The Royal Family’s hellish journey from Portsmouth to South Africa as tension reached boiling point below deck – and crew members went hungry writes CHRISTOPHER WILSON

It was the most famous speech she would make in her entire life. ‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,’ said the 21-year old Princess Elizabeth in April 1947.

A heartfelt pledge that she kept to her dying day. 

It was broadcast from South Africa, where Lilibet and her parents had set out on a tour of the country to signal to the Empire and the world that the war was over and sunnier days lay ahead.

And yet on the ship that carried them out there, HMS Vanguard, mutiny was boiling up below deck – and nearly exploded – destroying the royal goodwill mission.

The vast battleship, only built the year before, was manned by sailors who’d yet to return home after their wartime service – and were angry at being kept away from their loved ones. 

The ship had been poorly designed with insufficient accommodation for the mind-boggling 1,700 crew members, and with not enough seating for the sailors to take their meal breaks. 

Many were going hungry and in any case the food was almost inedible.

The journey from Portsmouth had been hellish – when she returned to South Africa years later, Elizabeth recalled how seasick she and her sister Princess Margaret had been and how they, alongside the King and Queen, had been confined to their cabins for virtually the whole journey.

Princess Elizabeth celebrated her 21st birthday with a deck game with Princess Margaret and crew of the HMS Vanguard

But when they made landfall in Cape Town and the royal party was instantly swept off to a glittering State Dinner, the crew were told curtly by their captain, Rear Admiral William Agnew, they wouldn’t be allowed ashore.

And while King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Lilibet settled themselves into the luxurious White Train which was to be their home for the next month, the risk of mutiny among the tightly-packed naval ratings was growing by the hour.

The next night in Cape Town, the royal party were guests at a huge civic ball held in their honour where five thousand people danced to a foxtrot specially composed in Lilibet’s honour called ‘Princess’ – but the naval ratings could do no more than listen to the riotous celebrations on the ship’s radio.

Tension was mounting below deck, according to top-secret Government papers released just before Christmas. 

The captain, bolstered by a visit from the commander of the South Atlantic Fleet, Admiral Clement Moody, was determined to keep a lid on the potential insurrection growing on the ship.

At all costs the King and his family were were to be kept in ignorance of the crew’s unrest. Not a word was whispered to them.

Such a crisis was unprecedented in Royal Navy history – and in the history of the royal family.

While the royals set out on a vast tour covering the whole of the sub-continent, back on board HMS Vanguard the captain was being formally advised by his commander and chaplain that the level of anger was such ‘they could not guarantee the discontent would not take open form’ – naval-speak for mutiny – if shore leave was not granted.

King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the two princesses on top of the fort turret as HMS Vanguard steams past the home fleet

Departure of the white Royal Train from Cape Town during the royal tour of South Africa

No instant decision was taken. And as the days went by and men confined to the ship grew more vocal, so concerned became Prime Minister Clement Attlee – who’d been alerted to the crisis – that an MI5 spy, Henry Boddington, was dispatched from London to report back on the situation.

Boddington’s report concluded the situation in the crowded ship had been made worse by the fact that when they arrived home HMS Vanguard would not be returning to its home port, Portsmouth, but to Devonport in Devon – meaning that when the men disembarked they still would not be reunited with their families.

In addition he noted that there was a deplorable ‘us and them’ attitude between officers and ratings, with the lower ranks angry at the luxury the officers were enjoying while they endured their ‘mess-deck misery’.

What should have happened was to immediately relieve the captain of his duties – but that would involve a colossal loss of face on a crucial royal tour.

The situation was only calmed when someone told the King what was going on.

George VI been kept in ignorance while he and his family went about their duties from the isolation of their White Train, but now he hastened back to the Vanguard and made a speech to the entire ship’s company which instantly calmed heated tempers.

The mutiny was never spoken about again and for nearly 80 years it was kept under wraps – nothing should be said or done to take away from the shining moment when the future Queen, on the occasion of her 21st birthday, should make her iconic speech to the Commonwealth and the world.

When she read the draft, written by Dermot Morrah – grandfather, incidentally of the Daily Mail’s Tom Utley – the young princess wept. For the words he had given her to speak were to be a guideline for the rest of her long life.

Members of the crew look on with the princesses as King George VI and Queen fire in Vanguard’s rifle shooting contest

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended the opening of Parliament and then returned to Britain with Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret aboard HMS Vanguard

‘There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors – “I Serve”,’ she began.

‘Those words were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the throne when they made their knightly dedication as they came to manhood.

‘But I can do what was not possible for them – I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening. I should like to make that dedication now.

‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service. God help me make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.’

The mutiny evaporated at the sound of her words.