the royal yacht britannia the official history

The Story Behind the Royal Family's Yacht, Britannia

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

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

It was the first royal yacht designed for ocean travel.

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

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

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

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

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

It was created to double as a hospital.

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

The ship was home to a lot of history.

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

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

It was redesigned to be less opulent.

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

But it still had homey touches—by royal standards.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a royal honeymoon essential.

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

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

And a family vacation spot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The 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.

Seventy years ago, the Britannia began its journey as the royal yacht for Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family of the United Kingdom. Over the next 44 years she’d travel more than a million nautical miles and, in all her glamour and old world elegance, served as a residence that welcomed state visits from all over the world and family holidays alike. Then and now, she was and is a majestic symbol of the British Commonwealth and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II .

“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

By Lisa Liebman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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'The Crown': The Real History of the Royal Yacht Britannia and Its Significance to the Queen

Britannia served the Queen and her family until the very end.

The penultimate season of The Crown starts by going back to a scene in 1953 when Queen Elizabeth II is seen launching the Royal Yacht Britannia and without a doubt, the yacht itself becomes the first issue of contention in what is another season of The Crown that focuses on one of the most contentious decades in the lives of the royal family.

Commissioned in 1954, Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia necessitates repair – an act that's costly for the government to bear. In the first episode "Queen Victoria Syndrome," when Queen Elizabeth II ( Imelda Staunton ) requests Prime Minister John Major ( Jonny Lee Miller ) to incur the expenses for the yacht's repair, she finds herself disappointed as the Prime Minister reminds the Queen of the scrutiny such a big public expenditure will attract. This hesitation on the part of the Prime Minister to agree to the repair easily sends the Queen, who's already on the brink of dwindling popularity, into an emotional tizzy. Queen Elizabeth II reminds John Major that she expects her minor requests to be fulfilled in return for her service to the nation. It's clearly hinted that the Queen feels a deeper connection with Britannia – one which she compares to that of a home – as the Queen's relationship with Britannia is nearly as old as her relationship with the crown. In tracing the journey of Britannia, one can trace the journey of the Queen herself.

Before Britannia found its way to the heart of Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family, Victoria & Albert III, which was built for Queen Victoria, served the royal family for 38 years. Although it was named after Queen Victoria, she never stepped foot on it. Eventually, the former royal yacht was decommissioned in 1954. The requirement for a new royal yacht soon emerged under the reign of King George VI. The King wanted the ship to be more than just a luxury. Hence, the ship was supposed to also serve as a hospital during the war, the opportunity for which never came. Also, it was hoped that the yacht will help the King cope with the troubles of his ailing health. Finally, on February 4, 1952, the John Brown & Co shipyard in Clydebank received the order for a new ship that would go on to become the Britannia. Unfortunately, just two days after the order was given, King George VI passed away, an event that sets into motion the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, who was pushed into the role of the monarch suddenly.

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Queen Elizabeth II Introduced Britannia To The World

Upon the demise of King George VI, the responsibility to look over the construction and commissioning of Britannia fell on the Queen herself, and it was a responsibility that she fulfilled in glorious fashion as the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were closely involved in the pre-commission years of the royal yacht. The original design was proposed by the design firm McInnes Gardner & Partner, but the design was judged to be too lavish for a country recovering from the aftermath of a war. Hence, the Queen and the Duke opted for a design in tune with the times. In fact, the Queen herself picked the color of the paint for the walls and the woodwork and metalwork. As clarified by the Queen in "Queen Victoria Syndrome," the yacht meant more than a luxury for the Royal Highness.

Among the many residences that Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip owned, Britannia was one that reflected the Queen's preferences the most for what a dream house would look like. Although a home away at sea, Britannia was easily the dearest of all places for the Queen who witnessed her home's construction as well as her disassembly all in one lifetime. As shown in the first episode of Season 5, when Queen Elizabeth II proudly introduced the ship to the world by saying, "I name this ship Britannia… I wish success to her and all who sail in her," she was introducing the world to something extremely personal; something that she was highly proud of – her very own home. Britannia was launched by the Queen on April 16, 1953 , and commissioned on January 11, 1954. Royal Yacht Britannia served Prince Charles and Princess Anne on her maiden voyage, taking them to the Queen and the Duke at the end of the royals' Commonwealth tour. The senior royals were also hosted by the royal yacht in May of the same year.

Royal Yacht Britannia Was Integral To The Royal Family's Life

Britannia was not merely a means of transport for the royal family. Instead, the royal yacht had become an essential part of the royals' lives by the end of its 44-year-long tenure. Britannia was a constant companion of the Queen on many historic visits. In 1959, Britannia took the Queen to Chicago for an event that celebrated the opening of the St. Lawrence seaway in Canada. During the visit, President Dwight Eisenhower was hosted on board. Aboard Britannia, the Queen also traveled to the UAE for her first official visit. In 1986, the royal yacht was sent on a rescue mission to save refugees from the civil war in Yemen , fulfilling King George's dream of having a royal yacht that also served the people in times of distress. Over the million miles that the yacht traversed, Britannia hosted many more dignitaries such as Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, among others.

The royalty of the yacht also matched that of the many other residences with royal bedrooms, a 56-seat dining room, drawing rooms, and ample cabins for the officers. The yacht also contained a garage for the Queen's Rolls-Royce which served her on all visits. The yacht was also a vacation home for the royal family on the Western Isles tour, which the family would undertake during the summers. The Britannia has taken the Queen on many journeys to her castle at Balmoral, the Queen's summer retreat.

Britannia Hosted Multiple Royal Honeymoons

Britannia was also dear to the other royals in the family as well. Using Britannia for the royal honeymoon was a tradition instated by Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960. Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips were also hosted on board for their royal honeymoon in 1973. Probably the most famous royal couple of them all, Prince Charles and Princess Diana also spent their honeymoon on Britannia, away from the media. The string of royal honeymoons on Britannia came to an end with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's journey in 1986. Although all these couples later parted ways, Britannia definitely proved to be the perfect host for them in the happier times of their lives.

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

• 20th Century

10 Facts About Royal Yacht Britannia

Peta Stamper

28 nov 2022.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Britannia was the 83rd Royal Yacht

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

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

3. Britannia had two emergency functions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. The crew were volunteers from the Royal Navy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HMY Britannia in 1997, London

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

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

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

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Marine Author & Photographer

The Official History of HM Yacht Britannia was written with the unprecedented support of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. This book presents the first comprehensive account of the Royal Yacht from her origins in the brief reign of King Edward VIII in 1936 to her preservation in Leith. Drawing on official records and an extensive series of interviews, the author provides a unique insight into life in one of the UK’s most famous ships and the first four decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

As part of his research, Richard interviewed a representative selection of those involved in Britannia’s rich heritage from members of the Royal Family through to junior Royal Yachtsmen, as well as, those involved in her construction and preservation. Richard also interviewed a number of former Government Ministers, former members of the Royal Household, business leaders and all of her surviving Commanding Officers. In addition to directly contributing to the book, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KG KT, graciously agreed to write the foreword in which he paid tribute to the Yacht’s remarkable achievements and the people who made them possible.

