During the afternoon of 28 June 2005,
Queen Elizabeth II, as
Lord High Admiral of the
United Kingdom, embarked on board
HMS Endurance. Led by
THV Patricia, and with 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
Queen Elizabeth 2. 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 of 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. The Queen reviewed the fleet from on board the Royal Navy's
Antarctic Patrol Vessel HMS
Endurance. Huge crowds gathered along
Southsea Common and
Gosport Sea Front, to witness the largest gathering of naval vessels in the Solent since the
Queen's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review in 1977. The crowd was entertained by
aerobatic and flying displays, including an appearance by a
Spitfire,
helicopter aerobatics and a special performance by the
Red Arrows. While the weather had been very wet, the clouds appeared to clear in time for each display. At the end of the day's festivities, centered on the review, a massive firework display was held as a 'reconstruction' of the Battle of Trafalgar (with
Grand Turk standing in for
HMS Victory, and with a red and a blue side rather than French and British ones), now known to be one of the largest firework displays in recorded history. ==Events of the day==