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This first picture shows the
Victoria and Albert III in her build-shed at Pembroke Dock on the
9th May 1899 ready to be launched. If you look carefully you can
see her stern and her rudder very clearly and high above it, her White
Ensign. The general water scene
shows two empty boats/barges [obviously ready to be used for an
emergency] and two boats [one, to the right as viewed, of the launching
shed and one well over to the left of the picture] with security
personnel embarked. The Royal Barge, which has a crew of 16 {14
oarsmen seated on thwarts, a junior officer {a lieutenant} and a first class petty officer
behind the backboard aft}, and seven passengers sitting in the stern
sheets, is under way [modern navy]/under weigh [old navy], with both the
ensign and the bow flag duly affected. The oarsmen are at rest with
their oars out resting on the rowlocks. The senior
male person present in the barge was HRH The Prince Arthur,
Duke of Connaught [1850-1942], the 7th child of Queen Victoria
and 3rd son, and known to be her favourite son. He had two elder brothers, the
eldest HRH Prince Albert Victor [known as Prince Eddy] {after whom the
Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor is named} The Duke of
Clarence, would have been King Albert after King Edward VII, but he died
in 1892 [seven years before this event], was, according to Olivia Bond in her book "The Royal Way of
Death" {ISBN 0094654301}, a frequent companion of male prostitutes and
a regular visitor to male brothels. Believe it or not, this man {?}
was engaged to the lovely Princess May, who eventually married the Duke
of Connaught's next eldest brother HRH Prince George, a profoundly
different and thoroughly decent man. Prince
George and Princess May later became King George V and Queen Mary [of Teck], but before
being so, they were their Royal Highness's the The
Duke and Duchess of York - exactly the same happened to the next Duke
and Duchess of York when King Edward VIII abdicated - they became King
George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She, HRH Princess May Duchess of
York, as the wife of a Prince [George] senior to Prince Arthur, was the
senior person present in the barge, and was therefore said
to be accompanied by the Duke of Connaught. Like all launchings, she, as a lady, would do the necessary, not by
breaking a bottle, but by cutting a rope as told in the files below -
note at this time in our history Queen Victoria was still
alive so the Duchess and her husband were technically some way away from
becoming the King and Queen after HM King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra
had had their turn. Why wasn't HRH The Duchess of Connaught
[1860-1917] present with her husband, or for that matter, the Duke
of York with his wife? History doesn't tell us why,
but the D of C was a very popular royal [and beautiful with it - a Diana of her
day] and one assumes
she was busy fulfilling the requirements of her own diary. Other
dignitaries were present in the barge [five in total] but they are not
important for our purposes. However, it would have been nice to have
known the name of the FORY at that time or any of the dignitaries who
were members of the crew of the new Yacht. If you know the answer
please let me know and I will add the details here. Thank you. Her international radio callsign was GFUR.
The flag flying forward, is a Standard and
the Personal Standard of TRH [Their Royal Highnesses] The Duke and
Duchess of York The light and angle of the
Personal Standard is such that only the top white horizontal bar shows
correctly, but it was a bright, vibrant and multi coloured Standard
which I have researched and shown here. To help you to understand more
fully and thus to enjoy the story, the following pdf file shows you the
Personal Standard in its true colours and the zooming tool of the file
will allow you to zoom in on the barge and its forward flag. You
will be able to make out the top white horizontal stripe [known as the
white label] with its three points or pendants [white
boxes below evenly spaced, some bearing motifs whilst others are left
blank] which denote children of the sovereign* ; in the middle a row of
'dots' which trace an arc from bottom right to top left through the
central heraldic shield and the horizontal bars of the shield itself can
be seen, and in the bottom left quadrant, the vague
outline of the harp.
DUKE OF YORK'S
PERSONAL STANDARD.pdf It is fascinating that such a
bland picture can tell such a colourful story. Now click on the
following thumbnail to see what the bunting might have looked like had
colour photography been used. * For grandchildren of the
sovereign there are five such points or pendants except for HRH Prince
William who retains the three. This little snippet comes
from the New York Times
VICTORIA and ALBERT III.pdf.
At the time of the Coronation of The Queen's
father, King George VI, in 1937, the existing
Royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert III, looked
more like a floating museum than a working ship.
Its hull and machinery was gradually
deteriorating and the crew's quarters were
cramped and uncomfortable. It was clear that the
yacht was not meeting the necessary
requirements, and that even extensive repairs
and alterations would only increase its life
span for a few years.
In his role as Head of the Commonwealth, and
in the days before air travel was commonplace,
the King needed a Royal Yacht for long distance
travel, so he announced plans for a new ship
which could also be converted into a hospital
ship in wartime. The new yacht was to be called
Britannia and she joined the Royal Navy proper
in 1954. Britannia served for forty three
years and apart from HMS Victory herself, was
the longest continuously serving warship in the
Royal Navy. She was finally paid off at
Portsmouth on the 11th of December 1997 with a
tearful Sovereign [and no doubt a tearful FORY
and crew] witnessing the last Beat Retreat and
the ceremonial lowering of the Yachts Standards. |