was the british royal yacht decommissioned

Where is the Royal Yacht Britannia and why was it decommissioned?

Queen Elizabeth’s farewell to the Royal Yacht in 1997 was one of the only occasions in her 70-year-reign that Her Majesty publicly shed a tear.

Almost 25 years ago, HMY Britannia left Portsmouth for a farewell tour around the UK . It went to six major ports across the UK, including Glasgow.

Why was the Royal Yacht Britannia decommissioned and where is it today?

Why was it decommissioned?

The Royal Yacht was decommissioned in 1994 by John Major’s Government because “the costs were too great”, according to the official website.

The decision was made after the Royal Yacht was used for a long and successful journey spanning 44 years and travelling more than one million miles across the globe.

The issue of a new royal yacht became a political issue in the run-up to the 1997 General Election, when the new Labour Government came into power.

After the election, Tony Blair’s Government confirmed in October 1997 there would be no replacement for Britannia.

It marked the end of a long tradition of British royal yachts, dating back to 1660 and the reign of Charles II.

Where is the HMY Britannia?

Britannia is permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal, Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland .

Today, the Royal yacht is open to curious visitors and welcomes more than 300,000 visits each year.

Britannia was launched in 1953 from the John Brown and Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland .

Its purpose was to serve the Royal Family and it was the first to be built with complete ocean-going capacity, designed as a royal residence to entertain guests around the world.

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For more than 44 years, it travelled more than one million miles with Her Majesty for state visits, official receptions, royal honeymoons, and relaxing family holidays.

Britannia quickly became one of the most famous ships in the world and now stands as a majestic symbol of Great Britain.

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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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When was the Royal Yacht Britannia decommissioned? Where it is moored now and the history of the ship

The yacht is now a permanent visitor attraction in port leith, edinburgh.

Season five of The Crown starts in 1991 with the fictional Queen all-but-demanding a new Royal Yacht from then-Prime Minister John Major.

The luxurious yacht was a mainstay for Elizabeth II and Prince Philip , and comfortably carried the royals and dignitaries across the globe between 1953 and 1997.

King Charles II first launched the idea that a personal boat was essential for a ruling monarch, and by the time Elizabeth II acceded to the throne the Royal Yacht had evolved into a vessel of opulence, designed for long journeys and luxurious holiday cruises.

The Royal Yacht Britannia had spacious cabins, an onboard car garage, sun lounge, drawing room, plush bedrooms and amenities for 220 crewmembers (including several bars and pubs).

What happened to the Royal Yacht Britannia?

The first episode of the new season of The Crown shows the Queen lobbying for a new boat to replace the out-dated Royal Yacht Britannia. However, the replacement vessel never came to fruition.

In 2018, The Times reported that the Queen had “secretly lobbied Whitehall” in 1995, when senior Buckingham Palace official, Sir Kenneth Scott, wrote to the Cabinet Office saying that the Queen would “very much welcome” a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The letter, found in the National Archive, said: “I have deliberately taken a back seat in recent correspondence, since the question of whether there should be a replacement yacht is very much one for the Government and since the last thing I would like to see is a newspaper headline saying ‘Queen Demands New Yacht’.

“At the same time I hope it is clear to all concerned that this reticence on the part of the palace in no way implies that Her Majesty is not deeply interested in the subject; on the contrary, the Queen would naturally very much welcome it if a way could be found of making available for the nation in the 21st Century the kind of service which Britannia has provided for the last 43 years.”

The Queen was later photographed crying as the boat moored in Portsmouth after its final journey.

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When was the Royal Yacht Britannia decommissioned?

Despite the monarch’s love of the yacht, Britannia was decommissioned in 1997 after Tony Blair was voted into power.

However, Boris Johnson imagined a new Royal Yacht to replace Britannia . The project was later scrapped – making it the fourth plan of his to have been axed at a total cost of more than £51m to the British taxpayer.

Rishi Sunak abandoned plans for the flagship, which would have been used to drive trade deals in the post-Brexit Britain , as he embarked on an agenda of cutting spending in the Autumn Statement .

Building the ship, which was set to launch by the end of 2024, would have cost in the region of £250m.

Where is the Royal Yacht Britannia now?

The yacht is now a permanent attraction in Port Leith, Edinburgh, and welcomes up to 300,000 visitors a year.

There was controversy over the siting of the ship, with some arguing that it would be better moored on the River Clyde, where it was built, than in Edinburgh. However, the ship’s positioning in Leith coincided with a redevelopment of the harbour area, and the advent of Scottish devolution.

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What Happened to the Royal Yacht Britannia?

The Crown season five begins and ends with the same plot point: The Royal Yacht Britannia. The vessel serves as a—fairly obvious—metaphor in the first episode, where Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth describes it as “a floating, seagoing version of me.” The problem with her metaphorical marine self? It’s in desperate need of multi-million dollar repairs. 

She asks British prime minister John Major, played by Jonny Lee Miller, whether the government might be able to help foot the bill. He, in turn, asks if the royal family might front the cost, given the public pushback they both might receive if such a seemingly extravagant project was approved. In the final episode of the season (a note to the reader: spoilers will follow), Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth agree to decommission the yacht after Prince Charles’s trip to Hong Kong.

The Crown is known for taking much of its plot material from real-life events. In the case of the Royal Yacht Britannia, though—what really happened to the boat, and how much political controversy did it really cause?

To go back to the beginning, King George VI first commissioned the royal yacht that would become the Britannia in 1952. It was an exciting project, as the previous official boat had belonged to Queen Victoria, and was rarely used. (Queen Victoria, for one, did not like the water and never sailed.) Then, during the early 20th century, England was mostly at war, and making a massive, slow-sailing luxury ship would be a massive security risk in international waters. 

The Royal Yacht Britannia, George decided, should both be an extravagant vessel and a functional one, able to double as a hospital if times of war were to arise again. In 1953, the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth christened the ship with a bottle of wine, as champagne was still seen as too extravagant post-war. In 1954, she set sail for the first time.

The Royal Yacht fulfilled many functions, most of them leisurely. Over the years, the boat hosted four royal honeymoons, including that of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as many family vacations. In 1969, after his investiture as the Prince of Wales, Charles hosted an intimate party on board to celebrate. (Newspapers at the time wrote that he danced with his dear friend Lucia Santa Cruz —the very person who eventually introduced him to Camilla Parker Bowles.)

It also served as a grandiose mode of transport for many royal visits. In 1959, for example, Britannia sailed to Chicago to celebrate the recently-opened St. Lawrence seaway in Canada, and President Eisenhower joined her on board. Twenty years later, she sailed to Abu Dhabi for her first official visit to the United Arab Emirates, where she held a grand dinner for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

And although Queen Elizabeth's reign was not during wartime, the royal yacht did execute a humanitarian mission, as King George VI had always planned for: In 1986, it sailed to Aden to evacuate over 1,000 refugees from the civil war in Yemen.

The New York Times once described the 412-foot Britannia as “an ordinary yacht what Buckingham Palace is to the house next door.” It wasn’t an exaggeration—Britannia was essentially a floating palace. It had a drawing room, a dining room, two sitting rooms, as well as galleys and cabins for all the officers. The stateroom interiors were just as ornate as any other royal estate, while the bedrooms—which all had their own bathrooms and dressing rooms—were designed to feel surprisingly personal. 

“Within the royal apartments, however, the regal elegance gives way to the homey, patched elbow chic of an English country house, with flowered chintz slipcovers, family photographs, and rattan settees, interspersed with the occasional relic of Empire—shark's teeth from the Solomon Islands here, a golden urn commemorating Nelson's victory at Trafalgar there,” the New York Times found when it boarded the ship in 1976.

The cost of running Britannia was always an issue. Politicians raised questions about its financial value as far back as 1954, when two MPs lobbied for an investigation on why the yacht’s refurbishment would cost 5.8 million pounds, accusing the royal family of waste and extravagance. A government committee later dismissed the accusations. In 1994, the Conservative government ruled the yacht too costly to refurbish, when repairs came in at a whopping 17 million, but then briefly walked back on their decision a few years later. 

However, when Tony Blair’s Labour government won the election, and the new government once again declined to pay for Britannia. Britannia’s final journey was to far-flung Hong Kong in 1997, as Prince Charles turned over the British colony back to the Chinese at the end of Britain's 99-year lease. When they finally decommissioned the boat that summer, the queen cried—one of the few times she’s shown emotion in public. The boat had logged over one million nautical miles.

Today, Britannia sits permanently docked in Edinburgh. Visitors can take tours of its grand galleys, or even rent it out for events. Yet, despite its retirement, the concept of the royal yacht lives on: In 2021, Boris Johnson floated the idea of a new boat. However, a mere eight days ago, Rishi Sunak has scrapped the project—showing that, even now, the concept remains a controversial one.

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Britannia was the first Royal Yacht to be built with complete ocean-going capacity and designed as a Royal residence to entertain guests around the world. When she was decommissioned in 1997, it marked the end of a long tradition of British Royal Yachts, dating back to 1660 and the reign of Charles II.

There is additional information about Britannia's specifications and construction contained in the technical paper .

VICTORIA & ALBERT III

Britannia's predecessor was the Victoria & Albert III - the first Royal Yacht not to be powered by sail. It was built for Queen Victoria, but she never stepped on board, concerned about the yacht's stability. King Edward VII did sail on the Victoria & Albert, mainly in local waters and the Mediterranean. Having served four sovereigns over 38 years and not left Northern Europe since 1911, the Victoria & Albert was decommissioned in 1939. She was eventually broken up for scrap at Faslane in 1954

THE LAST ROYAL YACHT

It was decided that a new Royal Yacht should be commissioned that could travel the globe and double as a hospital ship in time of war. It was also hoped a convalescence cruise would help the King's ailing health. The John Brown & Co shipyard in Clydebank received the order from the Admiralty for a new ship on 4 February, 1952. Sadly King George VI passed away two days later. Not only did Queen Elizabeth II now have to prepare for her new role, but she also had responsibility for the commissioning of the new Royal Yacht.

BUILT IN SCOTLAND

John Brown & Co was one of the most famous shipyards in the world, having built the famous liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. The keel of the new, as yet unnamed, Royal Yacht was laid down in June 1952. One of the last fully-riveted ships to be built with a remarkably smooth painted hull, she was finally ready to be launched on 16 April, 1953. The ship's name was a closely guarded secret, only being revealed when Queen Elizabeth II smashed a bottle of Empire wine (Champagne was considered too extravagant in post-war Britain) and announced to the expectant crowds "I name this ship Britannia… I wish success to her and all who sail in her". You can read more about getting Britannia ready for Royal service by downloading Letters from a Fish to his Admiral (below), a series of notes and letters written by Acting Captain J S Dalglish, the Officer in charge of commissioning Britannia. John Brown continued as a shipyard until they sadly closed in 2001.

BRITANNIA COMMISSIONED

After the launch, Britannia's building work continued as her funnel and masts were installed, before beginning sea trials on 3 November 1953 off the West Coast of Scotland. On successful completion, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 11 January 1954. On 22 April, Britannia sailed into her first overseas port as she entered Grand Harbour, Malta. During 44 years in Royal service Britannia sailed the equivalent of once round the world for each year, calling at over 600 ports in 135 countries, including the United States of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

ROYAL HONEYMOONS

Britannia was an ideal Royal honeymoon venue. The Royal Yacht was very private and could sail to secluded locations. Four Royal honeymoons were enjoyed on board, Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones being the first in 1960.

THE FIRST DAY AT SEA

As well as hosting state functions, Britannia was an ambassador for British business, promoting trade and industry around the globe. These British overseas trade missions were known as ‘Sea Days’ and an invitation to come aboard proved irresistible to the world’s leading business and political figures. The Overseas Trade Board estimated that £3 billion was made for the Exchequer as a result of commercial days on Britannia between 1991 and 1995 alone.

EVACUATION OF ADEN, SOUTH YEMEN

At 20:00 on 17 January 1986, the Yacht dropped anchor at Khormaksar Beach. Civil war had broken out in South Yemen and ships were urgently required to evacuate British nationals and others trapped by fighting. As a non-combatant Royal Navy ship, Britannia would be able to enter territorial waters without further inflaming the conflict.

DECOMMISSION

"Looking back over forty-four 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. View the entire Paying-Off Ceremony letter below.

OPENED AS A VISITOR ATTRACTION

After arriving in Leith, Edinburgh on 5 May 1998, The Royal Yacht Britannia opened as a visitor attraction on the 19 October 1998.

BRITANNIA WELCOMED 5 MILLION VISITORS

The Royal Yacht Britannia, now a five-star visitor attraction and exclusive evening events venue, celebrated welcoming 5 million visitors since opening in 1998.

OUR LUXURY FLOATING HOTEL, FINGAL, OPENED

In January 2019, our luxury floating hotel Fingal opened to the public. Fingal, a former Northern Lighthouse Board tender, had undergone a £5 million development to become a 22 cabin five-star floating hotel, berthed moments away from Britannia. In September 2023, Fingal was awarded AA Hotel of the Year Scotland.

TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK ATTRACTION 2023

The Royal Yacht Britannia was voted Tripadvisor's No.1 UK Attraction 2023. What a wonderful accolade for our team who passionately provide a five-star customer experience to ensure each and every visitor has a memorable time on board. Britannia had previously been awarded this prestigious accolade in 2014.

CELEBRATING BRITANNIA'S 25 YEARS

19 October 2023 marks 25 wonderful years since Britannia opened to the public as a visitor attraction. During this time we have welcomed over 7 million visitors, a brilliant milestone to mark the occasion. We thank each and every visitor who has stepped aboard and look forward to welcoming many more to share our history.

Visiting Britannia

TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK ATTRACTION 2023 - 2024

The Royal Yacht Britannia is scheduled to be closed 7 – 10 October for planned building works out with our control.

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

Step aboard to enjoy a great day out!

Fingal Hotel

Get away from the everyday aboard Britannia’s sister ship, Fingal.  Extend your visit with a stay in one of Fingal’s luxurious cabins, your own oasis by the sea. 

TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK LUXURY HOTEL TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK SMALL & BOUTIQUE HOTEL AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, AA five-star hotel and 2 AA Rosettes

Learn more: fingal.co.uk

Honeymoons and holidays - How much do you know about the Royal Yacht Britannia?

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the Royal Britannia. Getty

The Royal Yacht Britannia served the Queen for 44 years from its launch on April 16th, 1953 until it was decommissioned in 1997.

Editor's note: Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch passed away on Sept 8, 2022, aged 96. Now, BHT takes a look back at some of the most popular stories which arose during her 70-year reign. 

It seemed very fitting that, just as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was celebrating becoming the longest-serving monarch in British history, I should be visiting one of her most faithful and loyal servants. 

The Britannia was actually commissioned by the Queen’s father, King George VI. Sadly, he died on February 6, 1952, just two days after the order to build a new Royal Yacht had been given to John Brown & Company in Clydebank. This meant, however, that the Queen was given the opportunity to play an important role in the design and fitting out of the ship to reflect the personal tastes of Her Majesty and Prince Phillip.

The Royal Yacht has been described as two ships in one, with the operational side of the ship, where the naval personnel lived and worked, in the area forward of the mainmast, and the Royal Apartments occupying the rear.

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Yet, if Britannia was thought of as two ships it also served a dual purpose. The Royal Yacht has been described by the Queen as the place where she could “truly relax.” The Queen had said that “Britannia is to be at times the home of my husband and myself and of our family.” This was achieved partly in the understated design of the Royal apartments and also by the use of personal photographs and items from previous Royal Yachts, all giving a country house atmosphere to the whole experience.

Royal Yacht

In addition to being a home for the family, however, it also had a diplomatic role, serving as a base for state visits and later for trade missions. Indeed, the State Dining Room, the grandest room onboard, was the scene of numerous formal banquets involving many illustrious guests, ranging from Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher to Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Mandela, and Yeltsin, who were all entertained there. Very few people, of whatever nationality, ever refused an invitation to dine on Britannia .

Even though being on board Britannia allowed Her Majesty to relax, she was still faced with affairs of state, and would spend several hours each day working on official documents, ferried to wherever the Royal Yacht was in the world in their distinctive red dispatch boxes. The Queen’s sitting room on the ship was also her office. Prince Phillip had his own sitting room, a much more masculine design, although he referred to it as his study.

JONATHAN EASTLAND/ALAMY

How many bedrooms are on the ship?

The Queen’s bedroom and Prince Philip’s have a connecting door and both had buzzers by the bed so that they could summon a steward at any time. Each room had a bathroom, equipped with a thermometer so that the Royal bath water was always at the correct temperature.

