A secret letter written by the Queen shows how the monarch tearfully lobbied the Cabinet Office for a replacement for the royal yacht Britannia after it was decommissioned 1997 in order to avoid a public backlash over the expensive vessel.
女王曾经写过一封密信，这封信中女王声泪俱下地游说内阁给她置办一艘新游艇，以替换掉旧的王室游艇“布列塔尼亚号”；旧的王室游艇在1997年被退役了，为的是不让它的昂贵维护费激起民愤。
The Britannia was launched at the beginning of the Queen’s reign and was furnished to her taste – but decades later it had become too expensive to maintain, and increasingly hard to justify to the public.
“布列塔尼亚号”于女王统治初期开始服役，按照女王的品味装修，但过了数十年保养费用过高，越来越难于向公众交代。
The royal yacht – the jewel in the Queen’s beloved fleet – was decommissioned in 1997, with then Prime Minister John Major announcing it would be retired from service in 1995.
这艘王室游艇是女王心爱舰队中的珍宝，于1997年退役，约翰·梅杰首相原本宣布它会于1995年退役。
The Queen famously shed a tear when the boat, which was valued at around £60million, was taken out of service in 1997.
众所周知，在1997年这艘价值约6000万英镑的游艇退役时，女王还流下了眼泪。
大不列颠号，图片来源@视觉中国
But shortly after Mr Major made the announcement, senior Buckingham Palace official Sir Kenneth Scott wrote to the Cabinet Office, detailing how the Queen “would very much welcome” a new yacht – but also acknowledged that the Queen’s lobbying would be unpopular with the public if her letter came to light.
但在梅杰先生刚宣布完不久，白金汉宫政府官员Kenneth Scott就写信给内阁办公室，详述了女王“多么希望”有一艘新游艇，但同时也说了如果这封信被曝光，女王的游说行径肯定会在人民中间激起微词。
图片来源@视觉中国
The letter, discovered in the National Archives by University of London professor Phillip Murphy and dated May 5, 1995, read:
这封信是被伦敦大学教授Phillip Murphy在国家档案馆发现的，上面标注的日期是1995年5月5日，信中写道：
“I have deliberately taken a back seat in recent correspondence, since the question of whether there should be a replacement yacht is very much one for the Government and since the last thing I would like to see is a newspaper headline saying ‘Queen Demands New Yacht’.”
“最近的通信中我刻意在回避，因为是否该换掉游艇的决定却确实在政府手上，而且我最不愿意看到报纸头条上写‘女王要求买新游艇’”。
“At the same time I hope it is clear to all concerned that this reticence on the part of the palace now way implies that Her Majesty is not deeply interested in the subject; on the contrary, the Queen would naturally very much welcome it if a way could be found of making available for the nation in the 21st Century the kind of service which Britannia has provided for the last 43 years.”
“同时我希望大家都清楚现在王室的沉默表明女王对这个话题不是很感兴趣，恰恰相反，如果在21世纪能找到一种方法继续‘布列塔尼亚号’在过去43年间提供的服务的话，女王自然也会欣然接受。”
图片来源@视觉中国
In 2003, a source told the Sunday Telegraph that the monarch would have never put pressure on the government over a politically sensitive subject, saying: “Neither the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh have ever expressed an opinion on the way the issue was handled and nor would they do so.”
2003年有人对《星期日电讯报》爆料称：女王从未就政治敏感话题对政府施压过，同时说：“爱丁堡公爵或女王都从未对这一问题的处理方法发表过看法，他们也不会这样做。”
But the note from Mr Scott, the queen’s private secretary, revealed her “deep interest” in finding a replacement for the beloved vessel.
但女王的私人秘书斯科特先生的记录显示了她对换掉心爱游艇的“浓厚的兴趣”。
Professor Murphy, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, said of his letter discovery: “It is clear that behind the scenes the palace, which had been closely informed of the progress of discussions, was keen to keep the issue alive and was putting discreet pressure on Whitehall to come up with some alternative proposals.”
英联邦研究所所长墨菲教授在提及这封信的发现时说：“王室时刻跟进讨论的进程，显然这件事的背后王室很想让这个问题继续下去，并对英国政府秘密施压，让其提供一些可选方案。”
Britannia was originally meant to be broken into parts on the request of Prince Philip and used in a new yacht, among a host of other options after the vessel was taken off waters.
在游艇被拖出水后的众多方案中，最初是打算要应菲利普亲王的要求把“布列塔尼亚号”拆开用在新游艇上。
However, a new vessel was never commissioned to replace Britannia, following opposition from Tony Blair’s Labour Government, who used the issue as part of their election winning campaign in 1997.
然而由于托尼·布莱尔工党政府的反对，一直没有新游艇代替“不布列塔尼亚号”，布莱尔也利用这件事赢得了1997年的大选。
图片来源@视觉中国
But lobbying for a replacement vessel has continued to this day, while the original ship is berthed at Leith in Edinburgh, where it has become a tourist attraction.
但游艇换新的游说目前仍在继续，原游艇停泊在爱丁堡利斯港，现已成为旅游景点。
In 2017, 50 Tory MP’s signed an open letter proposing a special national lottery to raise around £120 million for a new yacht as a “symbol of Global Britain” after the UK leaves the EU in 2019.
2017年50位保守党议员签署了一封公开信，提议发行一个特殊的国家彩票来筹集约1.2亿英镑买一艘新游艇，作为2019年英国脱欧之后的“全球英国的象征”。
