{"id":26686,"date":"2014-07-04T07:18:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T12:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=26686"},"modified":"2014-07-17T11:19:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T16:19:39","slug":"the-queen-formally-names-the-new-aircraft-carrier-hms-queen-elizabeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/07\/04\/the-queen-formally-names-the-new-aircraft-carrier-hms-queen-elizabeth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Queen formally names the new aircraft carrier <em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A break with tradition, as the ship was christened with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-28146412\" target=\"_blank\">bottle of Bowmore whisky<\/a>, rather than a bottle of champagne:<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;min-width:300px;\">\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:59.932660% 0 49px 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/451678328?et=n0mxfMShRe1qkNJQWJd8_g&#038;sig=UR2OKFCbMq4LbIDgqeSpxMYhDzfIHBBeksPXEVTHy8s=\" width=\"594\" height=\"405\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:0;\">\n<div style=\"padding:0;margin:4px 0 0 10px;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/451678328\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\">#451678328<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\">gettyimages.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em><strong>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/strong> is pictured in Rosyth Dockyard where Queen Elizabeth II will formally name the Royal Navy&#8217;s biggest ever ship on July 4, 2014 in Fife, Scotland. With whisky replacing the more traditional champagne at the ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II will smash a bottle of Islay malt whisky against <strong>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/strong> at the event at Rosyth Dockyard, where the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier has been assembled and fitted out. (Photo by Andrew Milligan &#8211; WPA Pool \/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A bottle of whisky was smashed on the hull of the 65,000-tonne <em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em> &mdash; the first of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers being built.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Arrows flew over the dockyard before the ship was officially named.<\/p>\n<p>First Sea Lord Admiral George Zambellas said the ship was &#8220;fit for a Queen&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em> will be a national instrument of power and a national symbol of authority,&#8221; he said in a speech.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That means she will be a national icon too, all the while keeping the great in Great Britain and the royal in Royal Navy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the audience, the Queen said the &#8220;innovative and first class&#8221; warship, the largest ever to be built in the UK, ushered in an &#8220;exciting new era&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In sponsoring this new aircraft carrier, I believe the <em>Queen Elizabeth<\/em> will be a source of inspiration and pride for us all,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;May God bless her and all who sail in her.&#8221; <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And even the bloody BBC gets it wrong: the ship is named for Queen Elizabeth I, not the current monarch &#8230; when the Royal Navy names a ship for a monarch, like the battleship <em>HMS King George V<\/em> for example, it indicates <em>which<\/em> King George is being memorialized. <em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em> is the third time the Royal Navy has named a ship for the Virgin Queen: the first being the lead ship of a class of super-dreadnoughts launched just before the outbreak of WW1, and the second being the lead ship of a class of never-built aircraft carriers in the 1960s (no, I don&#8217;t know why that counts: ask the RN about that).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update 17 July<\/strong>: A few photos from Jeff Head&#8217;s Flickr stream show the contrast between the soon-to-be-retired <em>HMS Illustrious<\/em> and the soon-to-be-launched <em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><div id=\"attachment_26872\" style=\"width: 789px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/jeff_head\/14566815204\/in\/photostream\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26872\" src=\"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth.png\" alt=\"Queen Elizabeth ready for launch, next to HMS Illustrious (Photo by Jeff Head)\" width=\"779\" height=\"586\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26872\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth.png 779w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-150x112.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-480x361.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-26872\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em> ready for launch, next to <em>HMS Illustrious<\/em> (Photo by Jeff Head)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><div id=\"attachment_26873\" style=\"width: 789px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/jeff_head\/14375752868http:\/\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26873\" src=\"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-side-view.png\" alt=\"HMS Queen Elizabeth ready for christening, with HMS Illustrious in the foreground. (Photo by Jeff Head)\" width=\"779\" height=\"585\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26873\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-side-view.png 779w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-side-view-150x112.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HMS-Illustrious-and-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-side-view-480x360.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-26873\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>HMS Queen Elizabeth<\/em> ready for christening, with <em>HMS Illustrious<\/em> in the foreground. (Photo by Jeff Head)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A break with tradition, as the ship was christened with a bottle of Bowmore whisky, rather than a bottle of champagne: #451678328 \/ gettyimages.com HMS Queen Elizabeth is pictured in Rosyth Dockyard where Queen Elizabeth II will formally name the Royal Navy&#8217;s biggest ever ship on July 4, 2014 in Fife, Scotland. With whisky replacing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[617,30],"class_list":["post-26686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-military","tag-carriers","tag-navy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-6Wq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26686"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26874,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26686\/revisions\/26874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}