The lowering of the White Ensign onboard HM Yacht Britannia in Portsmouth Dockyard on 11th December 1997 signalled the end of an unbroken succession of Royal Yachts dating back to the reign of King Charles II. As the latest in this long line of Royal Yachts the commissioning of Britannia in 1954 marked a significant step change from her predecessors. For the first time a British Sovereign had a Royal Yacht that was genuinely capable of sailing around the world. This capability was used to good effect with Britannia supporting the work of members of the Royal Family in locations as diverse as the Antarctic, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Africa, Russia and the Americas. In home waters Britannia became the focus of major State and Naval occasions including Fleet Reviews and The Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. In addition to these official duties, Britannia’s annual programme usually incorporated a visit to Cowes Week and a Western Isles cruise.

Although Britannia played an important role in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the project that resulted in her construction was initiated in 1936. However, the combination of King Edward VIII’s abdication, followed by the outbreak of WWII and the austerity of the early post war years delayed the placing of an order for her construction until 4 February 1952. Sadly, this event was quickly overshadowed by King George VI’s death, thereby leading to the personal involvement of The Queen and Prince Philip in the creation of what was to become one of their homes. This represented a unique opportunity for the Royal couple because their other residences had all been built by previous Monarchs.

The Admiralty appointed Patrick McBride to design the Royal Apartments. He had designed the interiors of the Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth . His initial drawings followed their grand style and did not meet with the Royal couple’s approval, so Prince Philip invited Sir Hugh Casson to inject some fresh ideas. This led to a more modest interior with the feel of a country house rather than a grand palace at sea which gave visitors the impression that they were coming to the Royal couple’s home rather than an official residence.

During nearly 44 years of active service Britannia steamed 1,087,623 nautical miles conducting 696 Royal visits overseas and 272 in home waters. Britannia’s sweeping lines and immaculate appearance combined to produce a simple yet effective formula that never failed to generate an air of glamour and excitement among the people she visited. On these occasions Britannia projected the very best of Britain and enhanced the prestige of the nation abroad. Those who were privileged to see round her Engine and Boiler Rooms could hardly believe that these mundane places could sparkle and gleam with quite such brilliance. However, none of this would have been possible without Britannia’s dedicated officers and ratings of the Royal Yacht Service. Their attention to detail and sheer hard work helped to establish Britannia’s reputation for smartness and efficient seamanship.

Britannia’s original secondary role as a casualty evacuation ship was put to the test in January 1986, while on passage to New Zealand and Australia for The Queen’s visits. The Yacht was diverted to Aden to assist in the evacuation of British nationals who had been trapped by the fighting in South Yemen’s erupting civil war. Britannia’s large open spaces in the Royal Apartments, coupled with the high number of boats that she carried and civilian appearence, made her ideally suited for this mission. During Operation Balsac a total of 1,068 men, women and children of 55 different nationalities were taken to safety by Britannia . On completion of the evacuation, the Yacht resumed her voyage to New Zealand and was only one day late when she berthed in Auckland on 23 February! In later years, Britannia was used with increasing success, in-between her Royal duties, to promote British industry abroad through the hosting of sea days.

Britannia’s replacement and ultimate fate became a controversial issue during the 1997 General Election due to the failure of John Major’s Government to consult with the opposition before announcing its decision to build a new Royal Yacht on 22 January 1997. Having opposed this decision during the General Election, the recently elected Labour Government announced in October 1997 that Britannia would be decommissioned without replacement.

However, Britannia’s ultimate fate remained unresolved until April 1998 when the Government announced that she would be preserved in Leith. Within a month, Britannia had arrived in the Scottish port for conversion into a museum ship prior to being opened to the public on 19 October 1998.

In September 2001, Britannia was towed across the basin in Leith to her permanent moorings at the recently completed £120 million Ocean Terminal. The move enabled The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust to open up more areas. Early research showed that visitors wanted to see more of Britannia especially where the Yachtsmen had lived. Thus, the forward part of the main deck was opened to enable people to visit the Petty Officers and Chief Petty Officer’s messes, the Marine Barracks, the Junior Rates mess area, the Sick Bay, the Laundry, the Post Office and the NAAFI.

These changes, coupled with further developments, such as the opening of the Royal Deck Tea Room and the Trust’s acquisition of the former racing Royal Yacht Bloodhound , have helped establish Britannia as one of Scotland’s most important tourist attractions – a fact underlined by the Scottish Tourist Board’s award of its prestigious 5 star rating.

There is no doubt that the nation lost a tremendous diplomatic and business asset when Britannia paid off without replacement, although her preservation in Leith serves as a lasting memorial to the proud traditions of the Royal Yacht Service.

The two editions of this Official History were published in 2003 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the launch of HM Yacht Britannia . These books were illustrated with over 250 photographs and artworks, many of which were published for the first time.

Product Details

Title: The Royal Yacht Britannia – The Official History

Foreword by: HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KG KT

Edition: 1st

Publisher: Conway Maritime Press

Format: Hard Back

Publication Date: May 2003

ISBN 0-85177-937-9

Number of Pages: 310

Number of Images:

Remarks : This edition has been out of print since 2009

Edition: Signed Limited Edition

ISBN 0-85177-965-4

Number of Published Pages: 310

King Charles III makes a poignant return to the Royal Yacht Britannia – his mother’s beloved home from home

By Stephanie Bridger-Linning

King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) with Princess Diana on the Royal Yacht Britannia at the start of their honeymoon cruise

King Charles III yesterday made a poignant return to the Royal Yacht Britannia. A ‘home from home’ for Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh and their four children, the Royal Yacht Britannia held an important place in the lives of the Royal Family for more than four decades until it was decommissioned in 1997.

Some expected Prince Harry to be among the congregation when close friend Jack Mann wed in Sussex

Family holidays, honeymoon and precious private time – the Royal Yacht Britannia brought so much to the Windsors. ‘This was the place out of the public eye, they could relax and be themselves. On board Britannia that was their family time and it was our job to make their stay comfortable,’ one former crew member recalled yesterday.

Members of the Royal Yacht Britannia make a toast with King Charles III during a tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia

By Isaac Zamet

By Harriet Johnston

Boarding the decommissioned yacht, King Charles no doubt would have been transported back through the decades to the countless voyages he shared with his siblings, cousins and parents – and later his wife and their young sons. During the visit – part of a busy schedule of engagements for Holyrood Week – King Charles sipped rum with sailors, met former crew members and attended a reception in the State Dining Room. ‘To all the marvellous Yotties who keep it all going, you are all brilliant,’ he said, toasting the crew.

Also known as Royal Week, Holyrood Week is an opportunity for the King and Queen to celebrate Scottish culture

By Ollie Macnaughton

The history of royal yachts dates back to the reign of Charles II who, when he became King of England, Scotland and Ireland on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, was gifted a yacht called the Mary by his Dutch allies. There have been a total of 82 royal yachts since. As well as providing monarchs and their families a place in which to relax, they have also been deployed on diplomatic missions; a role that was particularly important before royals were able to jet off on planes.