Although both bedrooms are quite modestly decorated and fitted out, Her Majesty’s bedroom, described as having “floral charm,” included a silk panel, specially commissioned in 1953, above her bed. Prince Philip’s, as one might expect from a former Navy officer, was finished in darker timber, again giving it a slightly more masculine look.

There are two further bedrooms on the Shelter deck, including one known informally as the honeymoon suite which houses the only double bed on board. Four newly married Royal couples have used the room; Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong Jones in 1960, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in 1973, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 and the Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson in 1986.

Just along from the Royal bedrooms is the Verandah Deck, which also served a dual function as a leisure area for the family or a reception area during official visits. Among its furnishings is an impressive binnacle—a receptacle for a compass. The binnacle, originally carved from a single piece of teak, was one of several items rescued by Prince Philip from the previous Royal Yacht, Victoria & Albert III , having originally been part of Queen Victoria’s yacht, Royal George . Beside the Verandah Deck is the Sun Lounge, described as the Queen’s favorite room, a place where Her Majesty could really relax with the family, take tea or perhaps enjoy a drink.

PRESSELECT/ALAMY

Britannia carried a crew of 21 officers and 220 yachtsmen (known as “yotties”), who were required to carry out their duties in a way that allowed Her Majesty to relax completely. This regime, known as “unobtrusive excellence,” meant that most orders were given using sign language and crew members wore sneakers to further minimize noise.

In Britannia ’s ambassadorial role, during its working life, the ship made more than 700 visits to countries in the British Commonwealth and across the world. Nevertheless, it was difficult in the modern world to justify the existence of a Royal Yacht.

In 1994, the decision was finally taken to decommission Britannia . Just three years later the British Government announced that it would not be replaced. It was decided, however, that unlike its predecessors, the yacht would not be scuttled, but would go on show as a tourist attraction at a location to be decided. There was stiff competition to host the Royal Yacht, but the port of Leith, near Edinburgh, was successful.

The decommissioning of Britannia in Portsmouth on December 11, 1997, was an emotional moment for all concerned, with Her Majesty, Prince Philip and members of the crew all striving to keep their feelings in check.

Her Majesty’s loss has been the public’s gain, presenting a unique opportunity to get a fascinating glimpse of the life of the Royal family and their relationship with this amazing ship.

* Originally published in March 2016.

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Britannia and beyond: a history of royal yachts

In the opening episode of The Crown ’s newest season, the drama portrays Queen Elizabeth II’s consternation as she slowly says goodbye to her beloved yacht, the Britannia . Rhiannon Davies considers the history of the royal vessel and the traditions of monarchs at sea…

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When guessing which royal home allowed the Queen to “truly relax”, the ivy-clad Balmoral or the handsome façade of Sandringham Palace might spring to mind. However, it was another – floating – residence that the Queen felt most comfortable in: her royal yacht, HMY Britannia .

This yacht features in the opening episode of the fifth season of The Crown . With the Britannia in need of a multi-million pound refurbishment, the Queen (played by Imelda Staunton) asks prime minister John Major (Johnny Lee Miller) if the government will bear the eye-watering costs. She puts forward a powerful plea, explaining: “From the design of the hull to the smallest piece of china, she is a floating, seagoing expression of me.”

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When was the first royal yacht?

The tradition of a royal yacht stretches back to 1660, when Charles II became England’s king. To mark his return to the throne, his Dutch allies gave him an extravagant gift: a yacht called the Mary .

As well as being built for speed, she was also designed with opulence in mind. “To give it the more lustre”, the ship’s exterior was “richly gilt” and “some of the best painters of the country” helped decorate its interior.

Read more about the history behind each episode of The Crown season 5:

• The Crown S5 E1: ‘Queen Victoria Syndrome’ and a second honeymoon
• The Crown S5 E2: Prince Philip’s ‘keeper of secrets’ and Andrew Norton’s book on Princess Diana
• The Crown S5 E3: exiled royals and the al-Fayeds
• The Crown S5 E4: the Queen’s “annus horribilis” and Princess Margaret’s relationship with Peter Townsend
• The Crown S5 E5 real history: ‘Camillagate’ tapes and a “war council” for the monarchy’s survival
• The Crown  S5 E6 real history: the Romanovs’ murder, and Philip’s “spiritual companionship”
• The Crown  S5 E7 real history: the introduction of Martin Bashir, and a royal education
• The Crown S5 E8 real history: Diana’s Panorama interview causes fireworks
• The Crown S5 E9 real history: the divorce settlement between Charles and Diana

Rather than relaxing on her decks, Charles used the Mary as a racing vessel before donating her to the Royal Navy. Her career ended abruptly in 1675, however, when she hit a rock in the treacherous Skerries – a cluster of islands near Northern Ireland, where many ships have been pulled below the waves.

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Although the ship met a tragic fate, she started a tradition among the monarchy – since the Mary , there have been 82 royal yachts. As well as providing space for monarchs to relax from the stresses of ruling, they also had a practical purpose – deployment on diplomatic missions. Their role was especially important before the arrival of aeroplanes, as monarchs or British delegates could only reach other nations by sea.

While these vessels became a time-honoured tradition, they also moved with the times. The Victoria and Albert – one of Queen Victoria ’s ships – was the first royal yacht in Britain to be fitted with a steam-propelled engine, meaning it could cruise along at 11.5 knots.

• Read more | Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?

When Queen Elizabeth’s father, George VI , came to the throne in 1936, a royal yacht that Queen Victoria had lobbied to build – also called the Victoria and Albert – was still in service. However, it was decommissioned three years later, with its bronze-and-black hull starting to crumble.

When was HMY Britannia commissioned?

In 1952 George laid plans for a new yacht to replace the Victoria and Albert . She was to be named HMY Britannia (although this name was kept secret until her launch), and could be transformed into a hospital ship if the country was again plunged into war: the laundry room could be converted into a ward, and the main veranda doubled as a helicopter landing pad.

Tragically, a mere two days after Scotland’s John Brown shipyard received the order, the king passed away . But the shipyard still pressed on with making his plans for HMY Britannia a reality. Now, though, the new monarch, Elizabeth, was at the helm. She and Prince Philip altered the original plans, which they feared were too opulent, considering Britain was still rebuilding itself after the horrors of the Second World War .

However, it still had some extravagant touches. The yacht had a bespoke garage, so Elizabeth’s Rolls-Royce Phantom V could be brought aboard. (Later, Elizabeth stopped bringing her Phantom, which needed to have its bumpers removed so it would fit into the tight space, and the garage was used to store beer instead.)

• Read more | Where is The Crown filmed? The Netflix drama’s locations and their royal links

Elizabeth and Philip both had their own bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces, which they designed to reflect their personal tastes – the Queen favoured florals, while Philip opted for dark timber. The couple also ensured a piece of maritime history made its way onboard: Philip had saved the teak binnacle (the housing for a compass) from one of Queen Victoria’s royal yachts, and it was incorporated into Britannia ’s design.

When did royal yacht Britannia launch?

Taking a little over a year to build, the ship was launched in April 1953 – shortly before the Queen’s coronation. With champagne still being seen as too luxurious for launching ships in the wake of the war, Elizabeth smashed a bottle of wine into Britannia ’s hull instead and proclaimed: “I wish success to her and all who sail in her”.

The Queen’s wish seems to have been granted. Over her 44 years of service, the Britannia made more than 700 journeys to countries in the Commonwealth and beyond, travelling around 1.1m miles. Many luminaries stepped aboard her deck, with political heavyweights from Winston Churchill and Boris Yeltsin to Nelson Mandela enjoying delicious banquets in the lavish State Dining Room.

Aside from diplomacy, the ship also became a royal honeymoon spot, with four newlywed couples choosing to take a romantic cruise on Britannia . Princess Margaret was the first to make use of the so-called ‘honeymoon suite’ when she and the Earl of Snowdon enjoyed a Caribbean cruise in 1960. Most famously, Prince Charles and Princess Diana sailed on the ship in 1981, when they toured the Mediterranean for their honeymoon – Charles brought a double bed onto the yacht during their trip, as all of the bedrooms had single beds.

It was also the site of many family summer holidays, with the Western Isles tour being a particular favourite. This was a relaxed jaunt around the western islands of Scotland, when the royals could enjoy barbeques and play games. Sometimes one of the ship’s staircases would even be turned into a waterslide, for the young royals to splash down.

