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Queen Victoria Naming Photos
First the Bishop of Winchester blessed the new Cunard liner, Queen Victoria. Then Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, dressed in a light blue dress with a floral hat, added her blessing, with her husband, the Prince of Wales, beaming at her side. In an unexpectedly low, solemn voice, Camilla officially named the ship and invoked God's blessing on her in the standard sendoff -- "May God bless her and all who sail in her" -- and pressed the button that was rigged to the bottle on the hull's port side. The ritual bottle of Champagne swung towards the hull it had failed to break and hung dangling form the rope. There was a nervous hush in the crowd, then a young crew member on deck whipped out a spare and did the honors successfully by hand, the old fashioned way is sometimes the best way. After the backup bottle was successfully smashed, the ship's whistle blew, fireworks erupted and confetti dropped down from the ceiling. Despite this unfortunate event the rest of the naming ceremony was a success, a barrage of pomp and circumstance which the woman after whom the 205-foot-high ship is named would have found familiar. Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi played Phileas Fogg while acting out a history of the Cunard line, while tenors Alfie Boe, Jon Christos and Gardar Thor Cortes sang Nessum Dorma and I Saw Three Ships. Welsh opera star Katherine Jenkins also performed in front of 2,000 guests waving the Union flag. The choirs of Westminster Cathedral were there. So was the London Philharmonic. At the end of the proceedings, they joined forces with three British tenors to perform "Rule, Britannia," while an audience of about 2,000, in a structure built on the pier expressly for this occasion, waved little plastic British flags. It was a grand and moving ceremony, for which there is no U.S. parallel.
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