I was in Nassau, Bahamas, in 1954 on the charter schooner “Caribee”, when Queen Elizabeth, on the Royal Yacht Brittania, was visiting the British Empire, which was vast. We were told in social studies that “The sun never sets on the British Empire”, as Britain had holdings in every arc of the world. (The world is a sphere, there are no corners), and she made a periodic visitation to them all, Australia, New Zealand, Papua, India, the British West Indies, etc.
Nassau was bedecked in flowers and flags as befits a royal visitation, and there was much nightly merriment and pomp and circumstance. As I understood it, pomp and circumstance was a ballroom dance of the Victorian era of the gentry and royal courts, where partners, sporting pompadours and powdered wigs, pair off and as one pomps the other circumstances, and then they switch and the pompers will circumstance and so on.
That was the last night of the visitation, as the royal entourage was due to depart the following morning. I was alone on the boat as a watchman, the rest were ashore to see the splendid departure, where it seemed like all of Nassau turned out to bid them farewell.
The Royal Bahamian Orchestra, bedecked in gold and silver braid and epaulets gave a rousing rendition of “Britannia rules the waves” (waives the rules, as I like to say it) as the Britannia, festooned in flags and banners, slowly steamed out of the harbor. It was a rather narrow channel, and I had a good view of the splendid vessel. There was a solitary figure on the afterdeck under an awning, whom I perceived to be the queen.
The “Caribee” was a large, 97-foot American yacht, and stood out among the local craft. As the Britannia slowly glided past, she looked at us, I waved, and she waved back. Sadly, she never contacted me after that brief encounter.
