Britannia is part of the huge project which is the rejuvenation of the Leith Docks area. A large shopping centre surrounds the Britannia and parking is free in the multi storey carpark...and believe me, that is a huge bonus in the UK where parking spaces are at a premium.
Eventually the Royals would be able to access a suitable car in most of the countries they would visit on State Tours so the garage area was then used for the storage of beer! For the crew maybe?
The glass of beer was fake...
On the ship was this familiar uniform...
Part of the redevelopment of the Leith docklands...
The start of the tour of the ship takes visitors to the bridge...there is one seat/stool on the bridge and that is for the Admiral who captained the Britannia.
Then we moved outside of that upper deck...
We saw the cupboard full of the signaling flags...
The next photo shows the royal launch...
The Royals would also take their Rolls Royce with them too...it was very difficult to get on board and would be hoisted up. To get it in this garage area, they had to take the bumper bars off!
This is the officers dining room...
This is where the china and glassware is stored...
Where the silverware was kept...
The Britannia still hosts private functions and food is prepared in the galleys...
One of the cold rooms...
One of the crew messes...
Here I am at the bar of another mess...notice the name? Bet the Queen didn't visit this place! Lol
The commentary pointed out that that there was a very definite hierarchical system for the crew. The lower ranks had very modest quarters...the officers had nice but small rooms...the petty officers and Royal Marine Sergeants did a bit better, but not as good as the Warrant Officers and CPOs. The captain of this royal yacht was an Admiral no less!
But the lower ranks still had a lounge type room of their own...
The laundry...the laundry was large as when the ship was brought into service in the 1950s, it was designed to be able to be transformed within 24 hours into a hospital ship in the event of another war.
The sick bay, also had had an operating theatre...
The lowest level was the engine room...the photo through the glass doesn't show what an amazingly immaculate condition the equipment in this room was...and that's how it was kept when it was the royal yacht.
Along side the ship on the shore side was the royal barge...
I practised the 'royal wave'...hmmm....needs a bit more work! Lol
Just near the barge we saw another photo opportunity!
I'm holding the gadget that played the audio tour...it was like a monstrous mobile phone!
There was a display of crew uniforms in the complex before we started the tour...hard to get a good photo because of the glass...but you can still get the idea of how smart the uniforms were...
We had a wonderful couple of hours exploring this ship. It was decommissioned in 1997 as part of the Queen's austerity program that year. But it has gone to a good home now and it is owned by 'The Royal Yacht Britannia Charitable Trust. Well worth a visit!
3 comments:
Fascinating! It doesn't look as plush as I had imagined it might.
That was a good look around. Quite interesting and I love that shot of you wearing the sailor's hat. Quite jaunty :D)
Very interesting!
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