Prince Charles and Princess Anne with their nanny on board the Royal yacht, Britannia at Portsmouth

Although it was Queen Elizabeth II and her family who enjoyed the use of the Britannia, the vessel had been commissioned by her father, King George VI , as a replacement for the ageing Victoria and Albert which was decommissioned in 1939 having been constructed during the reign of Queen Victoria.

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George VI, who reigned over Britain during the Second World War, took a practical approach when planning the new vessel, lest the nation should once again find itself in the throes of conflict, and ensured it could easily be turned into a hospital ship if needed. Sadly, the King died before construction was completed and it was his daughter and son-in-law who had the final say on its design.

The Queen and Prince Philip waving on board Royal Yacht Britannia during an official visit to Kuwait

The state room on the Royal Yacht Britannia

The Britannia set sail on her maiden voyage from Portsmouth to the Grand Harbour in Malta on 14 April 1952, carrying Princess Anne and her brother Prince Charles , who reunited with the then Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the end of their Commonwealth tour. The late Queen first boarded the yacht at Tobruk in the country then known as the Kingdom of Libya in May 1954, and she famously became the first British monarch to visit Chicago in 1959 when the yacht docked in the city.

King George V’s grandson Prince Michael of Kent is married to the glamazon and author Princess Michael of Kent

By Isaac Bickerstaff

It became integral to royal life. As a young boy, Prince Charles is said to have stolen pastries from the kitchen of the yacht, and was captured on film playing on the decks and swooping down a makeshift slide. Sir Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela were among those who dined in the opulent State Dining Room, while Prince Charles and Princess Diana honeymooned on board. It was also the location of fun-filled family holidays, with private home videos and photos shared from the royal archives over the years revealing how the late Queen relaxed on deck as the family whizzed down waterslides.

Season 5 of The Crown featured the Britannia towards the end of her seaworthy days. The series depicts Queen Elizabeth II (played by Imelda Staunton) tries to strong-arm Prime Minister Sir John Major (Johnny Lee Miller) into footing the bill for a sizeable refurbishment, telling him: ‘From the design of the hull to the smallest piece of china, she is a floating, seagoing expression of me.’ The Duke of Edinburgh (Jonathan Pryce) also does his best to compel Sir John to take action.

The Royal Yacht Britannia in Hong Kong

Ultimately, however, it was decided (as in real life) that the ‘costs were too great’ and, in 1994, it was announced the Britannia would be decommissioned. Three years later, the vessel that had given the late Queen so many happy memories embarked on its final voyage – a farewell tour around the UK. On the day of decommissioning, the enormity of the occasion was clear for the world to see, for Her late Majesty was photographed wiping away a tear during the ceremony; a rare public display of emotion for the stoic sovereign.

Typically stylish, Kate Middleton opted for an '80s-inspired green blazer and white midi skirt for her first outing to Wimbledon this year

Since her retirement, Britannia has been moored in the Port of Leith in Edinburgh and has served as a tourist attraction. It marks the final chapter in a fascinating story of the beloved floating royal residence.

The Queen wiping a tear from her eye at the de-commissioning ceremony for The Royal Yacht Britannia

By Rebecca Cope

By Wesley Kerr OBE

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HMS Britannia: 10 facts about Queen Elizabeth's former royal yacht

From humanitarian missions to hosting royal honeymoons, the HMS Britannia has a fascinating history serving the British Royal Family for over four decades. When she was decommissioned in 1997, Queen Elizabeth II shed a tear in a rare display of emotion. The occasion marked the end of long succession for royal yachts dating back to the reign of Charles II. As the country prepares to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee, we remember her beloved Britannia .

1. Britannia was launched in 1953

Britannia was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II following the death of her father and was launched from John Brown & Co. Ltd - the shipyard that built the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary cruise liners - in 1953. However, there was to be no traditional Champagne-smashing against her bow. In a post-war Britain, Champagne was considered too extravagant so instead, a bottle of Empire wine was selected to do the honours at her official launch ceremony.

2. There are three masts on board

Unlike her predecessors, Britannia possessed a more modern profile with a clipper bow and cruiser stern. The ship was designed with three masts: a 41-metre foremast, a  42-metre mainmast, and 36 metre mizzenmast. The last six metres of the main mast were placed on a hinge so she could pass under bridges.

3. Britannia logged over one million nautical miles

Between family vacations and official tours, Britannia logged over one million nautical miles, which roughly equates to one trip around the world for each of her 44 years in service.

4. The wheel was inherited

The ship’s wheel was taken from King Edward VII’s racing yacht, a 37-metre gaff-rigged cutter also named Britannia . She was a near sistership to Valkyrie II which challenged for the 1893 America's Cup, and won over 230 races in her lifetime. At the end of her life she was stripped of her spars and fittings - the wheel was saved and fitted on Britannia

5. The engine room was hyper-clean

The engine room was hyper-clean  Rumour has it that the engine room on Britannia was kept in such pristine condition that any visitors were made to wipe their feet on a door mat before entering.

6. Royal honeymoons were hosted on board

A number of royal couples chose to spend their honeymoons on Britannia given its privacy and security. Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones started the trend with a six-week sail between Mustique, Trinidad and Antigua, followed by Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, and Princess Diana and Prince Charles. The royal apartments were located on the shelter deck with access to a large veranda.

7. There were more than 200 crew on board

During royal tours, Britannia was manned by 220 yachtsmen, 21 officers and three season officers and a Royal Marine band of 26 on royal tours. Up until the 1970s, the crew had a daily ration of rum and she was the last Royal Navy vessel to have the crew sleep in hammocks.

8. Ready for war

Britannia was designed to be converted into a hospital ship in times of war. Although she was never used in this capacity, she did assist in the evacuation of refugees during the South Yemen civil war. The drawing room was used as a temporary dormitory for the evacuees.

9. The golden rivet

It was common for officers to send junior crew off on a fool’s errand to search for a single "golden rivet". It became a right of passage and engrained in maritime folklore. During a state visit, so the story goes, the Queen had caught wind of this elusive rivet and was keen to see it for herself, so the crew found some gold leaf and hastily created a golden rivet to present to Her Majesty.

10. Decomission

HMS Britannia was officially retired from royal service in 1997. Britannia  is now permanently berthed in Edinburgh and has been converted into a museum. To this day, all the clocks on board remained stopped on 3.01pm which is the exact time the Queen last disembarked the vessel.

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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.

• Footage of Queen Elizabeth II in Ethiopia in 1965
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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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Truly Edinburgh

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The Royal Yacht Britannia: discover its history

Once home to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her family, the Royal Yacht Britannia is now moored at Leith, Edinburgh

©Mark Millar, Royal Yacht Britannia

The Role of the Royal Yacht Britannia in the British Royal Family

The yacht provided a sanctuary for the royal family offering them a respite from the demands of public life. It allowed them to escape the prying eyes of the media and enjoy moments of relaxation and privacy.

As they travelled the world it was, said the queen, the one place she could truly relax.

