famous british vessel

[theskin]

Can anyone tell me which British vessel was built in 1899 and only scrapped in 1954?

[kempie]

HMY Victoria and Albert III, the 82nd in a long line of Royal Yachts.

She was launched in 1899 but was not ready for service until 1901. Withdrawn after the Coronation Review of the Fleet (1937) and decommissioned in 1939. She served as a depot ship during World War II and was broken up in 1954, her replacement being HMY Britannia.

[jno]

stretching the word 'famous' a bit, isn't it? Kudos to kempie, but I bet not many people have ever heard of it.

[kempie]

Is not fame fleeting? Longevity is not prerequisite to being famous.

Many things "famous" a century ago would no longer be described as such. However, I'm quite certain that while she was commissioned the name of the Royal Yacht of the ruler of the British Empire would have been known to a sizeable proportion of the world's population.

[jno]

'once-famous' might have been a better way of putting it (I'm guessing this is some sort of quiz question)