Martin Alabaster Martin Alabaster Rear Admiral Martin Brian Alabaster CBE (born 10 August 1958) is a retired senior officer in the British Royal Navy. Alabaster spent his early years in Devon, Pembrokeshire and Hampshire but for the majority of his upbringing lived in south London. There, he attended Dulwich College. He later joined the Royal Navy and entered Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, at the rank of Midshipman in January 1977. Martin completed his Naval General Training, and then went up to Queens’ College, Cambridge to read Engineering. Alabaster took up his first sea appointment as the Weapons Section Officer in
HMY Britannia (Royal Cutter Yacht) 1879, and the 216-ton schooner "Aline" (Benjamin Nicholson, 1860) in 1881. "Britannia" faced many opponents in her 43-year career. The most notable were: HMY Britannia (Royal Cutter Yacht) His Majesty's Yacht "Britannia" was a gaff-rigged cutter built in 1893 for RYS Commodore Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII. She served both himself and his son King George V, with a long racing career. "Britannia" was ordered in 1892 by Edward, Prince of Wales and designed by George Lennox Watson. She was a near sister ship to the Watson-designed which challenged for the 1893 America's Cup.