• Read more | Royal historian Tracy Borman on the real events behind The Crown season 5

However, by the 1990s the ship was starting to deteriorate, and it was decided that “the costs were too great” to refurbish her. 1994 saw the announcement that the Britannia would be decommissioned; three years later, the Queen walked off her deck for the last time, shedding a tear at the yacht’s fate. Today the ship is a visitor attraction, docked in the port of Leith.

Although plans were discussed for another yacht to replace her, the world in 1997 was totally different to the one of 1952: air travel now reigned supreme, and Britain had lost its empire. The country was being steered in a different direction – one where a royal yacht no longer seemed necessary.

A former BBC History Magazine section editor, Rhiannon has long been fascinated by history and continues to write for HistoryExtra.com. She has appeared on the award-winning HistoryExtra podcast, interviewing experts on a variety of subjects, from Lucy Worsley discussing Agatha Christie to Sir Ranulph Fiennes on the perils of polar exploration

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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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If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact [email protected]

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What Happened To The Royal Yacht Britannia After It Was Decommissioned?

The event was one of the extremely rare displays of emotions from the queen.

If you’ve binged season five of The Crown , then you’ll be familiar with the Royal Yacht Britannia . As dramatized in the series, Queen Elizabeth’s beloved yacht was decommissioned in 1997. However, that wasn’t the end of the famous seacraft’s story. Here’s where the Royal Yacht Britannia is today.

The Britannia Began Sailing In 1954

Originally commissioned for her father, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth oversaw the construction of the Royal Yacht Britannia . She and Prince Philip advised the ship’s design, offering input on the furnishings of each room. Philip later said in a 1995 documentary about the yacht that this is what made the seacraft so special to him and Elizabeth.

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“I suppose Britannia was rather special as far as we were concerned because we were involved from the very beginning in organizing the design and furnishing and equipping and hanging the pictures and everything else,” he explained. “For us it was rather special because all the other places we live in have been built by our predecessors. They started building Windsor 1,000 years ago, and they built Balmoral 100 years ago, and they built Sandringham 70 or 90 years ago. So we, in a sense, had our own.”

Queen Elizabeth and her family took countless trips on the yacht. The queen even stated that the yacht was the one place she could truly relax, though it did far more than that. The craft was used to evacuate over 1,000 refugees from Yemen in 1981. It’s been used to greet presidents and take royals on their honeymoons. Prince Charles and Princess Diana took their own honeymoon cruise on the yacht before it was decommissioned on December 11, 1997.

The Royal Yacht Britannia Is Now A Museum

After it was decommissioned in 1997, the ship became part of the National Historic Fleet and was moored in the historic Port of Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ship is now maintained by the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, a registered non-profit, and it serves as a museum . There was certainly a strong effort within the British government to greenlight plans for a new royal yacht, although the extravagance of such a move proved unattractive for both politicians and the royal family.

Tourists can now board the famous ship, peek inside its many rooms, and even have a meal in the Royal Deck Tea Room. The ship has been preserved to appear the same as it did when it was sailing. All of the clocks onboard were even stopped at 3:01 p.m., the exact time Queen Elizabeth last departed the ship. However, the yacht hasn’t lost its royal connection entirely. It is still rented out periodically for special events. Notably, Zara Tindall held a cocktail reception on the yacht the night before her wedding to Mike Tindall.

Last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to construct another royal yacht . However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently announced that the £250 million plan was trashed . Given the gigantic cost of such an endeavor, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see another royal yacht sail the English Channel.

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Inside ‘Britannia,’ Queen Elizabeth II’s Floating Palace

The Royal Yacht, according to Her Majesty, was “the one place where I can truly relax.”

But Britannia was far more than a posh royal cruise liner. She was a showcase for cutting-edge naval engineering and the first royal yacht that could do double duty as a floating hospital in wartime, if necessary. In 1986, for instance, she rescued more than 1,000 refugees from South Yemen. Over the course of her 44 years in service, Britannia facilitated 968 official visits and traveled over one million nautical miles.

She was also, of course, a time capsule of the best British design of the time, in terms of both technological prowess and decoration. Read on for more about the ship’s history, and where the Royal Yacht Britannia is now (hint: You can visit !).

What’s the backstory of Britannia ?

This history of royal liners goes back centuries. In fact, Britannia was the 83rd royal yacht; the first, HMY Mary, was constructed in 1660 by the Dutch East India Company and given as a gift to Charles II. Britannia ’s predecessor, Victoria & Albert III, was completed in 1901 and used by Edward II up through George VI, but was decommissioned in 1939 and eventually broken up as scrap. A new yacht was commissioned on February 4, 1952, in an effort to help King George VI’s health, according to the Royal Yacht Britannia museum, but the king died just two days later. The task to oversee the construction of the new yacht, then, fell on the young Queen Elizabeth II.

Who Built the Royal Yacht Britannia ?

Britannia was designed by John Brown & Co., the same marine engineering firm that built the RMS Lusitania and the Queen Mary. Construction on Britannia began in June 1952, and she was launched in a ceremony on April 16, 1953. The young queen didn’t reveal the name of the liner until her televised address in which she proudly stated before roaring crowds, “I name this ship Britannia .” Notably, a bottle of wine as opposed to the more traditional Champagne, was smashed across the ship’s bow during the christening—Champagne would have been much too ostentatious amid postwar austerity.

Who designed the Royal Yacht Britannia ’s interiors?

According to a technical paper presented to the Institution of Naval Architects in the spring of 1954, the royal and state apartments were to be on par with those of a first-class ocean liner. “The suitability of the decorative design and the furnishing of the Royal and State apartments has, of course, been very important,” the paper noted.

At first, Patrick McBride of the Glasgow, Scotland–based firm, McInnes Gardner & Partners, was selected to design the interiors, but the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh rejected those plans, deeming them too lavish, according to the Royal Yacht Britannia museum. Sir Hugh Casson, the director of architecture at the 1951 Festival of Britain, was the perfect candidate, with his modern eye and lack of ostentation. The design, the architect later wrote in his diary, “was really running a lawn mower over the Louis XVIl adornments. I was going to concentrate on one-color carpet throughout, which was sort of lilac/gray, and all the walls would be white. The only enrichments would be a bit of gilding in grand places.”

Working with Casson, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were highly involved, giving input for everything ranging from the furniture (much of it salvaged from the vessel’s predecessor, Victoria & Albert III , as another way to appear thrifty) to the ship’s blue exterior paint, inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh’s racing yacht, Bluebottle. Apartments featured a design like an elegant-yet-muted English country house, filled with floral sofas and antiques. The state drawing room could accommodate up to 250 guests. The Queen’s favorite room was the sun lounge, with its warm teak walls and rattan furnishings, and views across the veranda deck.

“I suppose Britannia was rather special as far as we were concerned because we were involved from the very beginning in organizing the design and furnishing and equipping and hanging the pictures and everything else,” Prince Philip said in a 1995 documentary film about the yacht. “For us it was rather special because all the other places we live in have been built by our predecessors. They started building Windsor 1,000 years ago, and they built Balmoral 100 years ago, and they built Sandringham 70 or 90 years ago. So we, in a sense, had our own.”

So successful was the partnership that Casson would go on to become a dear friend of the royal family and design interiors for Buckingham Palace, Balmoral , and Windsor Castle

Britannia was also a second home for the royal children. Each was given a member of the crew or “sea daddy” to look after them. “We found as children that there was so much to do, we expended so much energy that we couldn’t describe our time on the yacht as a rest,” Princess Anne said. Milk was delivered fresh from a farmer each day for the royal children, according to letters from the ship’s Acting Captain J. S. Dalglish. Later, the yacht would become the venue for numerous royal honeymoons and vacations, including Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s infamous 1981 Mediterranean cruise.

Where is the Royal Yacht Britannia Now?

As documented in season 5 of The Crown , the Royal Yacht was decommissioned on December 11, 1997, at a ceremony in Portsmouth, U.K., after nearly half a century in service and having traveled more than one million nautical miles. In addition to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward all attended the ceremony. As the British ensign was lowered to the tune of a navy band, Her Majesty was photographed blinking back tears .

Britannia was retired to Port of Leith in Edinburgh. Today, as one of the most popular tourist sites in the U.K., she serves as a museum and receives some 350,000 visitors per year who can tour the State dining room, the Queen’s bedroom, and sun lounge, as well as view the engine room and crew’s cabins. Visitors can even have tea and scones on the royal deck. The majority of the items on display are original to the yacht and are on loan from the Royal Collection.

