The Queen and The Princess Royal sail on board historic Windermere steamer
Published: 17th July 2013
One of Windermere’s historic steamers has today, Wednesday 17 July, welcomed two very special visitors; Her Majesty The Queen and Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.
MV Teal, the largest steamer ever built for the lake, hosted the two Royal guests on a cruise from Bowness-on-Windermere up the lake to Brockhole, the Lake District Visitor Centre. It is the second time The Queen has travelled on board the Teal, having previously sailed from Ambleside to Bowness with The Duke of Edinburgh back in August 1956.
On Bowness pier, the Royal visitors met informally with staff from Windermere Lake Cruises and members of the boat crew. They were also presented with a posy of flowers by two local schoolchildren nominated by their head teachers, as well as viewing a mosaic portrait of Her Majesty produced from 2,450 photos of Keswick and the Lake District.
Then on board the Teal, The Queen and The Princess Royal met representatives from a range of local charities and The Queen unveiled a special plaque to commemorate her second sailing on board the historic vessel.
Nigel Wilkinson, Managing Director of Windermere Lake Cruises, says, “It is a tremendous honour to welcome The Queen back to Windermere and on board Teal, almost 60 years after her first visit. We are all very proud to have been asked to take part and to show both Her Majesty and The Princess Royal an iconic landscape which has not only captivated generations of visitors, but has also inspired some of the world’s most renowned writers, artists and poets.”
Teal was built by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness and originally launched on Windermere on 4 July 1936. A member of the National Historic Fleet, the vessel currently carries up to 533 passengers and like her sister ships, Swan and Tern, is named after one of the bird species which makes its home around the shoreline of England’s largest natural lake.
For more information about the steamers and Windermere Lake Cruises, visit: www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk
