How big is HMY BRITANNIA?

Named and launched by The Queen at Clydebank in 1953 and carrying a complement of 19 officers and 217 men (all volunteers from the Royal Navy), HMY BRITANNIA is 126 metres (415 feet) in length with a gross tonnage of 6,380 tonnes. Her beam is 16.8 metres (55 feet) and her draught is 5.2 metres (17 feet) (at load displacement). Her mast head height is 37.5 metres (123 feet). The top 6.5 metres (20 feet) of two of the masts are hinged and can be lowered to allow the Yacht to pass under low bridges. The cost of construction was £2,098,000.

The Yacht's diesel generator was first used as a propulsion engine in HM Submarine VAMPIRE and was removed from her in 1943. (It is believed to be the oldest seagoing operational diesel in existence.) Since commissioning in 1954, HMY BRITANNIA has steamed over 1.5 million kilometres (around 1 million miles) and visited every continent; in all she has spent 40 per cent of her life away from the UK.