The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant On The Thames

Yesterday, I was involved in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant as a guest of City Cruises (the company that puts out most of the tourist boats on the Thames in central London).

Of course the weather wasn’t with us, so we had a long wait in the rain to board. Sitting at a temporary mooring opposite the London Eye we got to see the entire flotilla before we tagged on at the end. First came the floating belfry, kitted out with bells from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, then an Elizabethan-style rowing boat with a red-liveried footman on the prow.  This signalled the arrival of the rest of the rowers – Canadians in longboats through University rowing teams to solo canoeists paddling along.

Heralding the arrival of the Chartwell carrying the Queen and senior members of the Royal Family, the Sea Cadets provided a colourful interlude as they passed by on small boats, each carrying a large flag signifying each country of the Commonwealth. This was followed by a motor launch from the Royal Yacht Britannia then, almost unnoticed, the Princess Royal and Tim Laurence slipped by in a  small Trinity House vessel…

A big boat passed by at this point festooned with heraldry, carrying members of the Royal Household. Then, flanked by two small Royal Navy ships, the training vellels Trumpeter and Ranger, and then followed by two Royal Marine patrol boats (one manned by Canadians I noticed) came the Chartwell with its magnificent floral decoration and ornate gold trimmings. The Queen wore a dazzling white outfit while Kate Middleton was dressed in red. William and Harry were decked out in their best military uniforms, as were Prince Philip and Prince Charles, and of course Camilla was there, grinning away and waving at the crowds of people who had thronged the riverside all the way along the route.

The passing-by of the royals didn’t mark the end of the flotilla however – now came the ‘little ships’ of Dunkirk, followed by vessels of the emergency services including a vast number of RNLI rescue vessels – I hope no-one was lost at sea yesterday because I think half of their boats were on the Thames! Following these were an odd little group of historic vessels from little steamers to sleek motorboats, followed by commercial riverboats (tugs, dredgers and so on) and then the rather sorry looking canal boats, their bright colouring muted by the torrential rain that was coming down by this point. Finally it was time for the pleasure boats to tag on at the end, so we got another oppportunity to see the Queen as we passed by Tower Bridge where the Chartwell was moored alongside HMS President (all Royal Navy establishments, whether based on land or sea are named after ships).

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant was an amazing spectacle, all the more so for being right down on the river amongst it all – if only the decent weather we had last weekend had been repeated! At least we were undercover most of the time – my respect to the crowds of supporters who lined the Thames, because they must have been soaked to the skin by the time we passed by…

You can find an absolute mass of photographs of the day online here – the best of the 1500 or so that I took!

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About The Londoneer

Pete Stean is a keen blogger, amateur photographer, singer and ham radio enthusiast in his spare time...
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Comments

  1. Lee Carter says:

    What a great spectacle it was! All them boats.

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  2. [...] around (you might remember that City Cruises were kind enough to invite me to participate in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant back in [...]

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