Elizabeth II endured many tours during her reign, but few will have been recorded with such wit or observation as this visit to California
• Read more of the Observer’s From the Archive special on Queen Elizabeth II
The Royal Scuba Tour of California began last Saturday with scarcely any rain at all. The clouds over San Diego were full of water, but none of it was actually falling out of the sky as the Britannia edged towards Broadway Pier on the Embarcadero, just along from Anthony’s Fish Grotto.
The area was heavily populated with members of the secret service wearing hearing aids and talking into their sleeves. Less numerous but more cheerful were the citizens of San Diego, some of whom were allowed on to the pier itself, at the end of which is an honour guard of sailors and marines who drilled with M14s, while E-9 Master Chief Dye conducted the orchestra and frogmen checked for bombs.
