International Fleet Review
HMS Trafalgar, a Trafalgar Class Attack Submarine, on transit to the fleet review in Portsmouth Dockyard, part of the Trafalgar 200
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| Date | June 2, 2005 |
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| Also known as | IFR 2005 |
| Type | Military |
The International Fleet Review was the most recent Royal Navy review, continuing a tradition going back to the 15th century. It took place on 28 June 2005, as part of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. For the celebrations to mark Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, instead of a Fleet Review such as marked that of Queen Victoria, there was a cavalcade of boats down the Thames.
During the afternoon of June 28, 2005 Queen Elizabeth II, as Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom, embarked on board HMS Endurance. Led by THV Patricia, and with HMS Chatham following as "Sovereign's Escort", Her Majesty set sail to review a fleet of over 167 ships of the Royal Navy and of over 30 other nations, as well as other non-Naval vessels such as the passenger liner QE2. The previous fleet review by the Queen in the United Kingdom was in 1999 for the commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic.
The review took place at Spithead, on the Solent, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, in England. The Fleet Review is a 600-year-old British tradition, and until the 2005 review consisted of mainly Royal Navy ships, with a small number of invited foreign ships, but there are today no longer enough Royal Navy warships available in home waters for this to be worthwhile. This review, therefore, went with the modern trend to inviting foreign warships too, and was the largest on record in terms of nations attending and of number of ships - 167 naval and merchant ships attended, including 57 British warships.
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