Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Cruise the Detroit River in 1959
Royal Yacht Britannia - Wikimedia Commons
by Kathy Warnes
On June 18, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip arrived in Gander, Newfoundland to begin a fifteen thousand mile, 45 day tour which would prove to be the longest royal tour in Canadian history. The Queen, then 33, had left her two young children, Prince Charles and Princes Anne, behind in England, and few people besides the Queen and Prince Philip knew that she was pregnant with a third child. (Prince Andrew).
The royal couple navigated the Detroit River in their Royal Yacht Britannia, leaving Downriver residents with vivid memories of the blue hulled yacht gliding through cheering crowds on both the Canadian and American sides of the river. The Britannia anchored for a time near the Ambassador Bridge.
Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker insisted that a Canadian Cabinet minister accompany the Royal party at all times, because he wanted to impress Americans with the fact that the Queen visited the United States as a Canadian monarch and the Canadian Embassy, not the British Embassy, dictated the Queen’s itinerary. The Queen’s Canadian ministers wrote her Chicago speeches and they stressed the fact that she visited as the Queen of Canada. The Queen hosted the return dinner for President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
According to the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s itinerary included 17 military parades, 21 formal dinners, 64 guards of honor, 193 bouquets, 381 platform appearances, and over 7,000 handshakes. A Weekend Magazine story stated that the Queen visited not just as a sightseer, but as the Queen of Canada introducing herself as a crowned monarch to her people. The Britannia sailed through the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway and up the Great Lakes to the newly completed Mackinac Bridge and visited many Canadian ports before arriving at Nova Scotia, the final stop in the tour.
The ceremonial opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway served as the central focus for the Royal visit, but the Queen and King also visited many of the outlaying Canadian districts that had never before seen royalty to underscore the fact that she also had been designated as Queen of Canada. They visited all ten Canadian provinces, the Great Lakes, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and the United States.
Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower Dedicate the St. Lawrence Seaway
The tour began on June 18, 1959, in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Governor General Vincent Massey and other dignitaries welcomed the Queen and her party. A small girl gave the Queen a bouquet and both the Queen and the crowd waited patiently until she curtsied and rejoined her parents.
The party crossed Newfoundland to Stephenville, detoured through Labrador to Schefferville in northern Quebec and continued to travel through Quebec. They stopped in Gasped, Arvida, and Three Rivers along the St. Lawrence River and visited Quebec City and Montreal.
On June 26, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and United States President Dwight David Eisenhower formally opened the 2,300 mile St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. St. Lawrence Seaway officials presented the Queen and the President Dwight Eisenhower with a commemorative book containing the names of the men who built the seaway, and then the Queen made a speech welcoming the President and his wife Mamie to Canada to mark the opening of the Seaway as “a great joint enterprise between our two countries.” She said that the St. Lawrence Seaway would “open the centre of America to world trade and enhance Canadian commerce…”
The Royal and presidential parties boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia at the lock at St. Lambert, Quebec, near Montreal. People cheered and waved flags, church bells rang, and bands played as the Britannia pulled away from the dock and entered the lift lock to officially open the St. Lawrence Seaway. Balloons and fireworks decorated the sky as the Britannia’s bow passed a symbolic gate made from a lock timber of the old lock from the Lachine Canal which had been built to bypass the Lachine rapids. The ships anchored in Montreal harbor blew their whistles and sirens as the Britannia got underway.
While they were stopped at Kingston, Ontario, Queen Elizabeth II confided an intimate secret to Prime Minister Diefenbaker. She told him that she was pregnant and he urged her to cut the tour short. The Queen swore him to secrecy and continued the Royal tour.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip Visit Toronto and Ottawa
On June 27, 1959, the with the help of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, Queen Elizabeth II dedicated a monument at the St. Lawrence Power Dam at Massena, New York , the Seaway’s main power plant. The Queen and Prince Philip arrived in Toronto on Monday, June 29, 1959. Ocean and lake liners resounded with 21 gun salutes and the enthusiastic cheers of sailors. The royal couple spent a busy two days in Toronto, participating in ceremonies at City Hall, dinner at the Royal York Hotel, visits to O’Keefe Centre and the 100th running of the Queen’s Plate. They left Malton Airport in Toronto on Tuesday, June 30, 1959, bound for Ottawa.
