There’s been renewed enthusiasm about the idea of a new Royal Britannia in the wake of Prince Philip’s death. He was closely involved in the commissioning and design of the previous royal yacht. In service from 1954 until 1997, the origi-nal Royal Yacht Britannia was the 83rd official royal yacht of a British monarch since Charles II became King in 1660. At 126 meters in length and a crew of 220 yachtsmen, Royal Britannia was a large ship and as part of her original design along-side her construction required tenders, smaller crafts to hang off her side to serve as support and were designed to fulfil a wide variety of purposes from ferrying passengers to collecting supplies. In Britannia’s case two of these so-called ‘Jolly Boats’ and were used by members of the Royal Family and other guests when enjoying trips ashore from the yacht.
In the late 1990s spotted languishing on the Union Canal at Brentford Jolly Brit, one of the Britan-nia’s dedicated Jolly Boats, lay discarded and decaying. Britannia was by this time retired. She now resides at Ocean Terminal, Leith in Edin-burgh and is one of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions. Jolly Brit’s fate did not take such a fortunate turn.
It was Henry Butt who spotted Jolly Brit on the Grand Union and purchased her. Then began a labour of love to restore her over the next two decades. She was a mess and he did his best to get her shipshape enough to join the hundreds of ships of historical importance to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pageant back in 2012. But it was going to take a collaborative effort of many to get this Jolly Boat back to Royal standards.
In autumn 2020 Stuart Humphries, an old friend of Henry Butt, spotted Jolly Brit tucked at the back of a muddy field near Bell Weir Lock Eg-ham. He was horrified when he heard that she was due to be broken up. Soon he had signed himself up as project manager to help Henry in his dream of restoring this little piece of royalty. Stuart, approached Dennett’s in Chertsey who were then commissioned.
Restoration began in January 2021. Stripping back the rotten mahogany hull to essentially the skele-ton of the vessel, revealed many rotten ribs which would require replacement. All new mahogany planking in two layers was then painstakingly applied to the hull to create a strong and durable vessel that without a doubt will last another 70 years. By the end of January, she had been re ribbed, planked, primed and turned over ready for some intricate woodwork to her topsides and inte-rior. She was then was handed over to the decorat-ing team who spent many weeks painting and varnishing applying up to 12 coats to achieve the ultimate shine.
During this time, Henry informed the Royal Pal-ace of the restoration and the Queen herself has conveyed in writing to Henry her gratitude for his dedication, even recalling memories of using Jolly Brit in Africa feeding crocodiles.
4 months since works started the Jolly Brit was relaunched. Congratulations to the owner, Henry who is 92 years old, to see his beloved Jolly Brit a floating icon and to have his legacy documented in preserving the future of her makes him and this resto-ration a very special one indeed.