Today the world’s most famous yacht is an Edinburgh five-star visitor attraction and exclusive events venue.

the Royal Yacht Britannia history

Plans to build a new yacht to replace the ageing Victoria and Albert III had first been considered in 1938 during the reign of King George VI but in austere pre-war Britain, it didn’t seem appropriate.

However in 1951, with the king’s health failing, the government decided to push ahead with their plans for a new ship. Sadly King George died before the work was completed.

construction and design of the Royal Yacht Britannia

Like two of the other great ocean-going passenger liners, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II, the royal yacht’s life began on the River Clyde. 

It was built in John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank near Glasgow and launched on 16 April 1953.

Following sea trials, the ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy the following year.

It was the latest in a long line of royal yachts that stretched back to the seventeenth century when the Dutch gave the world’s first royal yacht Mary to Charles II as a gift.

Original designs of the ship had specified a dual role – a hospital ship to be used in times of conflict and a royal yacht. She was never used in the former capacity.

However, in 1986, during a voyage to Australia, without the Queen aboard, the ship diverted to Aden to help in the evacuation of those trapped on the beaches by an ongoing war in the region.

Over 1,000 terrified people were rescued and crammed into every available space.

Both the Queen and Prince Philip took a keen interest in the design of the vessel, working with Sir Hugh Casson on plans for the interior decorations.

The young couple selected fabrics, furniture and paintings, many of them taken from the Victoria and Albert III in an effort to keep costs under control.

The state apartments aft of the funnel were not extravagantly decorated.  Instead, they have a traditional ‘country house’ feel, particularly in the drawing room where chintz-covered armchairs and sofas sit on a plain silver-grey carpet overlaid by a magnificent Persian rug. 

A baby grand piano stood in the corner often providing after-dinner entertainment. Princesses Diana, Margaret and Alexandra were all known to enjoy playing. 

Famous guests aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia

Writer Brian Hoey reminds us of the night Sir Noel Coward came to dinner during a Caribbean cruise. 

“He literally sang for his supper, playing many of his own compositions into the wee small hours. Even on the royal yacht, there was no such thing as a free meal.” 

Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor also pulled up a chair in the State Dining Room.

Of course, they weren’t the only well-known people to visit the yacht.

Over the years Rajiv Gandhi, Sir Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela were only a few of the others on a long list of the world’s most powerful people who enjoyed royal hospitality.

© Mark Millar, Royal Yacht Britannia

Supper’ in Britannia’s dining room could be a splendid occasion. In preparation for a state banquet, Royal Navy stewards would lay the burnished mahogany table with military precision. 

They would carefully place the floral decorations, candelabras and exquisite crystal wine glasses.

With a ruler in hand, they measured the precise position of each shining piece of silver cutlery. Menus were printed and seating plans were discussed before Britannia set sail. 

The Queen and Prince Philip had their own bedrooms and sitting rooms, decorated to reflect their personal taste. The Queen preferred chintz and floral while the Duke liked the more functional wood panelling. 

This elegant lady became a favourite with all generations of the royal family but particularly the Queen who always said it was the only place she could truly be at ease.

Honeymoons at Sea

Four royal couples opted for a honeymoon at sea, onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.

They were Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.

Princess Diana

A young Princess Diana was happiest when proceedings were kept informal, she was a very special guest as far as the naval crew were concerned. 

On one memorable occasion, she was found in the Junior Ratings Mess leading the crew, or yachtsmen, as they were called, in a rendition of What , Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor. 

One remark in particular sums up the feeling and affection the crew had for her.  “There are 275 men aboard and every one of them is in love with Princess Diana.”

It’s fitting that Prince William and Prince Harry, who often spent their summer holidays on trips to the Western Isles of Scotland loved the freedom and privacy the royal yacht allowed them.

Ambassador for Britain

Beyond its role as a private residence, it was an unofficial ambassador for Britain serving as a platform for diplomatic and official engagements.

Britannia undertook numerous state visits, carrying the royal family and government officials to countries around the world. The yacht became a powerful symbol of British soft power, projecting an image of elegance, grace, and stability to the international community.

On what became known as Sea Days, it would throw open the doors to the world of commerce.

That allowed businessmen to showcase the best of British craftsmanship and design and promote their companies and products to the world.

The yacht became a floating showroom for British excellence, helping to boost exports and attract foreign investment.

The Overseas Trade Board estimated that between 1991 and 1995 the exchequer benefited to the tune of £3 billion.

Decommissioning and the transformation into a visitor attraction

After over four decades of service, the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned in Portsmouth on 11 December 1997.

During that long service, the ship sailed over one million nautical miles stopping at 600 ports in 135 countries. 

Rather than being sold or scrapped, the decision was made to preserve the yacht as a visitor attraction, allowing the public to experience first-hand the grandeur and history of this wonderful vessel.

At the Paying-Off Ceremony, the queen clearly sad at the occasion, said: “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.” 

WHAT ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF A VISIT TO THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA?

• Enjoy freshly made food and a warm welcome at the Royal Deck Tearoom.
• Visit the gleaming Engine Room to inspect the John Brown built turbines which drove the ship over a million nautical miles in its many years of service.
• The Wheelhouse , not on the Bridge as you might expect, is on the deck below. Yachtsmen unable to see ahead followed instructions from the officers through voice pipes.
• Admire the lavish State Dining Room , decorated with gifts received on foreign visits.
• Visit the Officers’ Wardroom , sometimes compared to a gentleman’s club, where officers would relax after work. Traditionally the captain did not dine there unless invited.
• Crew’s Quarters: These are much more cramped than the royal and officers’ quarters. They give a glimpse into the living conditions of the working crew. You can also visit the sick bay and the laundry room.

Special events

The Britannia also hosts a series of special events throughout the year, including music evenings and cocktail nights. It is also available for private hire, with the State Dining Room being a popular venue for dinners and receptions.

VISITOR INFORMATION

If you’re visiting during the busiest periods and just turn up, the queues can be long, so be prepared for a wait.

However, many of the available tour options will let you avoid queuing and you can book online on the official Britannia website.

But if you prefer to explore yourself, there are free audio guides in 30 languages to help you find your way around. A range of concession prices is also available.

Can you stay overnight on the Royal Yacht Britannia?

While you cannot stay overnight, you can at the nearby Fingal, a floating hotel moored nearby.

This unique hotel is also owned by the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust and is one of E dinburgh’s luxury hotels.

• Also nearby is the newest Edinburgh whisky distillery –the Port of Leith Distillery – due to open in the summer of 2023. (The distillery opened in October 2023).

For further information on admission times and help planning your visit, go to the Britannia website.

Drink in tales of San Francisco Irish resistance at this legendary bar

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More than 5,000 miles separate the Bay Area from Dublin and Belfast, but the ghosts of Ireland’s past never feel very far away here.

San Francisco has a long Irish history, dating back to the Gold Rush. City records estimate a third of San Francisco’s workforce was of Irish descent by the 1880s. An Irishman, Jasper O’Farrell, of O’Farrell Street fame, also designed the city grid, meaning that the very fabric of San Francisco is, in effect, Irish.

