At the mouth of the Medina river, HMY Alberta, with the Royal Standard flying, is passing the Royal Yacht Squadron, East Cowes, heading for the Solent; in the foreground are two dinghies collecting a mast and a sail, with a twin-masted yacht.

HMY Alberta was built by Pembroke Dock and launched in 1863. She acted as a tender, or support vessel for the larger royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert II and was particularly used by Queen Victoria and members of the royal family to ferry passengers across the Solent to Osborne House during the summer months. In 1896 she brought the body of Prince Henry of Battenberg to the Isle of Wight for burial, and in January 1901, following Queen Victoria’s death, Alberta carried many members of the royal family to her death bed; the ship carried the Queen’s body back to the mainland on 1 February 1901 (RCIN 2916438).

Charles Gregory was a proficient marine artist, who spent nearly his whole life on the Isle of Wight. He exhibited in London from 1848-54, although his home in East Cowes, proximity to the Royal Yacht Squadron and friendship with John White, the owner of one the most important shipyards on the island, provided the artist with many commissions.

A similar view by Arthur Wellington Fowles (1815-85) entitled ‘The Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert II passing the Royal Yacht Squadron Castle, Cowes’, dated 1867, 76 x 137 cm, at Sothebys, Marine Pictures and Nautical Works of Art, 30 May 1990 (lot 116); and again Sotheby’s, 22 May 1991 (lot 3).