In a bizarre 21st-century twist, former British prime minister Boris Johnson announced plans to build a Britannia successor, a £250 million yet-to-be-named, taxpayer-funded superyacht to operate as a “floating embassy.” The new British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, recently torpedoed those plans in favor of building a surveillance ship.

Anna Fixsen, Deputy Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, focuses on how to share the best of the design world through in-depth reportage and online storytelling. Prior to joining the staff, she has held positions at Architectural Digest, Metropolis, and Architectural Record magazines. elledecor.com 

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The Retirement of a Longtime Royal Yacht

December 11, 1997

Britannia, a vessel that had served as the royal yacht of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II for more than four decades, was decommissioned in a ceremony at the Portsmouth naval base on England’s south coast.  Along with highlighting Britannia’s “brass fittings gleaming in the winter sunshine and flags rippling in a brisk breeze,” the Associated Press (AP) focused on the royal couple who were on hand for this weekday ceremony.

“Queen Elizabeth II struggled with her emotions and Prince Phillip wiped away a tear as they bid farewell Thursday to the magnificent yacht on which they toured a diminishing empire,” reported AP. “As the setting sun cast its golden light on the yacht, the strains of ‘Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves,’ played by a pipe band, proved too much for even the long-practiced royal composure.”

In its account of this decommissioning ceremony, the Ottawa Citizen noted that “no royal yacht was ever as versatile or well-traveled as Britannia.” This newspaper also reported, “Few ships have sailed 1.92 kilometers [1 million nautical miles]. Only this one has done so using its original engines.”

The 412-foot (126-meter) Britannia had been built at the shipyard of the engineering firm John Brown and Company in the Scottish town of Clydebank. The yacht was launched by Queen Elizabeth on April 16, 1953, a little over a year after she ascended the British throne following the death of her father, King George VI. Britannia was officially commissioned into service  on January 11, 1954.

Britannia’s maiden voyage took place that April, when she transported Princess Anne and Prince Charles from Portsmouth to the British colony (now independent republic) of Malta so that they could reunite with their parents at the end of the royal couple’s Commonwealth Tour. The following month, Elizabeth and Phillip traveled on Britannia for the first time during a a visit to the port city of Tobruk in the Kingdom (now State) of Libya.

Britannia was the 83 rd British royal yacht in an unbroken line of such vessels going all the way back to King Charles II, who formally reigned as monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 to 1685. Charles used his pioneering 50.5-foot (15.4-meter) vessel named Mary primarily for racing. Britannia was only the second British royal yacht bearing that name. The first one was a racing cutter (a type of high-speed sailing vessel) built in 1893 for Queen Victoria’s son Edward, Prince of Wales, who later ascended the throne as King Edward VII after the death of his mother.

Elizabeth’s royal yacht Britannia ultimately transported her, other members of the British Roytal Family, and various dignitaries on a grand total of 272 visits in British waters and 696 foreign trips. One of the yacht’s more notable trips abroad occurred during the summer of 1959, when Elizabeth traveled on Britannia via the newly opened Saint Lawrence Seaway to get to Chicago. This voyage made Elizabeth the first British monarch to visit the Windy City. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was on board the yacht for part of the that cruise through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Other U.S. presidents who spent time on board Britannia were Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

During her many years of service, Britannia also performed significant roles that went well beyond providing a means of transportation for the British Royal Family. In 1986, for example, the yacht was used to evacuate over 1,000 refugees from the port city of Aden after a civil war erupted in what was then the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula.

At the decommissioning ceremony for Britannia in 1997, Elizabeth took time to say a few words about the yacht and its importance. “Looking back over forty-four 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,” said the queen.

In the time since she was retired from active service, Britannia has been berthed at the Port of Leith in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh. The yacht, which has been included in the National Historic Fleet (a list of historically significant vessels located in the United Kingdom), is now a popular tourist attraction. A registered charity known as the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust is responsible for Britannia’s continued care and maintenance.

For more information on the British royal yacht Britannia, please check out https://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk/about/history/

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What Happened To The Royal Yacht Britannia?

The Crown season five begins and ends with the same plot point: The Royal Yacht Britannia. The vessel serves as a – fairly obvious – metaphor in the first episode, where Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth describes it as “a floating, seagoing version of me.” The problem with her metaphorical marine self? It’s in desperate need of multi-million pound repairs. 

She asks British prime minister John Major, played by Jonny Lee Miller, whether the government might be able to help foot the bill. He, in turn, asks if the royal family might front the cost, given the public pushback they both might receive if such a seemingly extravagant project was approved. In the final episode of the season (a note to the reader: spoilers will follow), Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth agree to decommission the yacht after Prince Charles’s trip to Hong Kong.

The Crown is known for taking much of its plot material from real-life events. In the case of the Royal Yacht Britannia, though – what really happened to the boat, and how much political controversy did it really cause?

To go back to the beginning, King George VI first commissioned the royal yacht that would become the Britannia in 1952. It was an exciting project, as the previous official boat had belonged to Queen Victoria, and was rarely used. Then, during the early 20th century, England was mostly at war, and making a massive, slow-sailing luxury ship would be a massive security risk in international waters. 

The Royal Yacht Britannia, George decided, should both be an extravagant vessel and a functional one, able to double as a hospital if times of war were to arise again. In 1953, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth christened the ship with a bottle of wine, as champagne was still seen as too extravagant post-war. In 1954, she set sail for the first time.

The Royal Yacht fulfilled many functions, most of them leisurely. Over the years, the boat hosted four royal honeymoons, including that of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as many family vacations. In 1969, after his investiture as the Prince of Wales, Charles hosted an intimate party on board to celebrate. (Newspapers at the time wrote that he danced with his dear friend Lucia Santa Cruz – the very person who eventually introduced him to Camilla Parker Bowles.)

It also served as a grandiose mode of transport for many royal visits. In 1959, for example, Britannia sailed to Chicago to celebrate the recently opened St Lawrence seaway in Canada, and President Eisenhower joined her on board. Twenty years later, she sailed to Abu Dhabi for her first official visit to the United Arab Emirates, where she held a grand dinner for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

And although Queen Elizabeth's reign was not during wartime, the royal yacht did execute a humanitarian mission, as King George VI had always planned for: In 1986, it sailed to Aden to evacuate over 1,000 refugees from the civil war in Yemen.

The New York Times once described the 412-foot Britannia as “an ordinary yacht what Buckingham Palace is to the house next door.” It wasn’t an exaggeration – Britannia was essentially a floating palace. It had a drawing room, a dining room, two sitting rooms, as well as galleys and cabins for all the officers. The stateroom interiors were just as ornate as any other royal estate, while the bedrooms – which all had their own bathrooms and dressing rooms – were designed to feel surprisingly personal. 

“Within the royal apartments, however, the regal elegance gives way to the homey, patched elbow chic of an English country house, with flowered chintz slipcovers, family photographs, and rattan settees, interspersed with the occasional relic of Empire – shark’s teeth from the Solomon Islands here, a golden urn commemorating Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar there,” the New York Times found when it boarded the ship in 1976.

The cost of running Britannia was always an issue. Politicians raised questions about its financial value as far back as 1954, when two MPs lobbied for an investigation on why the yacht’s refurbishment would cost £5.8 million, accusing the royal family of waste and extravagance. A government committee later dismissed the accusations. In 1994, the Conservative government ruled the yacht too costly to refurbish, when repairs came in at a whopping 17 million, but then briefly walked back on their decision a few years later. 

However, when Tony Blair’s Labour government won the election, and the new government once again declined to pay for Britannia. Britannia’s final journey was to far-flung Hong Kong in 1997, as Prince Charles turned over the British colony back to the Chinese at the end of Britain’s 99-year lease. When they finally decommissioned the boat that summer, the queen cried – one of the few times she’s shown emotion in public. The boat had logged over one million nautical miles.

Today, Britannia sits permanently docked in Edinburgh. Visitors can take tours of its grand galleys, or even rent it out for events. Yet, despite its retirement, the concept of the royal yacht lives on: In 2021, Boris Johnson floated the idea of a new boat. However, a mere eight days ago, Rishi Sunak has scrapped the project – showing that, even now, the concept remains a controversial one.

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Reflecting on Edinburgh's Royal Yacht Britannia 25 years after arriving in Leith

As the nation gears up for the historic coronation of King Charles III, we wind the clock back a quarter of a century when the monarchy's own Royal Yacht Britannia made her way home to her final resting place in sunny Leith.

