The most eligible royal bachelor in the world set hearts fluttering when he visited Portsmouth in August 1973 to help the city celebrate its 350th anniversary.
Dressed in his Royal Navy uniform, Prince Charles sailed into Portsmouth Harbor aboard HMS Minerva as a 21-gun salute was fired.
The 24-year-old Prince of Wales could not have known that he would not ascend the throne of England for almost 50 years. His mother was proclaimed Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 at the age of 25, and would go on to reign the longest of any British monarch.
She died Sept. 8, 2022. Charles III was officially proclaimed king on Sept. 10.
When Charles visited Portsmouth in his official capacity as prince, invitations to a fete at the Governor Goodwin Mansion in Strawbery Banke were highly sought after.
One person who managed to crash the party was Athenaeum member Robert "Bob" Chase, who was aboard one of the vessels that greeted HMS Minerva as the prince entered Portsmouth Harbor on Aug. 13.
"Prince Charles was an imposing figurehead, dressed in whites on the bow of the ship," Chase wrote in an email.
"There was a big reception for Prince Charles at the Gov. Goodwin Mansion hosted by Mayor Arthur Brady ... it was strictly by invitation only.
"On that day, I had been roped into appearing in a costumed 350th event at the Wentworth Hotel in an absolutely ridiculous costume - a hastily made idea of 18th-century garb," Chase wrote.
Afterward he sat having martinis with friends Lloyd Hathaway and Maureen Buchan, "wishing we could crash the Prince Charles party."
"Maureen Buchan said, 'With those costumes, why not go to the Goodwin Mansion and just walk in - you will look like you belong.' Mayor Brady was a good friend and he saw us coming up the walk - gave us a 'I know what you are doing look' and introduced us to Prince Charles."
But that was not Chase's only encounter with the royal visitor.
"I was one of the owners of the great Mathew Marsh House restaurant (on State Street next to Temple Israel)," Chase wrote.
"British security checked out local good restaurants for Charles' two- or three-day stay. James 'Buddy' Haller says the Blue Strawbery (on Ceres Street) was the first choice, but there was not a second egress."
"So the Marsh House got the prince two evenings in a row. Both nights he ordered well-done steaks (burned to death by his orders). As a restaurant owner, I had notice of his being there and greeted him twice on the back kitchen stairway.
"No one was supposed to know he was there and the reservations were made under the name of 'CHECKERS.'”
The Portsmouth Athenaeum, 9 Market Square, is a membership library and museum founded in 1817. The research library and Randall Gallery are open Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Masks are required. For more information, call 603-431-2538 or visit www.portsmouthathenaeum.org.