The moment Tony Blair realised decommissioning Royal Yacht Britannia was a ‘mistake’ – after the late Queen ‘wept openly’ following her final trip onboard

Once hailed as the late Queen’s ‘floating palace’, the Royal Yacht Britannia served as a luxurious haven for the Royal Family for 40 years.

Built in 1953, Britannia ruled the seas for over four decades and frequently played host to members of the Firm – including Charles and Diana, who honeymooned on the iconic 412ft vessel in 1981.

Launched, named and even partly designed by the Queen, she once described the Royal Yacht as ‘the one place where I can truly relax’ and cherished the liberty it gave her to ‘get up when I like and wear what I like and be completely free’.

So when Britannia was officially decommissioned 28 years ago, it broke Her Majesty’s heart.

The controversial decision to withdraw the ship was reportedly made due to high maintenance costs, with former Prime Minister John Major announcing on June 23, 1994, that the Britannia would no longer be available for use.

Such was the Britannia’s significance that its possible replacement for a new Royal Yacht became a key political issue in the run-up to the 1997 General Election.

After he led the Labour Party to a landslide victory, however, Tony Blair announced that Britannia would not be replaced.

On December 11, 1997, the Queen left the ship for the final time at Portsmouth Dockyard as the typically stoic sovereign ‘wept openly’ when it was taken out of service.

On December 11, 1997,  the Royal Yacht Britannia was officially decommissioned in Portsmouth. The vessel was adored by the late Queen (pictured), who was visibly emotional during the ceremony

In October 1997, former Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that, after completing over a million nautical miles, Britannia (pictured) would not be replaced

Dressed in an all-red ensemble, poignant images showed Her Majesty – accompanied by Prince Philip, then-Prince Charles and Princess Anne – during the emotional decommission ceremony.

The Princess Royal, then aged 47, also teared up as she appeared to recall fond memories of her time on board the yacht.

It was later revealed that Queen Elizabeth had privately opposed the decision to decommission the Royal Yacht, with biographer Valentine Low also describing Mr Blair’s regrets in his book Power and the Palace.

Writing how the former Prime Minister said it had been a grave error of judgment, Mr Low recounted his trip to Hong Kong for the handover of the former colony to China.

During the trip, the pair enjoyed tea on board the lavish royal yacht, but not before Mr Blair was hit with the sudden realisation that getting rid of Britannia had been an awful ‘mistake’. 

‘I didn’t want to get rid of it,’ he admitted. ‘After we’d agreed to get rid of it, I actually went on it, and I remember, as I stepped on, thinking, “That was such a mistake to have done that.”‘

He added: ‘I think if it had happened five years into my time, I would have just said “No”.’

In 1995 – shortly after the decision to decommission the yacht was announced – Her Majesty’s then deputy private secretary, Sir Kenneth Scott, wrote to a senior civil servant to declare that the Queen would ‘very much welcome’ a new yacht.

Writing in his book Power and the Palace, royal author Valentine Low revealed Tony Blair (pictured) later admitted it had been a grave error of judgement

Princess Anne (pictured), was also reduced to tears during the decommissioning ceremony. The Princess Royal, then aged 47, has fond memories of her childhood adventures on the yacht

However, Sir Scott also acknowledged that any forms of palace lobbying should remain hidden from public knowledge, according to files obtained by the National Archives.

Mr Low detailed how Sir Scott had added in his letter: ‘The last thing I should like to see is a newspaper headline saying “Queen demands New Yacht.”‘

Meanwhile, the Queen’s aide was also clear in his desire that any suggestions for a replacement should be considered in terms of feasibility first, followed by cost.

‘It would not, I suggest, be a sufficient answer to all those who have contributed ideas to say simply that there is no spare money in the defence budget,’ Mr Scott wrote.

However, ‘the correspondence in the National Archives shows that Whitehall did not share Scott’s sense of the order of priorities,’ Mr Low added.

However, the Royal Family appeared determined to persuade the government to invest in a royal yacht.

According to the files, Buckingham Palace even hosted a luxurious meal for senior Government officials on board Britannia in May 1993 while hoping to rally financial support for a multimillion-pound replacement.

Launched, named and even partly designed by the Queen – she once described the Royal Yacht as ‘the one place where I can truly relax’ and a space where she could be ‘completely free’

Built in 1953, Britannia ruled the seas for over four decades and frequently played host to members of the Firm – including Charles and Diana, who honeymooned on the iconic 412ft vessel in 1981

It was later revealed that Queen Elizabeth had privately opposed the decision to decommission the Royal Yacht, with biographer Valentine Low also describing Mr Blair’s (pictured) regrets in his book Power and the Palace

Cabinet Secretary Sir Robin Butler was said to have been among the delegation invited to a ‘splendid lunch’ on board Britannia, where former lord mayor of London, Sir Hugh Bidwell and the Earl of Limerick set about stating the value of the yacht to UK business.

However, such lobbying ultimately proved unsuccessful as the government, under Mr Major, went ahead with its decision to decommission Britannia in 1994.

Nearly 30 years later, Boris Johnson announced a successor to the Royal Yacht would be built at an estimated cost of £250million and named after the late Duke of Edinburgh following his death in April 2021.

The late Duke of Edinburgh had travelled 70,000 miles on Britannia, including on two round-the-world trips, before it was decommissioned. Philip also played a key role in the commissioning and design of the original yacht in the 1950s.

Its replacement would reflect the UK’s ‘burgeoning status as a great, independent maritime trading nation’ post-Brexit, before plans for a brand new flagship royal yacht were scuppered the following year.

More than a quarter of a century after Britannia’s retirement, the ship is now docked in Edinburgh’s Port of Leith and welcomes more than 390,000 visitors a year.

In June 2023, now-King Charles went back on board for his first visit and greeted around 50 former Royal Yachtsmen, known as ‘Yotties’, for an evening reception.

Raising a toast to ‘all you marvellous old Yotties for keeping this going,’ he spoke fondly of the deck games, picnics and concert parties he had once enjoyed as a youngster onboard the vessel.

As a five-year-old prince, he had been Britannia’s very first royal passenger, along with his sister, Princess Anne, when they sailed out to the Mediterranean in 1954 to meet their parents.

To this day, the clocks on board remain at 3.01pm, the time that the Queen departed the ship for the very last time.