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Britannia's big in Japan
The Mail on Sunday - April 22nd 2001
BRITISH flag flying and to the strains of God Save The Queen, a new Britannia was launched last week... into a Japanese dock.
The vessel, a gigantic bulk carrier, has none of the mahogany and brass splendour of her Royal namesake, now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh’s Leith Docks after 40 years’ service. But her name was given approval because, as a Royal Navy ship, the Royal Yacht Britannia was never registered as a merchant vessel. So when London-based metals trader Alan Bekhor, whose agency Ocean Bulk Carriers acts for the owners, cheekily applied for the name he discovered it was available. A spokesman for the Maritime and Marine Coastguard Agency, keeper of the register, said: “I suppose it was a bit of a loophole in the market. But there is no Royal claim as such on the name Britannia.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesman admitted that “someone was bound to use the name at some point.”
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