Queen Elizabeth is a strong woman, but she is also only human. So when Her Majesty was faced with a sad reality, she, reportedly, couldn’t handle her emotions and “wept openly.”
This month marks the 67th year since the official launch of the Royal Yacht Brittania in 1953. The ship was a huge part of the Royal Family’s memories as most of them spent their honeymoons there, such as Prince Charles and Princess Diana. A royal commentator then discussed the decommissioning of the yacht in the Royally Obsessed podcast.
"I love the use that they got out of it. It was decommissioned in 1997,” Rachel Bowie said. "The Queen actually wept openly about it when it was taken out of service. I think it was just such a part of so many family memories for the entire royal clan. One final fun fact: the clocks remain stopped at 3:01, the exact time when the Queen embarked for the very last time."
The royal commentator noted that the Royal Yacht Brittania is actually a working ship and not just a prop. That being said, Rachel Bowie shared that the royals were possibly feeling seasick during their honeymoon.
"I think it's just so cool that so many members of the Royal Family used it for their honeymoons,” she continued. “It was actually the first royal yacht to be designed for ocean travel, and that meant is it became the honeymoon destination of choice for several royals. Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong Jones used it as well as Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips. Apparently, they endured crazy storms and spent the first week of their honeymoon completely seasick."
Rachel Bowie revealed that it was raining hard during the launch of the Royal Yacht Brittania, but a lot of people still went to the ceremony.
"Famously Prince Charles and Princess Diana used it and so did Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson,” she said. “It was actually pouring when the ship launched, but still more than 30,000 well-wishers showed up to see the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in Clydeside. The ceremony actually occurred a month before the Queen's official coronation as monarch on June 2."
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth canceled the traditional gun salutes on her birthday due to the coronavirus crisis. This was the first time in Her Majesty’s 68-year reign that there was no customary salute on her special day.
“Her Majesty was keen that no special measures were put in place to allow gun salutes as she did not feel it appropriate in the current circumstances,” a spokesman for Buckingham Palace said.