The Royal Couple and Rules for the Royal Yacht on the Detroit River
Boaters on the Detroit River were alerted to special rules that would be in force while the Royal Yacht Britannia traveled the Detroit River. The Ecorse Advertiser of July 1, 1959 spelled out the rules. The story said that when the Queen and her husband Prince Philip passed down the river on the Britannia, craft of every kind would be under strict control of the U.S. Coast Guard on the American side of the River. In Canadian waters boats would be subject to regulations of the Royal Canadian Mounted police, according to the Coast Guard.
One restriction, which affected boats of any description had to do with approaching the Britannia. No craft of any kind was permitted to approach nearer than 50 yards of the Royal yacht, and any of its escorting vessels or the Royal launch, known as the Royal barge. Other rules pertained to obstructing the movement of the Britannia and its escorting vessels. All craft were required to give the right of way to the Britannia and its escort vessels.
The movement of all vessels on the Detroit River was restricted so as not to endanger or impede the Britannia in any way. Sound signals will be used by patrolling government craft and orders must be promptly obeyed. Three long blasts mean that the vessel signaled is moving too fast and must slow immediately. Four long blasts mean the vessel signaled must stop until permission is given to proceed. Three sort blasts require the vessel signaled to give way and clear the channel as quickly as possible.
The Queen’s visit was important news Downriver, but the regulations for sharing the Detroit River with the Britannia landed on the third page of the Ecorse Advertiser. The death of former Ecorse mayor William Voisine and stories about the July 3, Ecorse Water Festival dominated the front page.
Welcome to the Detroit River, Your Majesty
On July 1, the Royal Party celebrated Dominion Day in Ottawa and then they visited Windsor, Detroit, Stratford, London, and Sarnia. During the first four days of July, the 2451 AC&W Squadron participated in several parades with other militia units of the cities of Windsor, Ontario and Detroit,Michigan.
People on the American and Canadian sides of the Detroit River lined its banks, cheered the Britannia and waved to the Queen and Prince Philip. Using 1950s camera and movie technology, they snapped and filmed mementos of the Royal visit for their children and grandchildren. For many people, the visit of Queen Elizabeth II is an exciting memory that is still as fresh as today. Diane McQueen St. Aubin who lived in Ecorse at the time, remembers the Britannia, “on the Canadian side of the River of course,” as a flash of elegance and color.
Both Detroit and Windsor declared that the First Annual Freedom Festival would take place from July 1 to July 4, 1959. The highlight of the Freedom Festival came on July 3 with the visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
During the Royal tour, airmen of the 2451 A& W Squadron squadron lined the route of the Royal Party in two separate sections of Windsor, while another group of airmen moved all the Royal baggage from the Royal Train to the Royal Yacht Britannia moored in the Detroit River at Dieppe Gardens. The Commanding Officer and his wife were officially presented to Her Majesty during civic ceremonies.
After visiting Detroit and Windsor, the Britannia continued through Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River into Lake Huron and north to Orillia and Muskoka where it visited on July 3 and July 4. On July 5, 1959, Queen Elizabeth and her party rested aboard the Britannia as it chugged toward Chicago according to a story in the Palm Beach Post, date lined Parry Sound. The Orillia Spirit reported that when the Britannia stopped in Orillia, the crowds were not as large as those in Windsor and Detroit, but they were just as enthusiastic. Then the Britannia headed south to Chicago.
The Royal Couple Visits Chicago
On July 6, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrived in Chicago against a backdrop of U.S. Air Force and Navy jets thundering across the sky. Aerial torpedoes exploded parachutes that carried the Stars and Stripes and Union Jacks. According to the Chicago Sun Times, a crowd of more than a million people waited at the foot of Congress Street and along the lake front to watch the Queen and King arrive on mildly choppy Lake Michigan waters. The Britannia steamed into the harbor, with an escort of seven warships and more than 500 small craft, including two Chinese junks.
The first reigning British monarch ever to visit Chicago, the Queen and Prince Philip toured the International Trade Fair. “This is magnificent. What wonderful people!” the Queen said.