But history lessons can be a tad dry. They always go down better at the bar of the Dovre Club, washed down by multiple pints of the black stuff served up by bartender Brendon “Elvis” McElhatton, who’s been pulling them there since 1999. I wanted to know if some local shenanigans I’d heard about were authentic Irish history or blarney, so I made my way down there and claimed a stool.

The Dovre Club is steeped in San Francisco Irish folklore. The walls are adorned with newspaper clippings about the bar and its former owner, Patrick “Paddy” Nolan. Hunter S. Thompson is said to have drunk there with journalist Warren Hinckle, a friend of Nolan’s. Photos of Nolan hang alongside Irish memorabilia and a banner reading “Free the H-Block 4.” (More on that later.)  The Guinness is creamy, delicious and served the proper way. One raucous tale I sought to verify had to do with piglets and a posh hotel. As the legend goes, Nolan, a staunch advocate of Irish Northern Aid, a major faction in the movement to unite Ireland into a single nation, was behind a prank that involved backing a truck full of live piglets up to the entrance to the Westin St. Francis and releasing them into the lobby. 

The stunt, it’s said, was in protest of the presence at the hotel of Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s sister. The pigs referenced a remark allegedly made by the princess during a dinner with Chicago’s mayor in the late 1970s. The rumor that she had denounced the Irish as pigs caused international uproar during a bloody time in Northern Ireland. 

Sadly, I could find no newspaper archive clippings to verify this squealing act of resistance against the British monarchy. Still, Irish protesters did gather outside the Fairmont Hotel on Oct. 22, 1979, where the princess was attending a dinner-dance at the Venetian Room alongside guests such as Bob Hope and Tony Bennett. At least one of the 200 angry Irish protesters brought a live piglet—named Jigs, San Francisco Examiner archives show.

Nolan never had children and died of throat cancer in 1996, leaving his storied Mission District bar to Brian McElhatton, who died of brain cancer in 2008. Elvis is Brian’s younger brother, and probably one of the only men alive who might know the truth about the piglets. But when I asked about them, he simply laughed and said, “That’s classic gossip!”

Potato bombs from the Golden Gate?

Another tale claims that when the late Queen Elizabeth visited San Francisco in the 1980s, Irish protesters stood on the Golden Gate Bridge with a sack of potatoes, hurling them at the royal yacht Britannia from above. 

This one, too, merits a fact-check. For one thing, “it was pig’s blood,” Elvis said. “We’ve got to keep our potatoes. We don’t waste that shit.” 

It also never made it past the plotting stage. Police caught wind of the scheme, but many of the cops, being Irish themselves, refused to intervene, according to Elvis.

The plan never came to fruition, as the Golden Gate Bridge walkways were closed, he said. FBI documents allege there was a plot to kill the queen that involved dropping something off the bridge toward the royal yacht during her 1983 visit. The files name the Dovre Club as a gathering place for Irish Republican Army sympathizers.

A related legend claims Nolan and friends loaded boats with rotting fish and tailed the royal yacht so that seagulls would flock over the Queen’s fancy floater and play havoc with its sophisticated radar systems—or perhaps just cover it in poop. Alas, no newspaper clippings could be found to corroborate this tale either. But news clips do show a tight cordon was enforced by the U.S. Coast Guard to keep private vessels away from the royal yacht. 

I asked Elvis about this tale, too. “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story,” the bartender said after serving me another Guinness.

Rumors of a secret IRA safe house

Dovre Club’s former home, at the corner of what is now the Women’s Building, is rumored to have harbored Irish political prisoners in a secret basement before the club moved to the corner of Valencia and 26th streets in 1998.

The basement exists. I went to see it for myself, guided by the building’s facilities manager, Julio Artiga, who had no idea his storage room may once have been a refuge for IRA members and the like. The bar above is now a day care center, but old metal doors that lead to the street can still be seen from below, as can an ancient-looking washbasin and urinal—what more does a wayward Irish son need below a bar?

I was dying to know whether it really did stash prisoners. But when I asked Elvis about it; the color drained from his otherwise rosy complexion, and he shook his head.

“I’ve already got enough enemies, and I’m not trying to make any more,” he said. 

The legend of the H-Block 4

San Francisco Irish history is forever entwined with the story of the H-Block 4, four prisoners who escaped from Long Kesh, the infamous British prison in Northern Ireland—known as the Maze—in 1983. No tale of Irish San Francisco is complete without mentioning the escapees.

The men found sanctuary in the San Francisco Bay Area; one was extradited, one was deported and two stayed behind. One, Terry Kirby, lives in the East Bay. A phone call to Kirby’s home was answered by a woman with a faint Irish accent who said they weren’t interested in talking about Irish resistance in San Francisco before the phone slammed down.

The youngest of the four, Kevin Arrt, lives in San Francisco. I found an address for him and visited the street, but the door number didn’t exist. One door number up, a man stood outside a house. 

“I’m looking for a man named Kevin,” I asked him. He froze and then spoke back in a Northern Irish accent. “What do you want him for?”

I explained my quest. “I know Kevin, but he doesn’t live on this street. Give me your number, and I’ll have him give you a call.” A phone call from a blocked number came a day later, and Kevin—who was the man I'd met on the street—apologized for his deception. He said my British accent had scared the life out of him, thinking I was an assassin. (Do assassins wear corduroy trousers, too?)

Kevin did not want to comment for this story, stating he’d prefer to stay under the radar after clearing his name in Northern Ireland in 2020. He now wishes to retire in peace and said all the men with direct knowledge of any resistance acts in San Francisco, humorous or otherwise, were likely all dead.

Still, if you want to drink among some real San Francisco Irish history this St. Patrick’s Day, Dovre Club is open from noon until 2 a.m., with corned beef hash served around 3 p.m.

Writer's note: I grew up in Manchester, England, but feel it’s important to say my dad grew up in Roscommon, Ireland, in this very farmhouse , which is about as Irish as you can get. I’m an Irish citizen (thanks, Brexit). And if Ancestry’s DNA test is to be believed, my mother is about 20% Irish, too. Erin go bragh.

Joe Burn can be reached at [email protected]

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The ultimate royal travel guide to Britain, from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle

T he British landscape is awash with royal properties, from stately palaces to historic castles. These include three of the monarch’s official royal residences; Buckingham Palace , Windsor Castle , and Edinburgh’s Palace of Holyroodhouse. 

But while these historic buildings may have the level of grandeur you might imagine when you picture the Royal family at home, in truth, royals are only ‘resident’ in these buildings on occasion. For some, they are even considered business premises – though they rather put the rest of our offices to shame. 

When it comes to days off from official business, members of the Royal family are more likely to be found in their private homes, such as the King and Queen’s Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, or the Prince and Princess of Wales’s family home of Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park. 

While the private homes are exactly that – private – there are plenty of places around Britain where you can walk in the footsteps of the Royal family and get a small glimpse into their lives. Here are some of the best. 

