FAREWELL - The Queen sheds a tear as the Royal family say goodbye to the yacht Britannia, that is actually more of a small cruise ship than a yacht. Tony Blair's government were in power at this time. The Royal Yacht Britannia was used by Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family for over 44 years. Once deemed an official Royal residence it has been used for state visits and official receptions, in addition it has been used for Royal family holidays and for the honeymoons of several Royal couples. Britannia was launched in 1953 and decommissioned in 1997. The Britannia is now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though in 2018 Boris Johnson did try to raise private money to re-float the gin palace.

The Britannia marked the end of the long tradition of British Royal Yachts used by the monarch dating back to King Charles II in 1660. To date there have been 83 Royal Yachts. The most recent history of the Royal Yacht, prior to Britannia, goes back to the reign of Queen Victoria when the Victoria & Albert III (the first royal ship not powered by sail) launched in 1899. Unfortunately, the ship was completed in 1901 seven months after the Queen Vicoria’s death. The ship served four monarchs: King Edward VII, King George V briefly King Edward VIII and King George VI until it was decommissioned in 1939, the ship continue in service during World War II and was finally scraped in 1954.

LAUNCH - These were the days when we didn't know about climate change. The Britannia slips into the Clyde in 1953, set to blaze a trail of over a million nautical miles of burning heavy diesel oil to power her twin steam turbine engines, after Charles Parsons, the inventor and operator of Turbinia.

BRITANNIA RULED THE WAVES - Undoubtedly, the royal yacht was a draw for international dignitaries and business events, but as to real value in terms of drumming up income for the UK's coffers, that argument is a bit lame. More of an argument would have been the value in terms of framing the royalty angle, as in splendor. In an age where sustainability is more to the point, the working classes on whose backs such luxuries are paid for out of taxes, should be less taxed in a fairer society. According to the Daily Mail and The Times, the Queen secretly lobbied for a new replacement royal yacht. Where such information was made public for a brief moment in time, the leak has now been sealed again. If a replacement yacht was green to the point of being zero carbon, the working class would most likely support such endeavour, judging by the climate change movement in schools across the globe, thanks to the 16 year old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and supporters like Holly Gillibrand, just 13 and from Scotland.

ROYALS GALLERY 2018

UNECONOMICAL - In June 23, 1994 Prime Minister John Major’s announced the decommissioning of the HMY Britannia due to the increasing cost of repairs, there would be no future replacement planned. Finally, on October 20, 1997 the Britannia embarked on one last voyage around England, as the ship sailed passed the John Brown’s Shipyard it gave a blast as a tribute to the place where she was built. Britannia was formally decommissioned in a ceremony on December 11 1997 which was attended by the Queen and members of the Royal Family. During this ceremony the Queen did something very unusual, she was seen shedding a tear as the “Highland Cathedral” was played by the HM Royal Marine Band. This is hardly surprising if one remembers the important part that the Britannia played in both her public and her private life. The fact is that in climate change terms alone, gas guzzlers like the Britannia are a reminders of the cause of global warming from excesses. If the royal family want another yacht, they can well afford to pay for something a little less extravagant, and perhaps a bit for environmentally friendly.

RULES OF SUCCESSION TO THE BRITISH THRONE

Queen Elizabeth II is the sovereign, and her heir apparent is her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales. Next in line to be King of the United Kingdom is Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the Prince of Wales's elder son. Third in line is Prince George, the eldest child of the Duke of Cambridge, followed by his sister, Princess Charlotte who would be Queen Charlotte, and younger brother, Prince Louis. Sixth in line to be the next King is Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of the Prince of Wales. Under the Perth Agreement, which came into effect in 2015, only the first six in line of succession require the sovereign's consent before they marry; without such consent, they and their children would be disqualified from succession.

The United Kingdom is one of the 16 Commonwealth realms. Each of those countries has the same person as monarch and the same order of succession. In 2011, the prime ministers of the realms agreed unanimously to adopt a common approach to amending the rules on the succession to their respective Crowns so that absolute primogeniture would apply for persons born after the date of the agreement, instead of male-preference primogeniture, and the ban on marriages to Roman Catholics would be lifted, but the monarch would still need to be in communion with the Church of England.

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_royal_family

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23272491

https://www.royal.uk/royal-family