Vanguard Ship No 567 (clip)

Film made by Upper Clyde Shipbuilders recording the launch on 30 November 1944 by HRH Princess Elizabeth of the Battleship Vanguard built by John Brown's yard at Clydebank. The film is quite jerky and clearly made as a record rather than for public consumption. HMS Vanguard was the biggest, fastest and last of the great British Royal Navy battleships built at Clydebank. She did not see service in the Second World War and was used in training exercises with NATO forces in the 1950s. Vanguard had a displacement of 42.500 tons, carried 8 x 15 inch guns together with 16 x 5.25 guns and 71 AA guns. The ships crew was 1,600. She was broken up in 1960 at Faslane and sold for scrap.
See the break up of RMS Vanguard on the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive website. The clip includes: panning shots of the launch balcony showing Princess Elizabeth and others. Close up of Princess Elizabeth with a man in a naval uniform. Shots of a BBC microphone (possibly for a radio broadcast). Princess Elizabeth gives a speech and pushes the button to release the bottle christening the ship. Shots of a Union Jack Flag as the ship moves down the slipway. Shots of the cranes and scaffolds and the chains dragging as the ship hits the water. Princess Elizabeth with a bouquet of flowers and other Royal Navy dignatories including two women - one in a fur coat.