Buckingham Palace, London

Let’s start with the most famous of all royal residences: Buckingham Palace. Elizabeth II largely regarded it as her office, spending weekdays there attending to official business before retreating to Windsor at the weekends.

Now, of course, the palace – whose origins can be traced back to the reign of King James I in the early 17 th century, but which has been the London home of British monarchs since 1837 when Queen Victoria moved in – is the King’s official London residence.

Buckingham Palace is the setting for royal and national celebrations and commemorations; who can forget catching a glimpse of Royal family members from the famous balcony? It’s also where the monarch hosts dignitaries and official banquets – on September 18 2022, the King held a reception for world leaders at the palace on the eve of his mother’s funeral.

As it is a working palace, Buckingham Palace is only open to the public at set times. For 10 weeks each summer, its grand state rooms are opened up. During this time, visitors can see the crimson-and-gold Throne Room, the Royal Mews, and the enormous Ballroom, where all those extravagant state banquets are held. In addition, there are exclusive guided tours at select dates throughout the year.

Those without a ticket or travelling at the wrong time of year can still watch the spectacle of the Changing of the Guard, which takes place outside the palace several days a week at 10.45am (weather dependent but check the schedule ). 

The ceremony has its roots in the reign of King Henry VI and sees the New Guard of soldiers – wearing the customary bearskin hats – march to Buckingham Palace from St James’s Palace and Wellington Barracks accompanied by music. They parade in front of the palace and relieve the ‘Old Guard’ (the soldiers on duty). 

If you are lucky and the King is in residence (the Royal Standard flag will be flying) then there will be an even higher number of sentries than normal taking part in the ceremony.

How to do it

Buckingham Palace (0303 123 7300) is open for 10 weeks each summer (July 14–September 24 2023). The Goring (read our review here ) has double rooms from £710 including breakfast.

Windsor Castle, Windsor

At the start of the Covid pandemic, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip retreated to this castle on the banks of the River Thames to shield with 22 staff members in what became known as ‘HMS Bubble’. After Prince Philip’s death in April 2021, the late Queen remained at Windsor; indeed, she never spent another night at Buckingham Palace.

The castle was originally built for William the Conqueror to defend London from western approaches, but it became a royal palace under King Henry I. Subsequent monarchs extended the palace with its most ambitious makeover undertaken by King Charles II who wanted to emulate the opulence of his cousin Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles.

As well as seeing the rich interiors of the castle, visitors can pay their respects to the late Queen by visiting her final resting place within the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George’s Chapel.

In 2022, the Prince and Princess of Wales moved to nearby Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park with their three children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – who attend school locally. It may well be that they will eventually move into the castle itself.

Windsor Castle (0303 123 7300) is open daily (summer). Castle Hotel Windsor (read our review here ) has double rooms from £132 including breakfast.

Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh

The King’s official residence in Scotland, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is a rather grand building that sits at the opposite end of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the castle. The palace has links with many famous figures from Scottish history – including Bonnie Prince Charlie, who set up court here in 1745 – but the person most visitors want to hear about is Mary, Queen of Scots. Her bedroom can be reached via a winding staircase in the north-west tower of the palace, and is a delight to discover with its low doorway (despite Mary being around 6ft-tall), decorative oak ceiling and painted frieze.

The reigning monarch stays at the palace every year during Holyrood Week (or Royal Week) from late June to early July. During this time they take part in the symbolic Ceremony of the Keys in which the monarch is handed the keys to the city of Edinburgh by the Lord Provost amid much pomp and ceremony.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse (0303 123 7306) is open daily July-Sept; it’s closed Tue-Wed in all other months. Cheval Old Town Chambers (read our review here ) has double rooms from £190 including breakfast.

Highgrove House, Gloucestershire

When they are not on official duties, the King and Queen love nothing better than to return to their countryside home of Highgrove in the Cotswolds. As the house is a private home, you can’t peek behind its neoclassical façade, but tours of the exquisite gardens – which Charles has dedicated himself to creating since buying the property in 1980 – are lovely. 

An experienced guide will take you through the gardens, which are a real passion project of His Majesty. You will then be led to the Ante Room, where bespoke Highgrove products – including food and drink made from produce grown here – can be bought and artworks by the King himself admired. This is all followed by cream tea in the Orchard Room, making it an idyllic way to spend an afternoon.

Highgrove is open on select dates for tours between April and September. Calcot & Spa (read the review here ) has double rooms from £364 including breakfast.

Llwynywermod, Llandovery

The Royal family also has a Welsh home. When he was Prince of Wales, Charles bought the 192-acre estate of Llwynywermod in Carmarthenshire, Wales, in 2006. Comprising a farmhouse building, where he and Camilla would regularly holiday, and three cottages, Charles soon set about renovating the house and its adjoining properties in a greener way, using locally sourced materials. 

On Charles’ ascension to the throne, the property was passed on to William, the new Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who also have a strong affection for the Welsh countryside, having spent some of the early years of their marriage living in Anglesey.

What’s special about here is that two of the cottages are available for holiday lets – North Range, for instance, is a beautiful whitewashed converted barn that sleeps six guests across three bedrooms and comes with a flagstone floor, open fire, Welsh furniture and lots of character. The smaller West Range sleeps four guests.

North Range and West Range can be booked through the Duchy of Cornwall (01579 346 473) and cost from £1,225 per week.

Balmoral, Aberdeenshire

Elizabeth II spent her final weeks in Balmoral and this palace in the Highlands was reputedly her favourite home. 

She is not the only royal to have felt an affinity for the place. Queen Victoria, who fell in love with the Highlands during her very first visit in 1842, was the first monarch to call it home. She and Albert loved to escape public life here, embarking on expeditions incognito through the Highlands. 

The late Queen spent every summer at Balmoral (August–October) and she would regularly be joined by other members of the Royal family. When the monarch is not in residence, the site is open to visitors. 

Although you can only see a small section of the castle’s interiors – including the ballroom where Ghillies Balls have historically been held – it’s the majestic setting amid acres of greenery with views across to the Cairngorms that makes a visit here worthwhile. 

The Royal family are considered locals in the nearby village of Ballater and are regularly seen attending services at nearby Crathie Kirk. Indeed in April 2023, Charles and Camilla surprised residents by making an unexpected visit to a new fishmongers and restaurant in the village during a pre-Coronation holiday at Balmoral.

Balmoral (01339 742 534) is open for pre-booked self-guided tours every summer (1 April to 16 Aug 2023). The Fife Arms (read the review here ) has double rooms from £250 including breakfast.

Read more about where the Royal family like to holiday here .

Sandringham, Norfolk

The Royal family traditionally spends Christmas at the sprawling estate of Sandringham. The private country retreat has been a popular haunt since 1862, when the Jacobean house was built for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra while Edward’s mother was still on the throne.

It was also a favourite of King Charles III’s grandfather, King George VI, and great-grandfather, King George V, who both died here. The house and gardens are a joy to explore. Norfolk is also where Anmer Hall, another of William and Catherine’s homes, is located.

Sandringham (01485 544 112) is open Sat-Thu (summer). The Brisley Bell (read the review here ) has double rooms from £133 including breakfast.

