It’s not every day of the week you are the rum bosun and a newly-crowned King draws his tot!

But that was the role Mike Gilbert found himself in during a nostalgic visit to the former royal yacht Britannia by His Majesty King Charles 111 as part of a special events week in Scotland shortly after the coronation.

Mike was one of a 50-strong party of ‘yotties’ – former crew-members of the Royal Yacht – invited onboard Britannia to welcome the King and join in the celebrations.

Mike, 78, happily took on the much-lamented role of rum bosun along with Paul ‘Bish’ Jenkins, the pair being the only yotties present who drew their tot on Friday, July 31st 1970 – the final time rum was issued to sailors on a daily basis and known throughout the Royal Navy as Black Tot Day.

“I can smell rum anywhere,” joked the King as he approached Mike, and following the Loyal Toast, proposed by Britannia Trust chief executive Bob Downie, King Charles said: ”I want to make another toast. To all the marvellous old yotties who keep it all going. You are brilliant if I may say so.”

The King’s royal seal of approval for the excellent work done by the yotties was acknowledged with a rousing three cheers from the delighted team of ageing sailors who watched with approval as he downed the remainder of his tot.

Mike, who served as the ship’s photographer on Britannia from October 1967 to September 1970, having relieved  L/Air Dave Morris, had last spoken with the then Prince Charles at a Royal Yacht reunion held in Buckingham Palace’s Great Hall in March 2017. “We chatted about the plight of HMS Bronington, the Ton-class minesweeper the Prince commanded for most of 1976 and which had sunk at her moorings in Birkenhead.” said Mike, who was accompanied at the palace by his wife Mary.

Yotties give up one week a year without pay to paint, polish and help maintain Britannia in pristine condition at her berth in Leith’s Ocean Terminal near Edinburgh, where she is on permanent display to the public.

Sadly for keen photographer Mike, the yotties were asked not to take photographs during the royal visit.