HMY Britannia

Lorne Clifford and I went for a tour of  Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia this morning.  This ship was built in Glasgow in 1953 and was active until 1997 when it was de-commissioned.  It is now tied up in Edinburgh for the public to visit. 

This is the HMY Britannia permanently tied up at the dock in Edinburgh (Leith) 

This is view from the bridge

This is Prince Philip's sailing yacht Bloodhound tied up along side Britannia

This is the commemorative bell for HMY Britannia

This is the eating area where guests would enjoy breakfast and lunch

The story behind the monkey is funny.  The crew would hide the monkey every morning in a different place around the ship.  I guess this game made the crew to search high and low around the ship and find things that needed cleaning or repairs.  

The Wombat.  Another crew game.  When the fan came on, the wombat would go flying.  This became a "lively"game of catch the wombat/ chuck the wombat.

The State Room for formal meals.  Great leaders from around the world have dined with the royal family over the years.  Nelson Mandella, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, kings and queens from dozens of different countries along with dignitaries from business and entertainment world.

Around the walls of the ship are a number of beautifully adorned gifts to the royal family.  This is just one cabined of many with gold, silver and ivory carved gifts.

Accommodations for the senior non-commissioned officers.  6 to a room.

For my friend Ed Kalau!  I always wanted my engine rooms to look like this.

Low pressure and high pressure boilers.

Boiler controls

More accomodations

Mockup of the ships controls

This is from the State Room.  It is hand-carved from one solid piece of oak!

Typical Marine soldiers accomodations.  12 to a room.  Crew size was over 200

  

Great Pictures taken by Bruce Neill (lead drummer) and Derek Smith

Jeff LeBlanc and Derek Smith

Graham Muir and Derek Smith

Lorne Clifford (aka Noel Livernash)

Lorne Clifford

The Medley and Reform

Once the initial welcome is sounded, the pipebands come in with the march-on medley of tunes.  The tunes are:

• The Old Rustic Bridge
• Ye Jacobites By Name
• The Battle of Waterloo
• The Massacre of Glencoe (slow aire)
• Lets Have a Ceilidh
• Gladstone
• Now is the Hour
• John Patterson's Mare
• Donald Blue
• Donald Dhu
• Black and White 

After the medley, we reform and play the REMT (Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo) 2015 tune.  

Tribute to Hector MacDonald to the tune "Hector the Hero"

In this tune, Major Steve Small plays the small pipes while a fiddler from the Shetland Fiddlers, an accordion player and a "D" whistle player start the tune.  This is followed by the beautiful voice of (cant remember her name).  The initial group of pipers have to slowly walk in to the parade square in near total darkness.  The remainder of the pipers form up and move forward forming the H pattern representing Hector.  

Behind the scenes at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

 As you might well imagine, the practical logistics behind the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is staggeringly complex.  There is only one way into the Castle for performers and for the audience so all the performers have to be high up in the Castle grounds and ready in position at least two hours before the show so that the audience has time to take their seats.  

It starts with everyone loading onto a convoy of coaches at the university residence.  The police control traffic and all the busses tear off to the Castle grounds.  For security reasons, the busses take several different routes to the castle and all converge just below the event and wait. 
From there, the busses are systematically brought up the cobblestone streets, into the castle and parked on the parade square.  Once all the busses are in position, the performers are allowed to leave the busses and we all head up to the highest point in the castle.

Getting gear off the busses is a bit of a tight squeeze but we always manage.  After everyone is clear of the parade square, the busses systematically leave back down the Royal Mile and off into a holding area.

 Further up the Castle grounds, the pipe bands all assemble for a briefing from the Director of the Tattoo and the Senior Drum Major and Senior Pipe Major.   

This is a shot of all the pipers and drummers in position forming the shape of the Ying/Yang symbolizing the theme of this years Tattoo - East Meets West

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A little later on, the band assembles with other bands at predetermined positions and prepare to go onto the square for the tune Hector the Hero.  This shot was taken at the Saturday matinee time.  Normally, we walk out in total darkness!.

A Big Day

Well, an emotional day but it went by in a flash.  On the 10th of August 1955, my father played at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo when he was with the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. Sixty years later, to the day, I played at the very same Tattoo and on the very same parade square.  It was a lifetime ambition to play at this prestigious event and, quite frankly, one I reached for but was never convinced I would ever see happen.  Then, just before we formed up, as I stood at the top of the Edinburgh Castle mere moments before we went on stage, a beautiful double rainbow appeared over the Castle and the parade square.  Then, to have my brother Alister in the audience that same night!  What an honour!

I am not a superstitious person and definitely not one who believes in deeply spiritual matters, but geez, that really felt wierd.  Almost as if my dad was standing beside me with his arm around my shoulders. The damp chill of an Edinburgh evening totally vanished and a peacefulness settled over my entire body.  

Like I say, I don't believe in deep spiritual things, but I have to say that that quiet moment was one I'll always remember in a hauntingly beautiful way. 
To top it all off, I looked over at commemoration plaque on the Castle wall just above where this picture was taken.  Check out the date!  A few in our family will recognize the significance and coincidence of it.

Back at the lodgings, I sat in the quiet, dark room and had a healthy dram of smokey whiskey with dad's favourite pipe tunes playing in the background.  I think this is what "closure" must feel like.  It feels good.