Royal Yacht Britannia, Edinburgh

Until 1997 the Royal family would take annual holidays around Scotland’s Western Isles aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia . After the yacht was decommissioned, it was docked in the seaside Edinburgh suburb of Leith in Edinburgh and has since become one of Scotland’s most popular attractions.

A tour of the yacht allows you to peer into the bedroom that Queen Elizabeth II slept in while on board and reveals a glimpse of what life in the Royal family is like when the eyes of the world are not upon them. The late Queen clearly missed her days on board; after the yacht was no longer available to her, she chartered the Hebridean Princess , which offers small-ship cruises, on two separate occasions for special celebrations.

The Royal Yacht Britannia (0131 555 5566) is open daily (summer). Fingal (read the review here ) is a luxurious floating hotel nearby. It has double rooms from £300 including breakfast. The Hebridean Princess (01756 704 704) offers cruises from March to November with prices from £4,420pp for seven nights).

Read more about the travels of Elizabeth II here .

Kensington Palace, London

This west London mansion was the beloved home of Princess Diana and both the Diana Memorial Fountain and the Diana Memorial Playground can be found in its gardens. Apartment 1a is still the London pad of the Prince of Wales and his family. 

For many years, Kensington was known for the magnificent balls that were held across its ornate interconnected rooms and began in the late 17 th century during the era of King William and Mary. The already grandiose interiors were later added to by the Georgians when Kensington became the hub of high society. Elaborate decoration, such as the painted walls around the King’s Staircase which features many characters from George I’s court, were also added. 

As well as standard tours of the palace, regular exhibitions draw on its rich history, telling the stories of past and present royals in new and dynamic ways. Victoria: A Royal Childhood tells the story of one of the palace’s most famous residents. Queen Victoria was born here and the exhibition includes personal items such as her doll house. Other rolling exhibitions let visitors see precious items from the palace’s archive; often including iconic outfits worn by various members of the Royal family.

Kensington Palace (0333 320 6000) is open Wed–Sun (summer).  Baglioni (read the review here ), opposite Kensington Gardens, has double rooms from £494 including breakfast.

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Kushner Developing Deals Overseas Even as His Father-in-Law Runs for President

Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who was also a senior White House official, said he was close to finalizing real estate projects in Albania and Serbia.

By Eric Lipton ,  Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman

Reporting from Washington

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald J. Trump, confirmed on Friday that he was closing in on major real estate deals in Albania and Serbia, the latest example of the former president’s family doing business abroad even as Mr. Trump seeks to return to the White House.

Mr. Kushner’s plans in the Balkans appear to have come about in part through relationships built while Mr. Trump was in office. Mr. Kushner, who was a senior White House official, said he had been working on the deals with Richard Grenell, who served briefly as acting director of national intelligence under Mr. Trump and also as ambassador to Germany and special envoy to the Balkans.

One of the proposed projects would be the development of an island off the coast of Albania into a luxury tourist destination.

A second — with a planned luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units and a museum — is in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, at the site of the long-vacant former headquarters of the Yugoslav Army destroyed in 1999 by the NATO bombings, according to a member of Parliament in Serbia and Mr. Kushner’s company.

These first two projects both involve land now controlled by the governments, meaning a deal would have to be finalized with foreign governments.

A third project, also in Albania, would be built on the Zvërnec peninsula, a 1,000-acre coastal area in the south of Albania that is part of the resort community known as Vlorë, where several hotels and hundreds of villas would be built, according to the plan.

Mr. Kushner’s participation would be through his investment firm, Affinity Partners, which has $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, among other foreign investors. In a statement, an official with Affinity Partners said it had not been determined whether the Saudi funds might be a part of any project Mr. Kushner is considering in the Balkans.

“We are very excited,” Mr. Kushner said in an interview. “We have not finalized these deals, so they might not happen, but we have been working hard and are pretty close.”

Mr. Kushner set up his investment company after he left his White House job as a senior adviser. He capitalized on relationships he had built in government negotiating in the Middle East, which included a close relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Kushner ended up securing the $2 billion from the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and hundreds of millions of dollars more from wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar . He has taken few public steps so far to actually invest large chunks of this money.

Mr. Grenell also made valuable connections while in government, including some that appear to have given the Kushner team an inside track for investments in the Balkans. During his time in the Trump administration, Mr. Grenell worked on resolving disputes between Serbia and Kosovo.

These discussions indirectly involved Albania, as most citizens of Kosovo are ethnic Albanians and Albania plays a role in the regional discussions.

Mr. Grenell has remained close with Mr. Trump since the former president left office, defending him publicly and speaking to him regularly.

Mr. Grenell has said privately that he hopes to be secretary of state in a second Trump administration, according to a person who has discussed the matter with Mr. Grenell and who described the conversations on the condition of anonymity.

Mr. Grenell, in an interview, declined to address on the record any interest in potentially taking a post as secretary of state. He said only that he had not decided whether he would join any future Trump administration.

Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, which tracked business deals it considered conflicts of interest during the Trump administration, said these planned deals were unethical and would only raise new questions about the Trump family, particularly if Mr. Trump was re-elected.

“At this point in the election cycle Jared Kushner should freeze any new investment plans,” Mr. Weissman said. “This particular investment plan seems to involve the worst of every corrupt tendency of the Trump administration and Trump family.”

The Trump family’s involvement in foreign business deals became a major focus during Mr. Trump’s term, with critics ultimately suing and alleging that the family was illegally profiting from foreign payments — referred to as emoluments in the Constitution — while Mr. Trump was in office. These cases were dismissed as moot by the Supreme Court when Mr. Trump left office, but they could be reopened if he was back in the White House.

Since leaving office, Mr. Trump has become a partner in a development project in Oman , a deal he was brought into by a Saudi real estate firm that has ties to the Saudi government.

Mr. Kushner rejected any suggestion that he was getting preferential treatment because of his time in the government, or that any of the work was connected to the former president.

“No one is ‘giving’ me deals,” said Mr. Kushner, who insisted he was not planning to return to Washington should his father-in-law win the presidency again. “I operate fairly meticulously, and these investments will create a lot of value for the local communities, our partners and our investors.”

Representatives for Mr. Trump did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment.

Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have largely stayed away from Mr. Trump’s political activities since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The New York Times first approached Mr. Kushner on Wednesday morning about his prospective projects in the Balkans. He initially declined to answer questions, responding only after he disclosed his plans to Bloomberg News on Friday.

Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump visited Albania twice since Mr. Trump left office. They traveled the country with Mr. Grenell, and even met with Albania’s prime minister .

Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, along with Mr. Grenell, have been focused in part on Sazan, a Mediterranean island in the south of Albania that until the end of the Cold War had been used by the Soviet Union and the Communist-led government of Albania as a secretive military base for submarines. The plan is to build a luxury hotel and villas on the island.

The rugged two-square-mile island has hundreds of Cold War-era bunkers and tunnels designed to withstand nuclear attack and has been largely vacant since the end of the Soviet Union. But it is only a half-hour by speedboat from Vlorë, a resort destination in southern Albania where the government of Saudi Arabia is already spending money to improve electricity service and other public utilities to help promote tourism in Albania.