The Chicago Royal visit lased fourteen hours, but the fourteen hours were filled with pageantry and a warm Chicago welcome for the royal couple.
The Royal Tour Moves West
Leaving Chicago, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Sault Ste. Marie, Port Arthur and Fort William. Next, the royal couple flew to Calgary for the Stampede where Prince Philip wore a white cowboy hat. Then they moved on to Banff, Golden, Kamloops, Vancouver, and Victoria. In Nanaimo, British Columbia, the Queen and Prince Philip participated in “Indian Days,” a celebration of native culture, and the Queen became a princess of the Salish Nation.
For the next leg of their tour, the Royal party flew north to Whitehorse and Dawson City and east to Yellowknife. During her visit to the Yukon Territory, Queen Elizabeth took a few days off to rest. The heat and humidity combined with the physical discomfort of the early stages of her pregnancy took a toll on her health. Since only Prime Minister Diefenbaker knew about her pregnancy, she simply made the announcement that she was suffering a mild stomach upset. After a short rest, the Queen continued the tour.
Next the Queen and her party traveled down to Uranium City in northern Saskatchewan. From there they visited the oil fields of Alberta, and then caught a train in Edmonton. The royal couple traveled on the train through southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, stopping for a short time in Sudbury and Trenton. From Trenton they flew on to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and finally back to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
On her last day in Canada, Queen Elizabeth summed up the purpose of her royal tour in a radio broadcast. In both French and English she thanked all Canadians for their warm welcome. She summed up the purpose of the royal tour by saying, “If I have helped you feel proud of being Canadian, if I have reminded you of the strength which comes from unity and if I have helped to draw your attention to bring vision of the years ahead, I shall feel well satisfied." (The Spring 1982 issue of Monarchy Canada.)
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip left Canada for London on August 1, 1959. She waited until her return to London to make the public announcement of her pregnancy. Prince Andrew was born on February 19, 1960.
The Queen visited the United States and Canada several times after 1959, but Downriver people especially remember her St. Lawrence Seaway Tour and her Detroit River cruise.
References
Jeff Alexander. Pandora’s Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. Michigan State University Press, 2011.
Sally Bedell Smith. Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. Random House, 2012.
On June 18, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip arrived in Gander, Newfoundland to begin a fifteen thousand mile, 45 day tour which would prove to be the longest royal tour in Canadian history. The Queen, then 33, had left her two young children, Prince Charles and Princes Anne, behind in England, and few people besides the Queen and Prince Philip knew that she was pregnant with a third child. (Prince Andrew).
The royal couple navigated the Detroit River in their Royal Yacht Britannia, leaving Downriver residents with vivid memories of the blue hulled yacht gliding through cheering crowds on both the Canadian and American sides of the river. The Britannia anchored for a time near the Ambassador Bridge.
Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker insisted that a Canadian Cabinet minister accompany the Royal party at all times, because he wanted to impress Americans with the fact that the Queen visited the United States as a Canadian monarch and the Canadian Embassy, not the British Embassy, dictated the Queen’s itinerary. The Queen’s Canadian ministers wrote her Chicago speeches and they stressed the fact that she visited as the Queen of Canada. The Queen hosted the return dinner for President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
According to the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s itinerary included 17 military parades, 21 formal dinners, 64 guards of honor, 193 bouquets, 381 platform appearances, and over 7,000 handshakes. A Weekend Magazine story stated that the Queen visited not just as a sightseer, but as the Queen of Canada introducing herself as a crowned monarch to her people. The Britannia sailed through the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway and up the Great Lakes to the newly completed Mackinac Bridge and visited many Canadian ports before arriving at Nova Scotia, the final stop in the tour.
The ceremonial opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway served as the central focus for the Royal visit, but the Queen and King also visited many of the outlaying Canadian districts that had never before seen royalty to underscore the fact that she also had been designated as Queen of Canada. They visited all ten Canadian provinces, the Great Lakes, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and the United States.
Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower Dedicate the St. Lawrence Seaway
The tour began on June 18, 1959, in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Governor General Vincent Massey and other dignitaries welcomed the Queen and her party. A small girl gave the Queen a bouquet and both the Queen and the crowd waited patiently until she curtsied and rejoined her parents.
