HMY Britannia

Time stopped at 3:01 p.m. on December 11, 1997 at 3:01 p.m.  At least on the Britannia. That's when Queen Elizabeth II disembarked from the royal yacht for the last time.  She reportedly shed a tear.  Who could blame her?

 

By Palm Beach standards, the HMY Britannia isn't all that.  But if I could choose one of the places we visited in Scotland to spend a week or two, this would be it.  Especially if I had a time machine.

You can tell by the photo exhibit that precedes boarding that the royal family had a LOT of fun yachting.  Here are Elizabeth and Philip at the commissioning ceremony in 1953.  Not a bad way to start your reign.

Have you ever seen a more relaxed picture of the Queen?

I'd forgotten just how good looking Prince Andrew used to be.  No wonder his mother cut Randy Andy so much slack.

It took dozens of sailors from the Royal Navy to crew the yacht, a total of 3,000 men from 1953 - 1997.  They called themselves the "Yotties" and still have annual reunions.  I think I'll use that time machine to enlist!

Girl talk with HRM.

Here's where a dozen of them slept.  Note the Corgi.

The Britannia is docked in Leith, Edinburgh's port.  You access it from an enormous multilevel, mostly empty mall, part of the same urban redevelopment project.  

The royal family used a gangway to board.

I introduced myself to a Yottie.  

Nice work if you can get it.

The captain's quarters.

Here's where the officers drank.

There's even a sick bay.  That Corgi is masked.

A Land Rover travelled with the royal family.  Adequate automobile transportation wasn't always available in some of the countries they first visited.

Thom found the sun deck like a homing pigeon.  

Ring-a-ding-ding.

More people were having tea than touring the boat. 

Elizabeth slept here.

Philip here.  They shared a bathroom.

Here's the honeymoon suite.  Margaret, Charles and Anne all tossed and turned with their spouses in this room.

The royals could entertain nearly 50 people in the dining room which doubled as a dance floor.  People last tripped the light fantastic at Anne's 21st birthday party in 1971.

It took three hours to set the table.

Indigenous art decorates the walls.

HMY Britannia belongs to a simpler time when royalty was still taken for granted.  In other words, before Diana.

Tacky merchandise filled the gift shop.  Do the royals really need the money, or is it just about branding?