How many seamen does it take to move a Rolls-Royce and a Land Rover from a royal yacht?

When Royal Yacht Britannia first set sail in 1953, the starboard deck was equipped with a unique and ingenious feature: a bespoke garage, with gleaming state vehicles ready to make a royal entrance at the turn of a key. It was considered an essential modification to ensure Elizabeth II enjoyed suitably regal transport, where and whenever the newly crowned monarch stepped ashore. Motor cars were always shipped with the yacht, a royal residence for 44 years that covered more than one million nautical miles, propelled by two sets of enormous steam turbines, and was a regular feature on 986 state visits.

Arguably the most prestigious occupant of the yacht’s floating garage was a Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine. Combining elegance and imperiousness, the chassis and drivetrain were built at the company’s factory in Crewe, Cheshire, before the bodywork was applied by coachwork specialists Park Ward of London.

Rolls-Royce discreetly codenamed the car Canberra, suggesting the vehicle was destined for a buyer in Australia, rather than the Royal Mews. It was equipped with a high roof and Perspex rear section — modifications that allowed the Queen’s loyal subjects to see her more easily wherever she went. It also had some 220bhp on tap — a serious amount of power in the 1960s — and, if required, the V8 could power it along at 100mph. It was a car that couldn’t fail to make an impression, which may explain why future buyers included Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah of Iran, John Lennon and another ‘king’ — Elvis Presley.

The Phantom, primarily used for ceremonial state events, was joined in the garage by a humble Land Rover Series 1, the second ‘his and hers’ workhorse in the royal fleet. More than capable of coping with rugged terrain and private excursions ashore, the lightweight utility vehicle was originally designed for agricultural use. Its aluminium body proved less prone to salty air, although the steel, box-section chassis was sadly so.

Now aged 69, Peter Young was the Queen’s Coxswain and Seaman of the Boats on Britannia from 1977–97. He stayed until the very end and the famous decommissioning ceremony at Portsmouth docks in 1997, said to be the only time the late Queen shed a tear in public. It was a sombre occasion that ended a long tradition of British royal yachts dating back to 1660 and the reign of Charles II. The high cost of running an ageing ship had forced John Major’s government to announce a much-needed refit would not happen. ‘Like a lot of sailors, I joined the Navy to see the world, but Britannia was something special,’ Peter remembers. ‘She was old-fashioned, steam-driven and, with a crew of 235, very demanding at times. If we had a state banquet, then what-ever your rank or title, you stepped up to help.’

At the start of her reign, the Queen had swapped an ageing state Daimler for a hand-built Rolls-Royce Phantom IV Hooper Landaulette and Peter was duly sent to Rolls-Royce for special instruction on looking after it. ‘It was a week-long course on how to clean and care for the car. I also completed a Royal Marines course on specialist driving, which included hand-brake turns, something you didn’t do in a Rolls-Royce.’ The splendid vehicle was painted Royal Black and Royal Claret and shipbuilders John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, used its measurements to plan the new garage being constructed on Britannia. ‘It was a snug fit, but when the larger, Phantom V Park Ward limousine arrived as a replacement in the 1960s, the crew had to work out a new way of moving the vehicle around,’ recalls Mr Young. The 6.2-litre limo was huge and weighed three tons. Measuring almost 20ft long, both front and rear bumpers had to be removed to get the car out of the garage and on to a mobile carrying platform, which was then lowered over the side of Britannia on a davit or crane.

Carrying state cars onboard to provide reliable transport for a monarch seemed a ship-shape idea at the time, but the practicalities of on- and off-loading, often at remote locations with poor or no facilities, were far more complicated than any land-lubber might imagine. ‘One of the most difficult jobs for the crew was moving the Rolls-Royce and Land Rover off the yacht,’ reveals Peter. ‘It was an extremely complicated process that involved a motorised transporter moving on sunken rails along the teak deck. A lot of seamen became involved and both processes required the sort of military precision the Navy is famous for. The logistics of landing the Rolls-Royce could easily take a working day to prepare.’

To complicate matters, Britannia’s garage was situated directly inboard of the Royal Barge, a 40ft tender used by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to travel ashore. Built by Camper & Nicholsons in 1964 and powered by two 125hp engines, the barge first had to be moved out of the way to allow car operations to begin. ‘The car would be lowered on a large metal frame with ramps located either end. Once the frame was secure on dry land, the Rolls could be driven off ready for duty. Factor in sea swell, the vagrancies of each location and it could be a major operation.’

There was at least one occasion when it was deemed impolite to unload a state car. In preparation for the Queen’s tour of New Zealand in 1963, the Crown was made aware that the New Zealand government had spent so much money refurbishing its own state fleet for the visit that the Phantom V should remain onboard. If unloading the Rolls-Royce proved a challenge, the Land Rover was frequently worse. The Series 1 and later models, such as the larger 110 V8, were often lashed on deck, lowered and gingerly sailed ashore on an inflatable known as the ‘sea truck’. ‘We couldn’t drop the metal transporter frame and the vehicle onto the raft at the same time because it would sink,’ explains Peter. ‘The Land Rover had to be lowered by its four wheels, suspended in netting. Of course, landing the inflatable on shore could prove another big headache.’

Some of the most demanding locations were in the Western Isles of Scotland, where the late Queen enjoyed summer cruises with her family, away from the cameras. ‘The Land Rover came into its own there,’ confirms Peter. ‘Those holidays were more relaxed affairs. We had a concert called the Sods Opera, where the crew put on a show for the Royal Family under an awning on the foredeck. I have the rare distinction of performing Riverdance in front of the Queen!’

Although the original state vehicles have long been sold or moved to museums, including the Sultanate of Oman’s Royal Cars Museum and the Stables Courtyard at Sandringham in Norfolk, several cars are still on display aboard Britannia, now a floating museum at Leith, in Edinburgh. One is a 1950 Land Rover painted Royal Navy Oxford Blue, a faithful reconstruction of the yacht’s original. The other is a black Rolls-Royce Phantom, first registered in 1967 and similar to the one shipped to the Royal Mews. On the quay next to the ship, a dark green Land Rover V8 is currently on show, fitted with leather seats, a special radio system and grab handles that allowed the Queen’s gillies to ride on the side of the vehicle.

Once state vehicles for royal visits became easier to source via dry land, rather than onboard with Britannia, the redundant garage eventually morphed into a space that was more popular with the crew for entirely different reasons than what it was originally intended for: ‘The building could hold 2,000 crates of beer — crucial when you are away from home for so long,’ concludes Peter with a smile.