Accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the pair arrived in Southampton on May 1, 1969, on the eve of Queen Elizabeth 2’s departure to New York. They spent an hour or so being shown around, and the Queen is said to have remarked ‘it really is very lovely’ to the officers she met.
Then Chairman of Cunard, Sir Basil Smallpeice, recounts in his autobiography that ‘The Queen was in splendid form, talking freely to the officers in the Wardroom and to seamen around the ship.’