Jim Mason
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An Expert OpinionIn the 70s, before conversion to diesel, Britannia used a fuel known as Heavy Furnace Fuel Oil, one of the very few ships using this type. Because of this the Yacht was always accompanied by a tanker and needed to refuel every 4/5 days at sea. The band's function on these occasions was to play for the amusement of the crew who were involved in this routine and fairly tedious operation.
At this time I used to receive a number of complimentary arrangements from various publishing firms. of current pop songs etc. on march card size. (hoping no doubt that if we played them somebody might buy them!) Some we used and some we tried out and they never again saw the light of day.
On this particular occasion, the Bandmaster (Malcolm Kennard) was directing the band and I was on the Royal Bridge with other officers and the Queen, who liked to watch what was going on. Malcolm tried one of these complimentary pieces and then carefully collected in the band parts and threw them over the side. The Queen was very amused and called me over saying "Jim, why did he throw the music over the side?" I explained the background to the way that I got the music, and that we thought it a good idea to try them out on this sort of occasion, and Malcolm obviously thought that one was pretty awful.
After the next piece, she called me over again and said "With my compliments, tell him that he can throw that one over the side too"
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