LONDON — The U.K. may be sailing into an uncertain future outside the European Union, but if campaigners have their way, Britannia will rule the waves again.

A Conservative lawmaker and the Daily Telegraph newspaper are proposing to recommission the royal yacht Britannia, former berth of Queen Elizabeth II, and send it around the world as a floating trade mission.

Retired in 1997 and now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, the Britannia could be sailing the seven seas again if Britain recommissions the vessel, as some have proposed. Associated Press/Charles Dharapak

The yacht was retired in 1997, and is now a tourist attraction moored in Edinburgh.

Legislator Jake Berry says it should either be brought back into service or a new yacht should be built as “a small floating embassy” for Britain.

“I think it would be a huge beacon of hope for our country,” Berry said Wednesday.

Berry says the vessel could help bring in “billions of pounds’ worth of trade deals.” Anticipating that some will label his idea a vanity project, he says it should be funded by donations.

Former Foreign Secretary William Hague has backed Berry’s proposal, saying that when he was in government he found that no one, however wealthy or powerful, could resist an invitation onto the royal yacht.

“Leaving the EU means we need to communicate the advantages and attractions of our country more than ever,” Hague wrote in the Telegraph. “That will take a lot more than a yacht, but we need all the reach and profile that we can get.”

Launched in 1953, Britannia was the last in three centuries of royal yachts, a floating monument to a nation that built an empire on naval power.

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