The last royal yacht
Launched by Queen Elizabeth II at Clydebank on 16 April 1953 and commissioned in January 1954, Britannia is 126 metres long. She was home to the Royal Family on official tours and holidays, and to a crew of around 220 Royal Yachtsmen.
State visits and royal holidays
Britannia made 696 foreign visits to 135 countries, as well as 272 visits in British waters. World leaders were entertained in her State Dining Room, and royal couples, among them Princess Anne in 1973 and the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981, began their honeymoons on board.
The last voyage
In 1986 Britannia helped evacuate more than 1,000 people from the civil war in Aden. Her final foreign mission followed the Hong Kong handover of 1 July 1997, and she was decommissioned on 11 December that year, before opening to visitors in Leith in 1998.