• 12:54, 5 MAY 2023

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When the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned in 1997 following forty-four years of serving the country, the late Queen Elizabeth II thanked the ship and its crew for providing "great support" to the nation.

Having sailed one million miles, carrying over 700 hundreds royal visits at home and overseas, the Queen hailed the ship's achievements as "a great testament to those who designed and built her."

The year after the ship was decommissioned, it made its way to Leith where it has been an ever-present for 25 years as we approach the momentous anniversary of the Royal Yacht Britannia docking in Edinburgh.

READ MORE: Edinburgh's infamous 'pirate' market that closed down in a flurry of controversy

Thousands lined the dock as the impressive vessel made it way into the harbour in 1998. Many now know it as one of the capital's most popular tourist attractions, welcoming around 350,000 visitors every year.

Images taken on May 5, 1998 show hundreds of excited locals in awe as the vessel sails into Leith Docks, played in by a pipe band.

As well as the ship herself, a special museum is also present within Edinburgh's Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre where visitors can read about every landmark achievement the ship made and just how much the late monarch loved it.

The Royal Yacht was in service from 1954 until 1997 and was the 83rd such vessel since King Charles II acceded to the throne in 1660. During her extensive career, the yacht visited more than 600 ports in 135 different countries.

HMY Britannia, as she is also known by, was built at the shipyard of John Brown & Co. Ltd in Clydebank. The Queen officially launched the vessel on April 16, 1553 and commissioned her on January 11, 1954.

The ship was designed to be converted into a hospital ship in time of war, although this capability was never used. In the event of a nuclear war, it was intended for the Queen and her husband Prince Philip to take refuge onboard off the north-west coast of Scotland.

At 20:00 on 17 January 1986, the Yacht dropped anchor at Khormaksar Beach. Civil war had broken out in South Yemen and ships were urgently required to evacuate British nationals and others trapped by fighting. As a non-combatant Royal Navy ship, Britannia would be able to enter territorial waters without further inflaming the conflict.

In 1994, the government announced the yacht's retirement. It last underwent a major refit in 1987 with a further refit at an estimated cost of £17million necessary in 1996-97 but would only have prolonged her life for a further five years.

In view of her age, even after the refit she would be difficult to maintain and expensive to run.

In a special sending-off ceremony letter, written by the Queen as one last goodbye to Britannia, she said: "Together with members of my family, Prince Phillip and I join you today to pay tribute to Britannia and give our thanks to all who have been part of her company.

"Looking back over forty-four 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."

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She continued: "It is with sadness that we must now say goodbye to Britannia. It is appropriate that with this final event show bows out in the style which is so typical of the manner in which her business has always been conducted."

Now, the Royal Yacht Britannia has been awarded a five-star visitor attraction status by Best UK Attraction with guests able to discover five decks of stories from the Royal Family and the 220 Royal Yachtsmen who served onboard.

The vessel has also been converted into a luxury floating hotel where guests can stay the night, as well as visit the Royal Deck Tea Room.

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• Most Recent

Queen Elizabeth Cried When The Royal Yacht Britannia Was Decommissioned In 1997

The floating palace served the royal family for 44 years.

The Crown Season 5 kicks off with a flashback of a young Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland for the launch of the Royal Yacht Britannia , just as both she and the vessel were about to venture into uncharted waters. In an obvious metaphor, the United Kingdom’s newly crowned queen expressed her hope that the Britannia would be “dependable and constant, capable of weathering any storm.” As viewers now know, the late British monarch went on to enjoy a historic reign prior to her death on Sept. 8, 2022. As for whether the Royal Yacht had as impressive of a run, here’s everything to know about Britannia’s current whereabouts and sailing status.

The new royal yacht, which was commissioned just two days before King George VI died in February 1952, was designed to travel the globe and double as a wartime hospital ship. In light of the King’s declining health before his death, it was also intended to be a cruising convalescent residence for the ailing royal. As portrayed in the Netflix series, the Britannia launched from a Clydebank, Scotland shipyard in April 1953.

For the next 44 years, the yacht would serve as a royal residence for Queen Elizabeth, who welcomed aboard such world leaders as Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan, and Rajiv Gandhi, among others, for various state dinners. Meanwhile, other members of the Royal Family over the years used Britannia for such purposes as family holidays and honeymoons. Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones were the first newlyweds to honeymoon on the yacht in 1960, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana later famously spent their 1981 honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise aboard the yacht. According to Town & Country , the crew managed to duck the press so efficiently that the Britannia earned the nickname “the ghost ship.”

Outside of the vessel’s recreational uses, the Yacht also played a role in some major historic events. When a civil war broke out in South Yemen in January 1986, for example, the Britannia, as a non-combatant Royal Navy ship, was allowed to enter territorial waters to rescue trapped British nationals without inflaming the conflict.

After traveling more than one million nautical miles, former Prime Minister Tony Blair decommissioned the Britannia in 1997. The ship became the last of 83 Royal Yachts, a tradition dating back to Charles II’s reign in the 1660s. “Looking back over forty-four 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,” said the Queen, who was photographed publicly shedding tears at the ceremony. All of the ship’s clocks remain stopped at 3:01, the exact time that she disembarked for the last time.

Now, the Britannia is located in Edinburgh and serves as a tourist attraction and exclusive events venue. Visitors can explore each of the five decks of Queen Elizabeth’s “floating palace” during hours that it’s open to the public. Meanwhile, the yacht is also available for private tours and exclusive use, as it is available to rent for birthdays, anniversaries, corporate events, etc. For the first time, Britannia will also host a “Royal New Year” party for ticketholders to ring in 2023 aboard the historic yacht.

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History Hit Story of England: Making of a Nation

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

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. 

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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What to Know About the Royal Yacht Britannia Featured on 'The Crown' Season 5

The Royal Yacht Britannia served as the official royal yacht of the British monarchy for 44 years

The Crown is diving into royal events from the '90s in season 5 , and that includes the decommissioning of Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, also known as the Royal Yacht Britannia.

In the first episode of the new season, Claire Foy ( who portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in seasons 1 and 2) reprises her role as the monarch as a flashback shows the yacht's official launch in April 1953.

At the time, the new yacht held special significance as it was launched by the Queen just before her own coronation in June 1953 .

Through the years, the vessel sailed over 1,000,000 nautical miles on 968 state visits with the royal family as they entertained prime ministers and presidents, per the Royal Yacht Britannia website. It also served as the venue for several royal honeymoons , including Princess Diana and Princes Charles in 1981 .

From when it was commissioned to where the Royal Yacht Britannia is now, here's everything to know about the royal yacht.

When was the Royal Yacht Britannia commissioned?

As shown on The Crown , Royal Yacht Britannia was officially launched on April 16, 1953 , at the shipyard of John Brown & Co. Ltd in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, where Queen Elizabeth unveiled the yacht's official name.

Following Queen Elizabeth 's coronation on June 2, 1953, the Royal Yacht Britannia was commissioned into the Royal Navy on January 11, 1954, before sailing her first overseas port on April 22.

How big is the Royal Yacht Britannia?

The Royal Yacht Britannia is about 412 feet long , with a beam width of 55 feet and five decks , and weighs over 4,000 tons.

Who used the Royal Yacht Britannia?

The yacht was described as the royal family's "floating residence" during its 44 years of service. As it was used to host "magnificent state receptions and banquets, and guests ," numerous world leaders boarded the yacht over the years, including Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan and Rajiv Gandhi.

Per the Royal Yacht Britannia website, the yacht also " allowed the Royal Family some rare privacy away from their public duties and was famously described by HM Queen Elizabeth II as 'the one place I can truly relax.' "

Furthermore, the Royal Yacht Britannia was the venue of four royal honeymoons : Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. All four royal marriages ended in divorce, which Queen Elizabeth famously reflected on in her 1992 speech where she referred to the past year as her "annus horribilis ," or horrible year.

When was the Royal Yacht Britannia decommissioned?

The yacht's retirement was announced in 1994 as a result of the substantial costs needed to repair the ship. It was estimated that the cost would £17 million, which would only prolong the yacht for another five years.

On December 11, 1997, the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned during an official ceremony that was attended by most of the senior members of the royal family. It was been reported that Queen Elizabeth was seen uncharacteristically shedding a tear during the decommissioning.

"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," the Queen said at the time .

Where is the Royal Yacht Britannia now?

Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, people can now visit the Royal Yacht Britannia at Port of Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland. Visitors are able to see various parts of the yacht including Britannia's five decks, the state apartments, as well as the Sun Lounge, which was the Queen's favorite room in which to have her afternoon tea.

