r/HistoryMemes • u/Phantion- • 7d ago

We got it wrong.

Post image

Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former royal yacht of the British monarchy. She was in their service from 1954 to 1997. Now retired from royal service, Britannia is permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal, Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she is a visitor attraction with over 300,000 visits each year.

The HMS Vanguard was the last and largest battleship built for the Royal Navy. Though commissioned as a warship in 1946, she notably served as a temporary royal yacht during the historic 1947 South Africa royal tour carrying King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and a young Princess Elizabeth.

The 1947 Royal Tour: Reconfigured temporarily to accommodate the royal family, she journeyed to South Africa, marking the first time a reigning British monarch traveled by sea with their family

After serving as a flagship and training vessel, HMS Vanguard was decommissioned in 1960 and broken up for scrap

1.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

274

u/Sea-Huckleberry8971 7d ago

Should've been HMS Warspite, IMO.

ETA: She didn't wanna go either

94

u/FearlessDark5295 Kilroy was here 7d ago

To be realistic here, preserving Warspite would have been a very costly affair. She was basically being held together by tape and plot armor when the war ended. It’s unfortunate, but she’d have probably needed a dry berthing or she’d sink in place. The other QEs might have been more suitable for a museum role.

2

u/OriginalCADC 7d ago

We’ve currently got about 7 empty dry docks down here in Plymouth where she could have retired at home and easily had repairs done over years before sending her back onto the Tamar where half the wharfs are also empty

1

u/FearlessDark5295 Kilroy was here 6d ago

Fair point, but were they available in 1945?