Themes

The Navy at Home and Abroad

• Shore Establishments

• Humanitarian Relief

• Flying the Flag

  • Navy Days

  • World Cruise

  • Air Days

  • Aerobatic Display Teams

  • Submarines at Fleet Reviews

  • Launches & Commissioning

  • The Royal Marines Tercentenary, 1964

  • Royal Marine ceremonies in Malta

• Letters Home

• Prisoners of War

Learning

• How to: Understand a Uniform

Launches & Commissioning

Article Highlights

• Introduction

• The keel laying ceremony

• Launching a submarine

• The commissioning service

• Location of the ceremonies

What is a commissioning ceremony?

When a submarine is fully ready to go to sea the Royal Navy holds a commissioning ceremony. It marks the culmination of all the varied aspects of the submarine’s completion: trials, fitting out, drafting and training of the crew and the appointment of the officers.

What happens at the commissioning ceremony?

The commissioning service includes the reading of the Commissioning Warrant by the Captain to the Ship's Company and the playing of the National Anthem. Later in the ceremony the Captain’s wife and the youngest member of the Ship’s Company cut a cake decorated with the badge of the submarine.

Souvenir programme produced for the blessing of the submarine HMS Porpoise in 1958 (RNSM)

A key moment in the commissioning of a submarine is the hoisting of its commissioning pennant. Once raised, it flies when the submarine is on the surface of the water.

Last commissioning pennant of the submarine HMS Alliance (RNSM)

To find out where the ceremonies are held, select Next