Does the Royal Yacht Britannia have a successor?

Plans for a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia first began in 2019 when it was reported that the late Sir Donald Gosling had donated £50 million to pay for the construction . In 2021, the yacht was commissioned by Boris Johnson to host trade fairs and diplomatic events and it was expected to go into service in 2024 or 2025.

However, in November 2022, it was reported by BBC that plans for the yacht were being scrapped as the government "searches for spending cuts." The new yacht was estimated to cost up to £250 million.

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New national flagship replacing the Royal Yacht Britannia 'to be funded through the Ministry of Defence', says Number 10

The new flagship will replace the Royal Yacht Britannia which was retired in 1997 after 44 years of service.

Political reporter @itssophiemorris

Monday 21 June 2021 17:04, UK

A new national yacht, which is reportedly set to cost £200m, will be paid for out of the Ministry of Defence's budget, Downing Street has confirmed.

The national flagship, the successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, will sail the globe hosting trade talks.

The prime minister's official spokesperson said Boris Johnson hopes it will be built in the UK, but that international rules on procurement will be followed.

Mr Johnson announced the commissioning of the new flagship earlier this year , saying it would be used to promote British interests around the world as the UK seeks to build trade links post-Brexit.

The vessel will be part of and crewed by the Royal Navy, the PM said.

"Every aspect of the ship, from its build to the businesses it showcases on board, will represent and promote the best of British - a clear and powerful symbol of our commitment to be an active player on the world stage," he added.

Labour has previously called on the government to set out how the yacht will boost trade and jobs in the UK and to "focus on value for money" with regards to the project.

More on Boris Johnson

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Conservative Jake Berry, who is chairman of the Northern Research Group of MPs, has campaigned for the vessel to be built by Cammell Laird on Merseyside.

And at a lobby briefing on Monday, the PM's official spokesperson confirmed the new flagship will be "funded through the Ministry of Defence".

"This new national flagship will boost British trade and drive investment into the economy," he said.

"The procurement process, which is being done through the MoD, will reflect its wide-ranging use and so it will be funded through the MoD, as set out previously."

The PM's official spokesperson declined to comment on where the MoD would find the reported £200m required for the project out of its budget, but did confirm the new vessel will not be a warship.

"We will set out the exact detail in due course but this is a trade ship, it is not a military vessel," he said.

The Royal Yacht Britannia was launched by The Queen in 1953 and was retired in 1997 after completing 44 years of service.

The new national flagship is expected to be in service for around 30 years.

The yacht's name is yet to be announced, but reports have suggested it will pay homage to the Duke of Edinburgh who was Lord High Admiral from 2011 until his death earlier this year, and served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

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Body of British businessman Mike Lynch recovered from deadly Italian yacht sinking

Yacht manufacturer's ceo says 'indescribable, unreasonable' errors led to deadly tragedy.

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The Italian Coast Guard said Thursday the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered off the coast of Sicily from the wreckage of a superyacht whose builders had called it unsinkable.

One woman remains missing. She has not been identified, but Hannah Lynch, Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, remains  unaccounted for.  The family had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who defended him at trial in the United States.

Five others were recovered by rescue crews following Monday's tragedy.

The Bayesian, a 56-metre British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometre from shore. Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Sicily superyacht rescue: What divers are up against | About That

Divers have struggled to find the bodies.

"It's very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one metre can take up to 24 hours," said Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service.

• CBC Explains How did the superyacht Bayesian sink? Experts say weather was just one factor
• 5 bodies found by divers in Sicily yacht search, 1 person still unaccounted for

Hannah Lynch, the businessman's 18-year-old daughter, is among the boat occupants rescue teams were searching for this week, along with Judy and Jonathan Bloomer and Chris and Neda Morvillo.

Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was among those who managed to get to safety, while the body of the onboard chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreck hours after the disaster.

Thomas was a native of Antigua but was raised in Calgary, according to Antiguan reports.

Questions about capsize remain

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including a mother who reported holding her one-year-old baby over the waves to save her.

They were rescued by the sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell. The sailboat's captain, Karsten Borner, said he had remained anchored with his engines running to try to maintain the ship's position as the storm rolled in.

"Another possibility is to heave anchor before the storm and to run downwind at open sea," Borner said in a text message.

But he said that might not have been possible for the Bayesian, given its 75-metre-tall mast.

"If there was a stability problem, caused by the extremely tall mast, it would not have been better at open sea," he said.

Criminal investigation underway

Investigators from Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor's Office were collecting evidence for a criminal investigation, which they opened immediately after the tragedy despite no formal suspects having been publicly identified.

The chief executive of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the Bayesian's manufacturer, told AP in an interview on Thursday that superyachts like these are "designed to be unsinkable."

"And it is unsinkable not only because it is designed in this way, but also because it is a sailing ship and sailing ships are the safest ever," CEO Giovanni Costantino said.

Costantino added that "obviously they must not hit the rocks violently, discarding the hull, and they must not take in water," suggesting the second possibility was the most likely in this case.

Costantino also noted that sailing ships require "a greater competence" to be guided compared with motor boats. In a separate interview with Reuters, he said a series of "indescribable, unreasonable errors" by the crew led to the shipwreck.

Yachts like the Bayesian are required to have watertight compartments that are specifically designed to prevent a rapid, catastrophic sinking even when some parts fill with water.

Lynch, 59, is the only person confirmed dead; the other bodies have not been formally identified by the Italian coast guard.

The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Lynch was a Fellow, said it was "deeply saddened" to learn of his death and that he played an "active role" as a mentor and donor.

Lynch founded Autonomy, a software maker, in 1996. He later founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm that was a founding investor of British cybersecurity company Darktrace, as well as Luminance, an artificial intelligence platform for the legal industry.

Lynch sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. But the deal quickly turned into an albatross for him after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale and then fired by HP.

Lynch testified this year while facing fraud charges at trial in California in connection with the HP deal. Although he avoided the possibility of a prison sentence with a subsequent acquittal, Lynch still faced a potentially costly civil case in London.

With files from CBC News and Reuters

Related Stories

• Italy launches manslaughter investigation into mysterious sinking of luxury yacht

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The prestigious school struck by triple tragedy after yacht disaster, stabbing and Nottingham attack

School has seen three former or current pupils die in high-profile and tragic circumstances in little more than a year, article bookmarked.

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Louise Thomas

An east London school is grappling with the loss of a respected alumnus after British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch drowned when his superyacht capsized off the coast of Italy.

Yet for Bancroft’s School in Woodford Green, it marks the third high-profile death in the course of 14 months. Firstly, in June 2023, former pupil Grace O’Malley-Kumar was stabbed to death in Nottingham by Valdo Calocane.

Then, in April this year, pupil Daniel Anjorin, 14, was attacked and killed while walking in his school uniform.

The independent school is now once again in the headlines after 59-year-old Mr Lynch, who was the lead patron of the Bancroft Foundation, died in his boat the Bayesian , which sank during stormy weather on Monday morning.

The tycoon had attended Bancroft’s School after winning a scholarship at the age of 11, before going on to study at Christ’s College Cambridge.

He became a multi-millionaire after founding the software technology giant Autonomy in 1996 and had returned to the school to give keynote speeches and help with fundraising events.

On Thursday, he was confirmed dead with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah’s body recovered the following day.

Last June, the school community was left devastated after 19-year-old O’Malley-Kumar, an aspiring medic, was killed while heroically trying to protect her friend Barnaby Webber.

The two had been walking home from a night out to celebrate the end of university exams when they were ambushed by paranoid schizophrenic Calocane, who launched a merciless attack upon them both.

In a statement following her death, the school described her as “an immensely gifted and dedicated scholar and sportswoman”, who had been greatly respected within the community.

Less than one year later on 30 April, Daniel Anjorin was stabbed to death while he walked to school after being approached by a man with a sword.

The 14-year-old had been walking through Hainault in his school uniform when he was attacked.

Suspect Marcus Monzo, 36, was charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of grievous bodily harm, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article.

In a letter to parents at the time, the school’s headteacher, Simon Marshall, wrote: “Naturally this event will have a profound effect on the whole school, but this will be especially true of his peers.

“It seems scarcely believable that less than a year on from the terrible death of Grace O’Malley Kumar in the Nottingham attacks we are facing fresh sorrow.

“All we can do for now is to look after one another and respect the privacy of Daniel’s family. It is a time of profound grief and as a community we will endure best if we come together in kindness and compassion.”

