Royal yacht now serves as public treat

In the port of Leith, on the north side of the city of Edinburgh, along the edges of the Firth of Forth, Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia resides in permanent moorage as an exhibition and museum piece.

The ship was built at the shipyard of John Brown & Co. Ltd. in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, U.K., was launched by Queen Elizabeth II on April 16, 1953, and officially commissioned Jan. 11 1954.

Throughout its years of service, Britannia conveyed the queen, other members of the royal family and various dignitaries on 696 foreign visits and 272 ports of call in British waters, covering some 1,087,623 nautical miles. American presidents invited to sail aboard the royal yacht included Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton. Britannia accommodated the newlywed Prince and Princess of Wales on their 1981 wedding trip, but was also notable for conducting official state business, as when it evacuated more than 1,000 refugees from the civil war in Aden in 1986.

By 1997, the aging vessel was starting to get overwhelmed by maintenance issues. John Major's Conservative government committed itself to replacing the royal yacht if re-elected, but the Labour Party declined to disclose its plans. After Labour's victory in May 1997, it was announced that the ship would be retired and not replaced. The yacht's last foreign mission was to transport the last governor of Hong Kong and the Prince of Wales away from Hong Kong after its hand-over to the People's Republic of China on July 1, 1997.

Britannia was officially decommissioned on Dec. 11, 1997. The normally stoic queen, having been through so much in recent months with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and other matters, was overwhelmed by emotion during the ceremony and famously shed a tear, the only time she has ever done that in public as reigning monarch. This was her second annus horribilis, after all, the first being in 1992, the year that the marriages of two sons, Charles and Andrew, broke down and Windsor Castle caught fire.

Admission fees and a Charitable Trust sustain the royal yacht, now open to the public. It's an exquisite sight -- all 412 feet -- with classic lines, colors, shining brass, varnished woodwork and teak decking. Five decks are open for touring, which feature the royal staterooms, state dining room, royal deck tea room and other points of interest.

The queen's bedroom, now seen through a glass wall, has frilly curtains and linens, a simple twin bed with a silk-embroidered headboard, decorative wallpaper, with a relatively modest wardrobe, vanity and carpeting. On her bedside table is a piece of gadgetry with a few red buttons, each prepared to be depressed by a royal finger, potentially summoning into action any of the dozens of attendants.

The Duke of Edinburgh's adjoining room is decidedly masculine, with austere furnishings, subdued colors and a twin bed that looks more like a military cot.

Once satisfied with the Britannia, one may study (but not board) the 1936 racing yacht Bloodhound, once owned by the queen, now berthed alongside. It was one of the most successful ocean-racing yachts ever built and also the yacht aboard which both the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal learned to sail.

Upon leaving this area, one is guided -- amusement park style -- through an emporium where all sorts of miscellany pertaining to Britannia, the royal family and British society in general is available for sale. Everything from stationery to crystalware, cards, fine liqueurs, single-malt scotches, stuffed animal toys, writing utensils, silverware, porcelains, etc.

A small book with a red cover titled "How to be a Good Husband" sits rather inconspicuously on a shelf in a corner of the room. Well, most husbands already think they're doing a pretty good job at that. What's the British take on the matter?

The first sentence of the booklet reads as follows: "Don't lose site of the fact that, once a man is married, the only sensible thing for him to do is make the most of the circumstances."

Can one actually believe his eyes when he reads something like this? This is ... incredible. The paragraph concludes, "If his wife has faults, he should try to shut his eyes to them. It may be that he's not entirely perfect."

OK, so perhaps we're feeling just a tad deflated after such an astounding opening sentence. Surely there are some other tidbits. Try this one out: "Don't tell your wife terminological inexactitudes, which are, in plain English, lies. A woman has wonderful intuition for spotting even minor departures from the truth."

Interesting! More later.

Edward M. Gilbreth is a Charleston physician. Reach him at edwardgilbreth@comcast.net.