The party crossed Newfoundland to Stephenville, detoured through Labrador to Schefferville in northern Quebec and continued to travel through Quebec. They stopped in Gasped, Arvida, and Three Rivers along the St. Lawrence River and visited Quebec City and Montreal.
On June 26, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and United States President Dwight David Eisenhower formally opened the 2,300 mile St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. St. Lawrence Seaway officials presented the Queen and the President Dwight Eisenhower with a commemorative book containing the names of the men who built the seaway, and then the Queen made a speech welcoming the President and his wife Mamie to Canada to mark the opening of the Seaway as “a great joint enterprise between our two countries.” She said that the St. Lawrence Seaway would “open the centre of America to world trade and enhance Canadian commerce…”
The Royal and presidential parties boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia at the lock at St. Lambert, Quebec, near Montreal. People cheered and waved flags, church bells rang, and bands played as the Britannia pulled away from the dock and entered the lift lock to officially open the St. Lawrence Seaway. Balloons and fireworks decorated the sky as the Britannia’s bow passed a symbolic gate made from a lock timber of the old lock from the Lachine Canal which had been built to bypass the Lachine rapids. The ships anchored in Montreal harbor blew their whistles and sirens as the Britannia got underway.
While they were stopped at Kingston, Ontario, Queen Elizabeth II confided an intimate secret to Prime Minister Diefenbaker. She told him that she was pregnant and he urged her to cut the tour short. The Queen swore him to secrecy and continued the Royal tour.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip Visit Toronto and Ottawa
On June 27, 1959, the with the help of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, Queen Elizabeth II dedicated a monument at the St. Lawrence Power Dam at Massena, New York , the Seaway’s main power plant. The Queen and Prince Philip arrived in Toronto on Monday, June 29, 1959. Ocean and lake liners resounded with 21 gun salutes and the enthusiastic cheers of sailors. The royal couple spent a busy two days in Toronto, participating in ceremonies at City Hall, dinner at the Royal York Hotel, visits to O’Keefe Centre and the 100th running of the Queen’s Plate. They left Malton Airport in Toronto on Tuesday, June 30, 1959, bound for Ottawa.
The Royal Couple and Rules for the Royal Yacht on the Detroit River
Boaters on the Detroit River were alerted to special rules that would be in force while the Royal Yacht Britannia traveled the Detroit River. The Ecorse Advertiser of July 1, 1959 spelled out the rules. The story said that when the Queen and her husband Prince Philip passed down the river on the Britannia, craft of every kind would be under strict control of the U.S. Coast Guard on the American side of the River. In Canadian waters boats would be subject to regulations of the Royal Canadian Mounted police, according to the Coast Guard.
One restriction, which affected boats of any description had to do with approaching the Britannia. No craft of any kind was permitted to approach nearer than 50 yards of the Royal yacht, and any of its escorting vessels or the Royal launch, known as the Royal barge. Other rules pertained to obstructing the movement of the Britannia and its escorting vessels. All craft were required to give the right of way to the Britannia and its escort vessels.
The movement of all vessels on the Detroit River was restricted so as not to endanger or impede the Britannia in any way. Sound signals will be used by patrolling government craft and orders must be promptly obeyed. Three long blasts mean that the vessel signaled is moving too fast and must slow immediately. Four long blasts mean the vessel signaled must stop until permission is given to proceed. Three sort blasts require the vessel signaled to give way and clear the channel as quickly as possible.
The Queen’s visit was important news Downriver, but the regulations for sharing the Detroit River with the Britannia landed on the third page of the Ecorse Advertiser. The death of former Ecorse mayor William Voisine and stories about the July 3, Ecorse Water Festival dominated the front page.
Welcome to the Detroit River, Your Majesty
On July 1, the Royal Party celebrated Dominion Day in Ottawa and then they visited Windsor, Detroit, Stratford, London, and Sarnia. During the first four days of July, the 2451 AC&W Squadron participated in several parades with other militia units of the cities of Windsor, Ontario and Detroit,Michigan.
