At this present moment in time, only two royal families have their own ships. Although the United Kingdom has recently made arrangements to commission a new royal yacht, only Norway and Denmark have a current royal vessel in use.
For Queen Margrethe of Denmark, it is always a joyous moment for her to be on board the royal yacht Dannebrog. She has recently expressed her fond memories of being on the yacht with her late husband Prince Henrik, and their little sons Frederik and Joachim. However, as children, the two boys were not always equally enthusiastic about the experience.
Speaking in TV2 series ‘A life as a Queen’, Queen Margrethe recalled her meetings with the Danish people when the Royal Family embarks on a voyage with the royal yacht. For Queen Margrethe, it was brought her huge joy in 1972 to have her husband and sons alongside her in the royal yacht. At the same time, the Queen acknowledges that Frederik and Joachim were not always so happy to go ashore to meet mayors and other dignitaries in the port where the royal yacht docked.
In the documentary, the Queen says: “To be on board here with the boys, and they should get to know the ship and learn to be at sea. I was very happy about that. It was really funny that they were going to have the same experience that I had with my sisters when we were little”.
Queen Margrethe continues: “It was always a pleasure to have them around. They were not just thrilled always. They had to stand and say nice hello and wait for something more fun to happen than what just happened. However, we took them with us a little boys, but not to the whole thing, of course, because there is no point in that when you are little boys. When they get a little older, they benefit greatly from knowing that here you have to make a little effort and say nice hello”.
The Danish royal yacht is one of the world’s two remaining royal yachts. The other is the Norwegian royal yacht, Norge. The British royal yacht, Britannia was decommissioned in 1997. The Dannebrog yacht was built from 1931-1932 as a replacement for a former royal vessel, the paddle steamer Dannebrog, from 1879. The ship serves as an official and private residence for The Queen and the Royal Family during summer cruises of Denmark or on official overseas visits.
