Royal Yacht Britannia

[Stuart Kelly]

I finally got round to going to Edinburgh yesterday to see the Royal Yacht Britannia; four years after she was permanently moored in the west dock at Leith.

It was £7.75 to get and carry out the self tour but it was well worth the money. Seeing a ship built by the great yard of John Brown & Co. at Clydebank was quite an experience. What's more she has been left pretty much unaltered since she was decommissioned on 11th December 1997. The crews' quarters look as if they have just been vacated with the noticed boards still carrying the details of the ship's activites on her last day.

The Royal family's living quarters are beautiful, completely unaltered apart from the installation of glass panels to see into the bed rooms. The style is still authentic 1950s, with many of the fittings and fixtures unchanged since her departure from Clydebank in 1953. The state dining room is now used for corporate functions. Maybe the guys who run the Queen Mary in Long Beach should maybe take note of the methods being used in Scotland to look after a Scottish-built ship.

I would urge any ship buff, including those going to the Titanic convention in Dundee next month, to stop by Leith to take the tour of Britannia.
http://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_2076000/2076662.stm

 

[Stuart Kelly]

I would have posted up some of my digi camera photos of the Britannia on here but the attachment option seems to be disabled.

Stuart

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Unfortunately, the attatchment option had to be disabled because of the copyrighted photos that were being put up. I hope it'll be restored sometime in the near future, but we'll need to figure out a way to manage it without getting a knock on the door by a solicitor with a summons.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Hi,

I can know start adding some photos. Here is the Britannia, built by John Brown and Co. of Clydebank in 1953 now permanently berthed in the Historic port of Leith, Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Overlooking the bow

 

[Stuart Kelly]

The Britannia has a water tight door indicator similar to the one seen on Titanic:

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Close up of the Indicator:

 

[Stuart Kelly]

The Bridge: Not a place to relax according to the guide. Note the Commodore's chair on the right:

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Telephone exchange:

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Looking along the starboard deck. Commoners now grace where royalty once promenaded:

 

[Stuart Kelly]

The Queen's Rolls Royce in the Garage. It was rarely used as it was such an awkward maneauvre sliding it out to the edge of the deck and then fitting and lowering it using the davit that held the Royal Barge. In most countries, a car suitable for the Queen could be found and it was unnecessary to use the 1953 Rolls Royce stored here.

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Games deck. Here the Royal Family would have a temporary swimming pool among other things.

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Ship's Bell. The Queen's monogramme is invaild in Scotland as it has the roman numeral II in between E and R. She is Queen Elizabeth the first of Scotland and accordingly pillar boxes and post off vans don't carry her EiiR monogramme.

The clanger has been removed from the bell. The rope is just there for decoration. Pulling it only produces a dull thud!

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Looking forward along port side. The royal apartments are behind the windows. Charles and Diana had their honeymoon suite behind one of the windows in 1981. President Clinton stayed in one of the rooms behind these windows during the D-Day commerorations in June 1994 and Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong stayed in these suites with his family on Britannia's last and longest voyage from Hong Kong in July 1997. The Queen's and Prince Philip's bedrooms are on the starboard side. The Royal Barge is down on it's own on the left.

 

[Stuart Kelly]

Did you know the Royal Yacht had her lifeboat davits made by the same company that made the Titanic's?