Photography has always played an important role on Britannia. While she was in
service, there was always a Yottie appointed, nicknamed 'Snaps', to
take photographs of life on board the Royal Yacht. In keeping with
this tradition, we now have our own Photographer in Residence, Ruth
Armstrong, who has been capturing snapshots of life around the ship
every week during the last few months. We're delighted to bring you
some of these in our weekly 'Snaps' gallery.
To see photographs of past events, including Britannia in dry dock,
please
see our Gallery
Page. If you would like to see photographs of
Britannia when she was in service, please see the Historical Gallery
Page.
Ruth Armstrong www.rutharmstrongphotography.com.
June 2013
8-12 June: Father's Day inspiration and latest
maintenance update.
This Sunday, why not bring your dad along to Britannia
for a day out together for Father's Day? Treat him to a Cuba Libre
cocktail in our Royal Deck Tea Room which has been specially
created for Father's Day. Our shop also has a fantastic selection
of gifts that we are sure your Dad will love.
Our dedicated maintenance team have been busy this week scraping
paint off Britannia's deck and wire wheeling rust from the
Shelter Deck. Our Photographer in Residence captured the following
photographs...
1-7 June: Maintenance work around
Britannia this week. Our Photographer in Residence caught
up with our dedicated maintenance team this week, who work
incredibly hard to ensure Britannia is kept in immaculate
condition. This week, we have photographs from the various tasks
that take place, from adding gold leaf to a life belt, to making
new lines for Britannia's dress flags. The team were also
working on a new hatch that was created as part of Bloodhound's
restoration. Check out the photographs below…
18 - 24 May: Yotties Week and Britannia bids
farewell to HMS Edinburgh. It's been a fantastic week with
over 70 former Royal Yachtsmen back aboard
Britannia for their annual working party. Working
alongside the maintenance team, visitors
and staff alike have loved meeting the people who served aboard
Britannia when she was in Royal service and hearing their
stories.
This week, Britannia also bid farewell to HMS Edinburgh
as she left Leith Docks in Edinburgh for the final time before her
decommissioning. Our Photographer in Residence captured this
historic event. You can read more and see our video of HMS
Edinburgh leaving on our blog.
14 - 17 May: HMS Edinburgh and Bloodhound sails
once again. There's been a lot happening at
Britannia this week! On Wednesday, HMS Edinburgh, the
'Fortress of the Sea,' came in to Leith for one final visit to
Edinburgh prior to her decommissioning. From the 'Palace of the
Sea', our Photographer in Residence got a great photograph to share
with you. The following day, Royal Racing Yacht
Bloodhound was ready following her restoration to be
craned back into the water and sailed back round to her pontoon to
be on display once again.
4 - 13 May: It's almost Yotties Week! We are so
excited to be welcoming back almost 80 former Royal Yachtsmen, or
'Yotties' as they're affectionately known, aboard
Britannia next week for their annual working party. You
can read more about the event here, but for now we thought
we'd bring you a few photos from last year. Hope you can join us
for this special week to hear some incredible stories about the
Yotties' time on board.
27 April - 3 May: Tasty additions to
the Tea Room menu. Our new summer menu in the Royal Deck Tea
Room has some delicious additions, including a 'retro' milk
shake and Coronation chicken salad. Our Photographer in Residence
was here to capture the new treats on camera. Read more about this
on the Britannia
blog.
April 2013
20-26 April: The Band of Her Majesty's Royal
Marines. To end the week of 60th Anniversary
celebrations in true Britannia style, members of the Royal
Marines returned to the Royal Yacht to perform a spectacular drum
corps 'Mess Beating' on the Verandah Deck.
When Britannia was in Royal service, the Band of Her
Majesty's Royal Marines performed and captured the imagination of
audiences around the world. President Reagan was moved to remark
after viewing their 30-minute Beat Retreat ceremony on a
Californian quayside: "Your Majesty, I thought Hollywood was the
entertainment capital of the world, but there's no way we could
beat this." Today, the Royal Marines continue to perform at our evening events
on board.
