Cunard_Royal Butler_Afternoon Tea_

My name is Grant Harald known as the Royal Butler and I'm with Captain Hashmi on the Queen Mary II

to talk about the etiquette for an afternoon tea. Captain I'm really interested about your hat because obviously you're holding it

and is that to do with the etiquette about gentlemen taking the hat off when you go indoors

Is it the same on a ship? It probably originates from that but Merchant Navy and in fact Royal Navy etiquette

does dictate that the master or the officer would only wear the cap outdoors on deck

Once you're indoors on a ship, the cap comes usually under your left arm and stays off

And female officers, at least in the merchant navy, do keep their hats on indoors. They do keep them on

That's interesting because I was taught that with hat etiquette, you know, gentlemen always remove the hats

but ladies can keep their hats on, which a lot of people today don't know. So I love that there's a bit of a crossover there

with the etiquette on a ship and the etiquette on land. So Captain, the first thing we're going to do is our napkin etiquette

I normally leave mine in half and place it on my lap When you have the larger napkins, it's always said that the crease for the gentleman is towards them

and for the ladies the crease is away so that the ladies can pick up a corner, they can dab

and then when they place it back down it conceals the lipstick and any crumbs If you had lipstick on, which obviously we don't

So Captain Hashmi, as we're having an afternoon tea and you're very kindly hosting it

Would you like to do the honours and play mother, as they say? Certainly, but I wasn't sure who would be hosting

I've hedged my bets by having handled the teapot towards me and the hand of the milk jug towards yourself, but I'll be delighted

It becomes quite a big discussion point, doesn't it, how you take your tea? Yes, certainly, and not only pouring tea, but how to stir the tea

Now sailors are very careful because usually the ship will be moving We normally be going back and forth Wow Back and forth just like the ship I love this This is exactly what I been saying for years

because a lot of people will do it in the secular motion. And I always say that if you do that

you're going to cause a storm in a teacup. Exactly. Sailors are superstitious. So we don't want to create a storm in a teacup

I love that. That's amazing. So that's obviously where that saying comes from. Absolutely. This is great. This is wonderful

I've been doing it right all these years. And then captain we move on to these wonderful selection for the afternoon tea we've got here

what order would you normally do this in? Usually I would go bottom up and working my way up the

selection tray. That's exactly what I would do sandwiches then the scones and then lastly with the cakes. After you. Thank you

So captain now we move on to the scones. Very soon you're going to reveal my decades old conundrum

whether it's jam or cream first. Do you know, it's funny, it's one of the biggest debates

My question to you is, Captain, what do you do? Do you do cream or jam first

I'm going to upset either Devon folk or the Cornish folk, but I've always gone, as a simple sailor, for jam first

So you do the Cornish way, where you put the cream on top. I prefer to do it the Devon way

where I like to put my cream first and then my jam. I can only assume, Captain, that when you have your breakfast

and you have your toast, you put your butter on top of your jam. yes that's how I win the argument every time

Captain thank you for inviting me on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 this has been a wonderful afternoon tea

in fact can I say even a little bit royal with all this royal portraits and paintings

and memorabilia around us I feel a bit nostalgic as well today

so thank you for this amazing experience it's a pleasure having you on the Queen Mary 2

and look forward to you sailing with us again in the near future chin chin