Royal Ceremony for HMS Queen Elizabeth Launching

More than 5,000 people witnessed the Queen of the United Kingdom give her blessing to Britain’s largest ever warship as she formally named the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth on July 4.

An hour-long ceremony in Rosyth – flypasts, religious blessings, nautical music and full military pomp mixed with modern audio-visuals – concluded with the Queen ‘christening’ the 65,000-tonne carrier by smashing a bottle of whisky against the hull.

“This is the beginning of a national icon, keeping the ‘great’ in Great Britain and ‘royal’ in Royal Navy.” Thus did Britain’s most senior sailor, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir George Zambellas, hail HMS Queen Elizabeth as the monarch today formally named the largest, most powerful surface ship ever to fly the White Ensign.

On a sullen, occasionally drizzly, day on the north shore of the Forth, more than 5,000 sailors, shipwrights and their families, and VIPs from north and south of the border gathered to hear the Queen utter the immortal words: I name this ship Queen Elizabeth, may God bless her and all who sail in her.

With the press of a button, a bottle of Scottish whisky slammed into the bow of the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier, shattered, and thus bestowed the ship with good luck.

Because of the way HMS Queen Elizabeth has been built – by six yards around the UK, with the segments pieced together in a cavernous dry dock at Rosyth – there was no clank of chains and dramatic sight of a vessel running down a slipway into the water for the first time.

Scottish pipe bands and the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Scotland provided suitable musical accompaniment, from Highland songs to Sailing and the Naval Hymn.

In between, huge TV screens broadcast videos, showing what the carrier – and her sister HMS Prince of Wales – will bring to the nation, and the national effort that has gone into creating the vessels which have been 15 years in the design and five years building so far.

The Red Arrows flew over the carrier leaving trails of red, white and blue smoke which quickly dispersed in the stiff Forth breeze.

At mid-day precisely, the order ‘HMS Queen Elizabeth ship’s company, man ship’ rang out around Rosyth and sailors stepped forward on the upper deck of the carrier, side-by-side with the men and women who built her to rounds of applause from the audience.

They heard Admiral Zambellas proclaim their ship as “a steel-clad phoenix” and “the jewel in the crown of UK defence”. He continued: “Queen Elizabeth heralds a new dawn for the Royal Navy and our nation’s security. “She is a mighty ship – she has presence, she dwarfs, and she is most certainly fit for a Queen. She is the expression of our national ambition. Expect to see her ready, with her White Ensign flying around the world.”

With the Royal Standard and Union Jack billowing furiously, the Queen stepped forward on the dais to address all present, especially the ship’s company. “I believe that the Queen Elizabeth as the flagship of the Royal Navy will be a source of inspiration and pride for us all,” she said.