fiancé Mike Tindall had a celebration there.) Visitors will note that every clock on board reads 3:01, the exact time the Queen disembarked her beloved  Britannia for the final time on that December day.

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The Royal Yacht Britannia: How The Queen created a floating home and theatre of state

• Queen Elizabeth II
• Royal family

The Queen was the best-travelled monarch in British history. John Goodall looks at the story of the Royal Yacht Britannia, now permanently moored in Leith, Edinburgh. Photographs by Paul Highnam.

‘I name this ship Britannia . I wish success to her and to all who sail in her.’

With these words, on April 16, 1953, The Queen released a bottle of ‘Empire wine’ — a post-war economy in place of Champagne — to launch the Royal Yacht Britannia . The name of the ship had been kept secret and, hearing it declared, the assembled crowd gave a huge roar of approval. To the sound of more cheers, and as a band played Rule Britannia , the 4,000-ton hull, No 691, slid slowly down the slipway from the Clydebank shipyard of John Brown & Co, into the river, and was towed by tugs to the fitting-out basin upstream.

From as early as 1939, bids had been invited to construct a new Royal Yacht capable of long-distance travel. War and austerity put paid to the initiative, but a visit by George VI to South Africa in 1947 on board the battleship HMS Vanguard revived it. As The Queen commented at Britannia ’s launch, George VI ‘felt most strongly, as I do, that a yacht was a necessity and not a luxury for the Head of our great British Commonwealth, between whose countries the sea is no barrier, but the natural and indestructible highway’.

Fig 1: The Sun Lounge. The wall-mounted telephone to the right is identical to those installed in Buckingham Palace. The Royal Yacht Britannia. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

In October 1951, therefore, the Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced the government’s intention to build a yacht capable of conversion into a hospital ship in time of war. A General Election, however, almost immediately passed responsibility for realising the £2.1 million project to a Conservative government under Sir Winston Churchill and the King authorised the commission in writing on February 5, 1952, the day before he died. Britannia claims to be the 83rd Royal Yacht in succession to Mary , which was presented to Charles II by the people of Amsterdam at the Restoration in 1660. The first steam-powered Royal Yacht was launched in 1843.

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Both the Duke of Edinburgh — himself, of course, a naval officer with a technical interest in, and understanding of, ships — and The Queen were closely involved in the design and decoration of Britannia . As the Duke explained in an interview in 1995, she ‘was rather special as far as we were concerned because we were involved from the very beginning in organising the design and furnishing and equipping and hanging the pictures and everything else… All the other places we live in had been built by predecessors’. This close involvement makes the royal apartment within the yacht one of the most coherent surviving expressions of the royal couple’s personal interests and taste.

One outward mark of their involvement in Britannia is the deep blue of the hull ( Fig 2 ) , which is borrowed — together with its enlivening band of gold leaf — from the Dragon Class racing yacht Bluebottle , which was a wedding gift in 1948. The main interiors of the yacht, meanwhile, were created with the assistance of Sir Hugh Casson, who had recently been knighted for his work as director of architecture for the Festival of Britain.

Fig 3: The State Dining Room. Hung on the walls are gifts from around the world. The Royal Yacht Britannia. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

By Casson’s account — recorded in a series of interviews in early 1990 for the National Life Stories of the British Library Oral History Project — the dockyard had initially turned to the established local firm of McInnes Gardner to furnish the yacht. The Duke of Edinburgh, however, judged its Louis XVII-style proposals as too much in the character of a transatlantic liner. He requested something simpler and asked the furniture designer Gordon Russell for advice. Russell suggested Casson on the strength of his Festival of Britain experience. By happy coincidence, Casson loved liners, having spent part of his childhood in Southampton.

Casson had never properly met his royal clients before this commission and time was of the essence. After a sequence of interviews with the Duke of Edinburgh, the Admiralty and a representative of McInnes Gardner, he quickly produced a series of large watercolour sketches of the main rooms that were posted off to the Royal Family at Balmoral. That done, and in company with John Wright, an architect and furniture designer in his office, he visited the previous Royal Yacht — Victoria and Albert III , built in 1899 and retired in 1937 — to salvage fittings. These included her picture collection, china, silver, linen and glass. Two ornate compasses or binnacles were also rescued, but these, in fact, originally came from a yet earlier vessel, Queen Victoria’s Royal George .

Fig 4: The State Drawing Room, with its regulation electric fire. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

Soon afterwards, Casson, Wright and a Mr McInnes Gardner of the eponymous Glasgow firm, were summoned to Balmoral, where they arrived one morning at breakfast time. There was an informal meeting soon afterwards, with The Queen sitting by the fire and Princess Anne combing her hair, at which his royal clients professed themselves delighted with the designs. They requested, however, that the watercolours be laid out for further discussion after the immediate business of the morning, a church service.

What discussion the drawings elicited is unclear, but Casson makes it apparent that the Duke of Edinburgh was otherwise a crucial point of connection in the design process and that the choice of fabrics was taken by the royal couple. The next day, Casson was dismissed with an instruction to get on with the work and send samples of materials. He was also given a brace of pheasant bearing a prominent label ‘From The Queen’, which he hung ostentatiously from the luggage rack of his train carriage as he travelled south.

Casson’s stated aim in Britannia was to create a country-house interior in the yacht, although the conscious simplicity perhaps more powerfully evokes the residence of a British colonial governor or High Commissioner. He proposed a single colour carpet throughout, white walls, polished mahogany doors and some gilding of highlights. His accomplished and loosely worked watercolour sketches have the effect of bringing the picture hang and the furniture to the fore, setting chintz patterns and pastel tones against the clean lines and bold details of the architecture. To a striking degree, and despite repair and renovation, the interiors of the yacht still resemble these views.

