'Britannia's' Royal Barge Being Made Ready for Coronation Review: Craftsmen working on the Royal barge at Portsmouth Dockyard. The Royal barge for the new Royal yacht Britannia (launched by the Queen on Clydeside recently) is now being prepared at Portsmouth Dockyard. The barge, built by a Portsmouth film in 1938, is being stripped, re-painted and re-gilded by a band of skilled craftsmen in the Dockyard's big boathouse. Before the barge 'joins' the Britannia she will be in attendance upon H.M.S. Surprise (the despatch vessel to be used by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh) during the Coronation Naval Review. April 28, 1953. (Photo by Reuterphoto).