by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2013
In 2013, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge (now The Princess of Wales) launched Royal Princess, an ocean liner for Princess Cruises. It was rather special in that the previous Royal Princess was launched by her late mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales. The naming or christening of ships has long been a royal tradition in most European monarchies, especially in the United Kingdom. Traditionally these were Navy ships, however, with the advent of the ocean liner, we now see a lot more private vessels being sponsored by Queens and Princesses.
The United Kingdom likely has the most vessels launched by royalty, going back hundreds of years. There are records of The Prince of Wales launching HMS Prince Royal for the English Navy in 1610. Queen Victoria launched several British Royal Navy ships, including two launched together in 1891 – HMS Royal Arthur and HMS Royal Sovereign. Prince Albert launched one of the first non-Navy ships – The Great Western Steamship Company’s SS Great Britain in 1843.
And the tradition continues to the present. As of this date, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has launched 21 ships and a few lifeboats – including 5 Cunard ocean liners, several oil tankers, a Royal Yacht, and a vast array of British Royal Navy crafts. Her first was in November 1944 – British Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard. Her most recent was in October 2010 – Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Elizabeth.
Amongst many shipping lines, two have maintained very close ties with Royalty – Cunard Line and Holland America Line.
Cunard Line
The Cunard Line has had 8 ships launched by British royals. The first was RMS Queen Mary, launched in 1934 by Queen Mary herself. This was the first merchant ship launched by a member of the British royal family. According to many sources, thanks to radio and Newsreels, this was the first opportunity that many Britons had to hear The Queen speak. This video includes a speech by King George V and then the naming of the ship by Queen Mary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8BLqFAR3dw
A few years later – in 1938 – Queen Elizabeth (later The Queen Mother) launched RMS Queen Elizabeth, named in her honor. After a brief speech, she was presented with a gift by the Cunard Line and then named the ship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE1PHonSW68
In 1947, just a few weeks before her marriage, the then-Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by Lt. Philip Mountbatten, launched RMS Caronia.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/princess-elizabeth-launches-the-coronia-1/query/Clydebank
Princess Margaret launched RMS Carinthia in 1955.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/carinthia-launched/query/Countess
Queen Elizabeth II launched the new Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1967. Traditionally, ships didn’t take on a number. The ship was intended to be called Queen Elizabeth. However, during the naming ceremony, Her Majesty called her “Queen Elizabeth the second”, thus giving the ship her famous nickname – QE2. Despite the name, it isn’t actually named for her. It is named after the previous RMS Queen Elizabeth.
HM The Queen at the launch of RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (photo credit: The Guardian)
The Queen launched the RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. It was decided to keep with the new tradition of adding the 2 to the ship’s name.
HM The Queen at the launch of RMS Queen Mary 2 (photo credit BBC)
In somewhat of a break from tradition, RMS Queen Victoria was christened by The Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Camilla, in 2007. Up until this point, all of Cunard’s ‘Queen’ ships had been launched by the actual Queen at the time. This was seen as a nod toward The Duchess’ future role as Queen Consort.
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall at the launch of RMS Queen Victoria credit: Hello)
The last of the Cunard ships – the RMS Queen Elizabeth – was launched by The Queen in 2010. Again, the ship is named after the original RMS Queen Elizabeth, this time without the addition of a 2 or 3. Incidentally, Her Majesty was in attendance for the launches of all three of the Queen Elizabeth ships, having accompanied her mother when the first was launched in 1938, and herself launching the other two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIeUAQmKZek
Holland America Line
Holland America Line has the largest number of royal sponsors. Eleven of their ocean liners have been named by Dutch royals, beginning with the SS Statendam(III) in 1929 by Prince Hendrik and the latest being MS Nieuw Amsterdam(IV) in 2010 by Princess Máxima.
SS Statendam(III) – christened 1929 by HRH Prince Henrik, The Prince Consort
SS Nieuw Amsterdam(II) – christened 1937 by HM Queen Wilhelmina
SS Statendam(IV) – christened 1957 by HRH Princess Beatrix
SS Princes Margriet – christened 1964 by HRH Princess Beatrix
SS Rotterdam(V) – christened 1958 by HM Queen Juliana
MS Prinsendam(II) – christened 1973 by HRH Princess Margriet
MS Nieuw Amsterdam(III) – christened 1983 by HRH Princess Margriet
MS Rotterdam(VI) – christened 1997 by HRH Princess Margriet
MS Oosterdam – christened 2003 by HRH Princess Margriet
MS Eurodam – christened 2008 by HM Queen Beatrix
MS Nieuw Amsterdam(IV) – christened 2010 by HRH Princess Máxima
As mentioned at the top of this article, Princess Cruises has had two royal sponsors – The Duchess of Cambridge and Diana, Princess of Wales – both of whom christened ships named Royal Princess.
Princess Grace of Monaco is the only non-British royal involved with a Cunard Line christening. In 1977, The Princess christened MS Cunard Princess. The ship had previously been named MS Conquest. She also participated in another re-christening ceremony in 1982. Back in 1956, the then-Grace Kelly sailed to Monaco on the SS Constitution, for her wedding to Prince Rainier. Years later, after a complete overhaul for its new owner, The Princess was asked to re-christen this ship, which she did in Taiwan, accompanied by Prince Rainier.
And one last tidbit which I find rather ironic. Despite its name, the Royal Caribbean Line has only one Royal sponsor. In 1992, MS Majesty of the Seas was launched by Queen Sonja of Norway.
Who Knew?!
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