Queen Elizabeth leads record-setting flotilla
Parade on Thames draws huge crowds
LONDON – The River Thames became a royal highway Sunday, as Queen Elizabeth II led a motley but majestic flotilla of more than 1,000 vessels in a waterborne pageant to mark her Diamond Jubilee.
In a colorful salute to the island nation’s maritime past, an armada of skiffs and sailboats, rowboats and paddle steamers joined a flower-festooned royal barge down a 7-mile stretch of London’s river.
With hundreds of thousands of rain-soaked spectators watching and cheering from the riverbanks, the pageant was the largest public event in four days of celebrations of the monarch’s 60 years on the throne. Today, the queen will join thousands of revelers at an outdoor concert beside Buckingham Palace, headlined by Paul McCartney and Elton John.
Sunday was dismal and damp, with rain scuttling plans for a ceremonial fly past, but that didn’t stop Union Jack-waving spectators forming a red, white and blue wave along the route.
The 86-year-old queen wore a silver and white dress and matching coat – embroidered with gold, silver and ivory spots and embellished with Swarovski crystals to evoke the river – for her trip aboard the barge Spirit of Chartwell, decorated for the occasion in regal red, gold and purple velvet.
The queen’s grandson, Prince William, and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge – he in his Royal Air Force uniform, she in a red Alexander McQueen dress – and William’s brother, Prince Harry, were among royals who joined the queen and her husband, Prince Philip.
After a celebratory peal of bells from a special belfry barge, the royal boat sailed downstream at a stately 4 knots (4.6 mph), accompanied by tugs, pleasure craft, kayaks, gondolas, dragon boats and even a replica Viking longboat.
Also in the flotilla were dozens of “Dunkirk Little Ships,” private boats that rescued thousands of British soldiers from the beaches of France after the German invasion in 1940 – a defeat that became a major victory for wartime morale.
The pageant ended with a slightly soggy burst of fireworks over Tower Bridge – and news from Guinness World Records that it had broken the record for largest parade of boats.
Not everyone in Britain was celebrating. Hundreds of anti-monarchists held a riverbank protest to oppose the wave of jubilee-mania – though their chants were quickly countered by renditions of “God Save the Queen” from pageant-goers.