Fig 5: The grand staircase connecting the royal bedroom suites with the state rooms. The Royal Yacht Britannia. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

Incorporated within the Upper Deck are the State Drawing Room — the fireplace within it had to be fitted with an electric fire because of naval regulations ( Fig 4 ) — and the State Dining Room ( Fig 3 ) . Between them is an anteroom and the main stair ( Fig 5 ) , as well as sitting rooms for the Duke and The Queen ( Fig 6 ) . The stairwell also incorporates the formal entrance to the yacht, making this the hallway of the royal apartment. On the Shelter Deck above are the private family rooms, including the Duke’s and The Queen’s bedrooms ( Fig 8 ) , each with its own bathroom. There is also the Sun Lounge ( Fig 1 ) , a room with large windows that opens onto the verandah deck towards the stern.

The royal apartment occupies about a third of the yacht and has its own connected cabins, services and galley. All the remainder was organised in the manner of a working Royal Navy vessel. To man the ship was a crew of up to 220 yachtsmen and 21 officers under the command of an admiral or commodore (rather than a captain). The crew was divided into several departments, including a Royal Marine band. There is a bridge, wheelhouse, accommodation, wardroom and messes, a sick-bay and storage. The diesel engines drove two geared steam turbines that gave her a top speed of 22½ knots and a range of about 2,196 miles at 20 knots.

Much about the life of Britannia was unusual. The uniform was distinctive, with such details as a silk bow at the back of the trousers. Gym shoes were worn on deck and, to avoid noise, there was no tannoy system or shouting. Instead telephones and hand signals were used to communicate. Because of its role as a floating palace and the need for impeccable clothes, the laundry was particularly important. In addition to the Royal Barge — the original from Victoria and Albert III was replaced in 1964 by one built by Camper Nicholson — the yacht also had a garage for either a Land Rover or The Queen’s Phantom V Rolls Royce.

Fig 6: The Queen’s Sitting Room, with its desk. The Royal Yacht Britannia. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

In November 1953, as work to Britannia was still under way, The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh set off on their first and longest Commonwealth tour aboard the passenger liner Gothic . Their new yacht set out to meet them as they returned, carrying the young Prince of Wales and Princess Anne. The family party embarked from Tobruk on May 1, 1954 and returned to Britain, picking up Churchill (and Casson) in the Solent. Having reviewed the fleet, Britannia sailed into the Port of London to public welcome. A painting of the yacht passing beneath Tower Bridge on that occasion was later hung in pride of place over the drawing-room fireplace.

For the next 44 years, Britannia worked busily in the service of Britain and the Commonwealth and played a role in more than 700 royal visits. In the process, she served not only as a means of transport, but as a home and a theatre of state. One of her regular duties was an annual summer cruise taking the Royal Family from the Cowes Regatta off the Isle of Wight to the Western Isles of Scotland. She also acted as a honeymoon retreat for several royal couples. The Queen was seen to relax on board in a way that was impossible elsewhere.

Fig 7: The engine room, with its immaculate machinery. Britannia sailed her millionth mile in February 1994. The Royal Yacht Britannia. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

In 1994, when on a Caribbean trip, Britannia passed her millionth nautical mile and there was a celebration in the engine room ( Fig 7 ) , where The Queen and the Duke cut a ribbon and a cake. By then, however, she was becoming a dated vessel and, in 1995, a decision was taken by the Conservative Government of John Major that Britannia should not sail beyond 1997. This opened up discussions on the creation of a ‘cost-effective elegant royal yacht’, a project rather awkwardly compressed into the acronym CELERY. The idea of a replacement for Britannia was eventually incorporated into the Conservative manifesto of 1997, but with the Opposition never having been consulted, the provision of a new yacht now became a heated political issue.

Following the Labour general election victory that year, therefore, the idea of replacing Britannia was scrapped. Tony Blair made a visit to the yacht soon afterwards and has been quoted as saying that he regretted the decision as soon as he stepped on board.

Fig 8: The Queen’s Bedroom, with its modest single bed. The embroidered silk panel over the bed was designed by Joan Nicholson. The Royal Yacht Britannia. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life

The fate of Britannia , however, was by now sealed. On June 30, 1997, she performed her final state role, in the handover of Hong Kong to China, carrying the governor out of the harbour. She returned to Britain to be decommissioned at Portsmouth on December 11, 1997. After a gathering of the Royal Family on board, The Queen was piped ashore for the last time at exactly 15:01. The time is still displayed on all the clocks onboard. In a rare display of emotion, she was seen to shed a tear for the ship that had been her creation and home for so long.

In the past, Royal Yachts had either been scuttled or broken up. In the case of Britannia , however, the Government invited bids from UK organisations to present her to the public as a tourist attraction. From the seven bids considered, that of Edinburgh was judged the most successful and, since July 5, 1998, the yacht has been berthed beside Ocean Terminal shopping centre at Leith under the care of the The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust. She has not only proved a popular tourist attraction, but continues to operate as a venue for private hire. On display at Britannia are three royal sailing vessels, The Queen’s ocean-racing yacht Bloodhound , Bluebottle and Coweslip . The trust also owns a former lighthouse supply vessel, Fingal , now converted into Scotland’s only luxury floating hotel.

The political battle over the question of whether Britain should have a Royal Yacht continues into this Platinum Jubilee year. Whatever the outcome, Britannia deserves to be better known as a remarkable surviving example of taste at the start of Britain’s second Elizabethan Age.

For further information and opening hours, visit www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk

This article was originally published in June 2022.

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