People on the American and Canadian sides of the Detroit River lined its banks, cheered the Britannia and waved to the Queen and Prince Philip. Using 1950s camera and movie technology, they snapped and filmed mementos of the Royal visit for their children and grandchildren. For many people, the visit of Queen Elizabeth II is an exciting memory that is still as fresh as today. Diane McQueen St. Aubin who lived in Ecorse at the time, remembers the Britannia, “on the Canadian side of the River of course,” as a flash of elegance and color.
Both Detroit and Windsor declared that the First Annual Freedom Festival would take place from July 1 to July 4, 1959. The highlight of the Freedom Festival came on July 3 with the visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
During the Royal tour, airmen of the 2451 A& W Squadron squadron lined the route of the Royal Party in two separate sections of Windsor, while another group of airmen moved all the Royal baggage from the Royal Train to the Royal Yacht Britannia moored in the Detroit River at Dieppe Gardens. The Commanding Officer and his wife were officially presented to Her Majesty during civic ceremonies.
After visiting Detroit and Windsor, the Britannia continued through Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River into Lake Huron and north to Orillia and Muskoka where it visited on July 3 and July 4. On July 5, 1959, Queen Elizabeth and her party rested aboard the Britannia as it chugged toward Chicago according to a story in the Palm Beach Post, date lined Parry Sound. The Orillia Spirit reported that when the Britannia stopped in Orillia, the crowds were not as large as those in Windsor and Detroit, but they were just as enthusiastic. Then the Britannia headed south to Chicago.
The Royal Couple Visits Chicago
On July 6, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrived in Chicago against a backdrop of U.S. Air Force and Navy jets thundering across the sky. Aerial torpedoes exploded parachutes that carried the Stars and Stripes and Union Jacks. According to the Chicago Sun Times, a crowd of more than a million people waited at the foot of Congress Street and along the lake front to watch the Queen and King arrive on mildly choppy Lake Michigan waters. The Britannia steamed into the harbor, with an escort of seven warships and more than 500 small craft, including two Chinese junks.
The first reigning British monarch ever to visit Chicago, the Queen and Prince Philip toured the International Trade Fair. “This is magnificent. What wonderful people!” the Queen said.
The Chicago Royal visit lased fourteen hours, but the fourteen hours were filled with pageantry and a warm Chicago welcome for the royal couple.
The Royal Tour Moves West
Leaving Chicago, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Sault Ste. Marie, Port Arthur and Fort William. Next, the royal couple flew to Calgary for the Stampede where Prince Philip wore a white cowboy hat. Then they moved on to Banff, Golden, Kamloops, Vancouver, and Victoria. In Nanaimo, British Columbia, the Queen and Prince Philip participated in “Indian Days,” a celebration of native culture, and the Queen became a princess of the Salish Nation.
For the next leg of their tour, the Royal party flew north to Whitehorse and Dawson City and east to Yellowknife. During her visit to the Yukon Territory, Queen Elizabeth took a few days off to rest. The heat and humidity combined with the physical discomfort of the early stages of her pregnancy took a toll on her health. Since only Prime Minister Diefenbaker knew about her pregnancy, she simply made the announcement that she was suffering a mild stomach upset. After a short rest, the Queen continued the tour.
Next the Queen and her party traveled down to Uranium City in northern Saskatchewan. From there they visited the oil fields of Alberta, and then caught a train in Edmonton. The royal couple traveled on the train through southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, stopping for a short time in Sudbury and Trenton. From Trenton they flew on to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and finally back to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
On her last day in Canada, Queen Elizabeth summed up the purpose of her royal tour in a radio broadcast. In both French and English she thanked all Canadians for their warm welcome. She summed up the purpose of the royal tour by saying, “If I have helped you feel proud of being Canadian, if I have reminded you of the strength which comes from unity and if I have helped to draw your attention to bring vision of the years ahead, I shall feel well satisfied." (The Spring 1982 issue of Monarchy Canada.)
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip left Canada for London on August 1, 1959. She waited until her return to London to make the public announcement of her pregnancy. Prince Andrew was born on February 19, 1960.
The Queen visited the United States and Canada several times after 1959, but Downriver people especially remember her St. Lawrence Seaway Tour and her Detroit River cruise.
References
Jeff Alexander. Pandora’s Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. Michigan State University Press, 2011.
Sally Bedell Smith. Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. Random House, 2012.