A royal peek, Ma'am?

IT'S not every day you are allowed to peer into the Queen's bedroom without fear of being arrested but no alarm bells ring when you visit this royal residence.

A ship with a story to tell ... the Britannia was also a honeymoon ship for Charles and Diana.

IT'S not every day you are allowed to peer into the Queen's bedroom without fear of being arrested.

An intruder who famously invaded Her Majesty's personal space at Buckingham Palace received a frosty reception from a stunned Queen and stern treatment from the law.

But it is possible these days to visit the Queen's bedroom – with its single bed and tasteful furnishings – and all quite legally.

And then to stroll next door to Prince Philip's more masculine abode before checking out Prince Charles and Diana's honeymoon suite.

In fact, you'll be encouraged to do so – no palace courtier will press a duress alarm should you linger too long in this royal residence.

Seeing how the royals live and play has become one of the most popular attractions at Edinburgh where HM Royal Yacht Britannia is moored at Leith Ocean Terminal.

The Britannia tour takes visitors to all parts of the 116m vessel, offering a fascinating glimpse of the "upstairs downstairs'' lifestyles of the royal family and the ship's complement of Royal Yachtsmen, Royal Household staff and Royal Marine band.

For 44 years following her launch in 1953, the Britannia was a royal residence at sea visiting almost every part of the world including Australia and Antarctica.

With comfortable quarters for the Queen and royal family capturing the look and feel of an elegant country house, it is said that Britannia was the one place where the Queen could truly relax.

Not so for the ship's crew, for whom the pursuit of excellence was the permanent standing order.

And you learn some interesting things on your own royal tour of the Britannia – how the windows of the royal quarters are set higher to prevent sailors getting untoward glimpses of unsuspecting royals.

Or why crew members working on the ship – in total silence if within cooee of a member of the royal family – went "hatless''.

Going hatless meant a sailor was technically out of uniform, thus eliminating the obligation to salute resident royals or for any royals to return their salute. Makes sense really.

Below decks accommodation for the crew was cramped to say the least – their tiered bunk beds were a relatively new addition that replaced the original hammocks.

And their duties "ranged from ensuring that the slope of the royal gangway was never steeper than 12 degrees to arranging the royal flowers".

One of the most interesting features of the ship and the double life she led is to be found on one of the lower decks. There you find a spacious sick bay with a number of bunks right next door to a fully equipped hospital operating theatre.

In addition to being a floating palace and a honeymoon ship for Charles and Diana, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones, the Britannia doubled as a hospital ship.

Should she have been called to wartime service, Britannia could be converted quickly to its hospital ship role, albeit with an operating theatre cast in a 1950s time warp.

Britannia was never called up for wartime duty.

In more than four decades of cruising the high seas as a royal transport and a British trade building vessel, Britannia covered more than a million nautical miles and visited more than 600 ports in 135 countries.

Britannia and the beautifully crafted Queen's royal barge located nearby have become a popular attraction for visitors to Edinburgh.

And when she was decommissioned amid great pomp and circumstance at Portsmouth on December 11, 1997, it is said that the Queen came close to losing her royal reserve in farewelling her favourite "palace".

Sunday Herald Sun