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'Yacht horror' and 'Queen said Trump was very rude'

Most of the front pages reflect the the search for survivors after the sinking of a yacht in Sicily that happened to be carrying some of the best known names in Btritish financial circles.

"Hero mum saves baby in sea hell" is the Daily Mirror's headline, accompanied by a photo of Charlotte Golunski - named as one of the survivors. The image on the front of the Guardian shows rescue workers bringing a body ashore. The paper says the UK Foreign Office is providing consular support to "a number of families".

Lin Ronald whose daughter was onboard and survived, tells the Daily Telegraph that the purpose of the trip was to celebrate the end of Mike Lynch's recent legal battle in the US.

The Times reports that the government is sending four marine safety inspectors to Palermo to carry out an initial assessment into the sinking of the yacht. A former member of staff to Mike Lynch, tells the paper that the multi-millionaire businessman "clearly had a lot of pride" in the yacht and had decorated the walls of his west London home with photos of it.

According to a report in the i paper, at least 136 people on remand were held in police stations yesterday as part of emergency measures to reduce overcrowding in jails. It says the figures come from the Ministry of Justice. A defence solicitor, who isn't named, is quoted as saying "I've never seen anything like it in 28 years".

"Queen said Trump was "very rude" is the headline in the Daily Mail . The claims are made in a new biography of the late monarch by the writer and satirist Craig Brown. In his account, serialised in the Mail, the Queen is said to have "particularly disliked" the way the former president looked over her shoulder "as if in search of others more interesting". Her remarks are said to have been made to a guest at a lunch, weeks after Mr Trump visited Britain. The Queen also reportedly mused that Mr Trump "must have some sort of arrangement" with his wife Melania.

A few papers feature a recommendation by scientists that primary school pupils should have ice lollies to help them learn about how temperature works. According to the Guardian , it's one of a number of proposals that could become part of an updated curriculum. The Times carries a quote from Aylin Ozkan, a policy specialist from the Royal Society of Chemistry, who says "What better prop is there than an ice lolly?"

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Our only comfort is they’re together, say kids of couple killed on sunken yacht

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The family of Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy have described them as ‘incredible people and an inspiration to many’ following their deaths on the Bayesian yacht.

The Morgan Stanley International bank chairman and his wife had joined close friend Mike Lynch on board to celebrate the British tech magnate’s acquittal in a fraud trial in the United States.

Follow our live coverage of the search and rescue operation in Italy

Their bodies were among five recovered after the £30 million vessel sank during a storm off the coast of Sicily early on Monday morning. Mr Lynch’s daughter Hannah is still missing.

In a statement, Mr and Mrs Bloomer’s children said: ‘We are grieving for our loved ones and all of those affected by the tragedy.

‘We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the emergency services and everyone who helped tirelessly in this rescue operation.

‘Our parents were incredible people and an inspiration to many, but first and foremost they were focused on and loved their family and spending time with their new grandchildren.

‘Together for five decades, our only comfort is that they are still together now.

‘This is an unimaginable grief to shoulder. Our only ask is that our family’s privacy is respected at this time.’

Family and friends of Mr Lynch said they were all ‘hoping for a miracle’, but have been left ‘deeply saddened’ after Italian authorities said they had recovered his body yesterday.

Friend Brent Hoberman said his death is ‘unbelievably tragic’, describing Mr Lynch as an ‘inspiring figure’ in the tech community who should be remembered for his achievements.

‘We were all hoping for a miracle – we knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope,’ he told Sky News.

‘It’s just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.’

Neighbour Ruth Leigh said despite the couple being ‘wealthy, influential people’ they ‘never put any airs or graces on’ in the 15 years she knew them.

‘They’d always take the trouble to remember your name and ask after your partner or children. They didn’t have to do that. We had a great deal of respect for them,’ she told Sky News.

‘They touched a lot of people. They were well thought of, kind, generous, hospitable people.’

The Royal Academy of Engineering said: ‘The trustee board, fellows and staff of the Royal Academy of Engineering are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch, and send our profound condolences to his family.

‘Mike became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past as a mentor, donor and former council member.

‘He was also one of the inaugural members on the enterprise committee.

‘Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time’

Italian authorities said the bodies of four other passengers including Morgan Stanley International bank chairperson Jonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and his wife, Neda Morvillo were also recovered from the scene.

Hannah Lynch, Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter is still missing.A sixth body is yet to be recovered from the wreckage.

Mr Bloomer, who is also the former honorary treasurer of the children’s charity the NSPCC, was described as ‘a very kind individual’.

Speaking about the Morgan Stanley International bank chairperson and his wife Judy, chair of the NSPCC Neil Berkett said: ‘We are deeply saddened that the deaths of Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy have been confirmed after the yacht they were on tragically sank off the coast of Sicily.

‘Jonathan and Judy were great supporters of the NSPCC over many years, with Jonathan joining our board of trustees in 2008 and serving as the honorary treasurer from 2009 to 2016.

‘We remember Jonathan from his time with us as a very kind individual with a great sense of humour and Judy as formidable and passionate.

‘We are so grateful for everything they did for children and the NSPCC and our thoughts are with their family, friends and colleagues at this desperately sad time.’

The 184ft yacht was struck by a freak event known as a waterspout – a tornado over water – as it moored overnight off Porticello, a fishing village 10 miles east of Palermo.

A total of 22 passengers were onboard the yacht and 15 were saved.

Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef, was confirmed as the first person who had died on Tuesday.

Five of the bodies were found yesterday when rescue teams finally managed to access the ship’s sleeping cabin after being hampered by debris blocking their access.

Mr Lynch was known for his business Autonomy, which he sold to Hewlett-Packard for millions in 2011, and his venture capitalist firm Invoke Capital.

Born in Ilford, east London, to Irish parents, he graduated with a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Mr Lynch was married to Angela Bacares, with whom he shares two daughters.

Ms Bacares, 57, survived the disaster but was left using a wheelchair due to the injuries she suffered when the yacht sank.

Mr Lynch has a reported net worth valued at around £852 million, according to the Independent.

His business ventures led him to once be dubbed ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ but also landed him in legal trouble.

Autonomy’s sale was wrapped in fraud claims, and he faced civil action in the UK before being extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.

In his first interview after being cleared, Mr Lynch told The Sunday Times: ‘Now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?’

His friend, former cabinet minister Lord Debden, said the entrepreneur was at the ‘beginning of a new life’.

Speaking to Times Radio before Mr Lynch’s body was recovered, he said: ‘He came back to be ready to start again. He made such a contribution to Britain. His companies have put British IT in the forefront, and he was going to do it again, and we pray that he can do it again.’

Hannah had recently finished her A-Levels and was bound for Oxford University. She was due to start studying English at Trinity College later this year.

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Body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch recovered from sunken superyacht as search enters final stages

PORTICELLO, Italy — The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was recovered from the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily , a source familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday.

The source said rescuers were still searching for Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, the l ast p er son missing from the luxury boat , which went down in what authorities said was a freak storm early Monday.

A massive search effort was launched, and four bodies were recovered from the 180-foot Bayesian on Wednesday after an operation hampered by the depth to which the wreck had sunk and the debris that blocked divers’ path through its narrow passages.

Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed to NBC News on Thursday morning that a fifth body had been recovered. And hours later, CNBC reported that the body of Lynch, regularly described in U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was among them.

The U.K.'s Royal Academy of Engineering said Thursday morning that it was “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch,” who is one of its fellows. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time,” the academy said in a statement on X .

The others missing were Lynch's associates, who had successfully defended him in a blockbuster U.S. fraud trial earlier this summer: Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and the British insurance firm Hiscox, and his wife, Judy; and a well-known New York City defense attorney, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife, Neda.

The body of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan national who was the ship’s cook, was recovered shortly after the accident Monday. 

Fifteen of the 22 people onboard survived.

Waves gently crashed against the rocks of Porticello, a port near the Italian island’s main city, Palermo, with the sea calm as rescuers brought ashore green body bags Wednesday — a stark contrast to just three days ago, when officials believe the yacht was hit by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.

The vessel was anchored about a half-mile offshore when it sank, leaving divers to search its hull on the seabed 164 feet underwater.

The dock has swarmed for days with journalists, photographers and curious onlookers taking photos with their smartphones as rescue teams traveled to and from the site of the wreck.

Claudio Lavanga reported from Porticello and Yuliya Talmazan from London.

Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.