Mr. Grenell, a former Fox News contributor and media consultant, has been working closely with Mr. Kushner and his investment firm.

Mr. Grenell has been vocal about his efforts to turn relationships he built in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans into personal profits. He has returned to the region repeatedly and met with hotel industry executives, as well as Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama.

“We are looking for opportunities to invest through foreign investment in the Balkans, but more specifically in Albania, and the Albanian coast is wonderful,” Mr. Grenell said in one of a series of television and newspaper interviews he has done in Albania in the last three years.

The day-to-day management of the projects would be handled by Asher Abehsera, a California-based real estate developer who has done projects in Brooklyn with Mr. Kushner, and who traveled to the Balkans with Mr. Grenell and Mr. Kushner to check out the development sites, Mr. Kushner said.

Mr. Grenell added in a nearly 90-minute television interview in Albania last year that there was nothing wrong with his deal making because he was now out of government. “I’m working on projects, private equity projects, that I get to make money on,” he said. “No one should ever apologize for wanting to make money.”

Last July, Mr. Grenell, along with Ivanka Trump and Mr. Kushner, also met with Mr. Rama in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and they were all photographed together.

Mr. Rama has been pushing for nearly a decade to open Sazan up to redevelopment as a tourist destination, as well as looking for other ways to attract foreign investors to Albania to expand its tourist economy.

Auron Tare, a former member of Parliament in Albania who has served as an adviser to Mr. Rama, took Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner to Sazan Island in 2021 as part of a visit of Albania that included a cruise on a yacht and a helicopter trip across the coast.

Mr. Tare, in an interview, said he discussed with Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump the desire to develop Sazan, but to do so in a way that would preserve its history and environment.

Mr. Kushner and Mr. Grenell have been working closely with a billionaire Albanian business executive named Shefqet Kastrati and his son, Musa Kastrati. Their investments include a concession to run the international airport in Tirana, a chain of gas stations in Albania and hotels and other businesses, according to business associates and Mr. Kushner.

“They have helped us understand the cost of construction and how to operate locally,” Mr. Kushner said in an interview.

In October 2022, Shefqet Kastrati bought a $7.5 million house in Indian Creek, Fla., land records show, a property that is near where Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner now live. The Kastrati family also last year purchased a hotel in the Brickell section of Miami for $55 million from the Qatari royal family.

Musa Kastrati, in an interview, said that the role his family company would play in Mr. Kushner’s Albanian projects was still not clear, but that it would probably involve helping build some of the complexes. Mr. Kastrati also confirmed that he visited Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida resort and residence, in December 2022 with Mr. Grenell and that he also briefly met Mr. Trump when the former president arrived as they were having dinner. Mr. Kastrati said he did not discuss the potential deal with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Grenell has repeatedly taken to Instagram and other social media accounts to promote tourism in Albania and to praise Mr. Rama, the prime minister.

“I support Rama’s vision for the Balkans,” Mr. Grenell said in a television interview in 2021 , after he met with another hotel industry executive in Albania named Irfan Hysenbelliu. “I love Albania and I invite U.S. investors in the country.”

The government of Saudi Arabia recently announced that it was looking for ways to increase its investment in Albania, first by helping build water, electricity and sewer services next to beach areas in Vlorë, which is the launching point to Sazan and where a new international airport is already being built. It has said it wants to invest up to $300 million in the nation .

Earlier this month, Saudi officials traveled to Albania to announce the creation of what they are calling the Saudi-Albania Business Council “to forge a new economic partnership between the two countries,” including in tourist projects. The Saudi chairman of the group, Abdulrahman Al-Mufarreh, did not respond to requests for comment.

Michael S. Schmidt contributed reporting.

Eric Lipton is an investigative reporter, who digs into a broad range of topics from Pentagon spending to toxic chemicals. More about Eric Lipton

Jonathan Swan is a political reporter covering the 2024 presidential election and Donald Trump’s campaign. More about Jonathan Swan

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman

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Planning a visit in 2024?

Due to the  upcoming construction work at Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre , Britannia will be closed 11 - 23 March and 25 - 28 June. As part of this redevelopment, Britannia will also be gaining a new Visitor Centre and Gift Shop which will involve us operating out of temporary accommodation whilst these new facilities are being created. Our temporary Gift Shop is now open on the Ground Floor of Ocean Terminal. 

STEP ABOARD FOR A GREAT DAY OUT

A Royal residence for over 40 years, The Royal Yacht Britannia sailed over 1,000,000 nautical miles on 968 state visits with the Royal Family where they entertained prime ministers and presidents. Now  Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023 , you can discover across five decks stories of life at sea for both the Royal Family and the 220 Royal Yachtsmen who served on board. Our five-star visitor attraction is located in Leith, just two miles from Edinburgh's city centre.

What will I see?

• Britannia’s five decks with your  free audio guide
• Feel like the captain of the ship in the Bridge
• Follow in the footsteps of Royalty through the State Apartments
• See Queen Elizabeth II's favourite room
• Discover below decks in the Crew’s Quarters
• Admire a tour highlight, the gleaming Engine Room
• Take in the Royal Sailing Exhibition
• Enjoy soups, sandwiches, cakes and scones in the  Royal Deck Tearoom
• Admire the stunning waterfront views from the Best UK Attraction (Tripadvisor)

Opening Times

*Due to upcoming construction work at Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre , Britannia will be closed 11 - 23 March and 25 - 28 June. The Royal Yacht Britannia is closed on 1 January and 25 December. The last admission to the Royal Yacht on 24 December is 2:30pm.

Tickets & Prices

** Armed Forces, student and carer tickets are only available at the ticket desk. They cannot be pre-booked, but are available to buy on the day of visit.

  See our FAQ page for further details.

Getting Here

Looking for directions? Find out how to find Britannia via tram, bus or car.

Our Hotel, Fingal

Our sister ship, Fingal , is Scotland’s only luxury floating hotel and is a world-class experience from the moment you step aboard. Awarded AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, the 22 luxurious cabins are inspired by its rich maritime heritage and are an indulgent experience like no other.

Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023

We are delighted to be Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023 and a Best of the Best award winner.  Fewer than 1% of Tripadvisor’s 8 million listings are awarded Best of the Best, signifying the highest level of excellence in travel.

HM The King's visit

On 3 July 2023, His Majesty King Charles III attended a reception on board The Royal Yacht Britannia for the Association of Royal Yachtsmen to commemorate 25 years  since Britannia arrived in Leith.

Stay at our five-star 22-cabin luxury floating hotel, Fingal.

Sustainability

At Britannia, we are committed to ensuring that we have environmentally sensitive policies and best practice procedures throughout all aspects of our business.

Visiting Britannia

Due to upcoming construction work at Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre , Britannia will be closed 11 - 23 March and 25-28 June.

Click on the Visit page  for all you need to know 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. 

AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, AA five-star hotel and 2 AA Rosettes

Learn more: fingal.co.uk