10-19 April: Britannia's 60th Anniversary
celebrations. What a great week! There's been such a
wonderful atmosphere here aboard Britannia, celebrating 60
years since her launch in 1953. The celebrations began with a 1950s
vintage weekend, taking visitors back to the era of her launch. On
the Anniversary date itself, 16 April, we welcomed back the longest
serving Royal Yachtsmen ('Yotties') Ellis 'Norrie' Norrell MVO,
RVM, and Albert 'Dixie' Deane MBE, RVM, who raised a new flag in
honour of all those who served aboard. The press turned out for the
ceremony and were even caught on camera by our Photographer in
Residence!
1-9 April: Celebrating 60 glorious years: vintage 1950s
photo shoot. With just a few days to go until we begin our
60th
Anniversary celebrations, we have some fantastic photographs
from the vintage fashion shoot we organised as part of this for you
this week, to give a taster of what you might expect from our 1950s-themed
weekend on 13 and 14 April.
As always, we've got the final photographs and beautiful
behind-the-scenes shots too from our Photographer in Residence,
Ruth Armstrong - and if the jewellery used in the photo shoot
catches your eye, we have many of the items for sale in our Gift Shop. For more
details on the events planned to celebrate Britannia's
60th Anniversary, please click here.
Download
our 60th Anniversary programme of events.
March 2013
16-28 March: Easter holidays have arrived!
We're very much looking forward to welcoming our visitors on board
over the Easter holidays and have a few sweet treats in the Royal Deck Tea
Room, NAAFI and Gift
Shop. If you're looking to keep the little ones entertained,
we've got a special version of the audio handset for children and
the under 5's are free. Or come and relax in the Tea Room with a
pot of tea and slice of delicious cake! We look forward to
welcoming you aboard.
8-15 March: Behind-the-scenes in the Royal Galley, tall
ships and surprise snowfall. We have some great
photographs for you this week from many areas of the ship! At the
beginning of the week, we had some surprising weather for March,
with snowfall across Edinburgh. Visitors loved seeing the snowman
we built on the Verandah Deck. We also had a beautiful tall ship
alongside Britannia which we got a photo of for
you.
Finally, our Photographer in Residence spent a few hours in the
Royal Galley with our Chefs who were busy preparing for an evening event. From canapé
receptions, to five- course menus, everything is
made on board using only the freshest, local, seasonal
ingredients…as you can see from this week's 'Snaps.'
1-8 March: Britannia's dress ship
flags are raised each year in time for Mother's Day,
and this week our Photographer in Residence captured Tony from the
maintenance team stitching
these together, in preparation for display.
She also caught up with Royal Racing
Yacht Bloodhound's restoration as Gary from the team
fitted a new bulkhead (partition) for the interior of this former
ocean racing yacht. There were also sparks flying from further
maintenance work - check out the photographs below!
February 2013
23-28 February: Behind-the-scenes with the Housekeeping
team. Britannia's dedicated Housekeeping team
work 363 days of the year to ensure the Royal Yacht is kept in
immaculate condition. This week, our Photographer in Residence
caught up with team for a few hours to find out how they keep
Britannia ship shape. You can read more about a day in the
life of our housekeeping team on our
blog.
16-22 February: Bloodhound craned out of the
water for original refit. The classic 60 foot Royal Racing
Yacht Bloodhound was craned out of the water this week, as
part of its maintenance programme by Britannia. It was a
spectacular sight to see this beautiful 1930s racing yacht lifted
on to the quayside and our Photographer in Residence was here to
capture the event.
Read more about this on our blog.
9-15 February: Cooking up a treat for Shrove
Tuesday. There was a fantastic atmosphere in the Royal
Deck Tea Room on Tuesday, as our Chefs set up a stove and made
delicious pancakes for visitors to enjoy. One young visitor also
helped pose for a photograph with our Chef out on deck, as a press
photographer came along to capture the event.
1-8 February: Inside the Engine Room.
Britannia's engines steamed over 1 million nautical miles
over 40 years with barely a problem for her time in service.
Visitors to Britannia today are fascinated to see the
sparkling chrome dials and this incredible machinery that remains a
testament to British engineering at its best. Photographer in
Residence, Ruth Armstrong, got the chance to go inside the
spectacular Engine Room this week and capture some of
the finer details.
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