Carl Saltzmann (1847-1923) studied at the Academy in Berlin, and subsequently as a pupil of Hermann Heschke. In 1878 he accompanied Prince Heinrich of Prussia on a voyage around the world, and in 1888 he travelled to Russia in the company of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He took part in group exhibitions and was a medal winner in Berlin in 1887, in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris at the Exposition Universelle of 1900.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran the following report on 16th September 1893: 'The judges have reversed their decision in the match between the Prince of Wales's cutter-yacht Britannia and Mr Carroll's American yacht Navahoe, from Cowes to Cherbourg and back, when the Britannia was reported to have beaten the Navahoe by two seconds. The race has been awarded to the Navahoe.'

Britannia was raced with great success by the Prince of Wales and by his son, later King George V, who had her rig converted to the new Bermuda rig J-Class to compete with the more modern yachts of the 1930s. She was sunk off the Isle of Wight in accordance with the instructions of King George V shortly after his death in 1936. Work on the construction of a replica was begun in 1994.

In this depiction the Britannia, close-hauled, with the Navahoe astern, passes one of the mid-Victorian sea forts (probably Horse Sand Fort) in the Solent. They are both gaff-rigged cutters of the British Big Class, with dark hulls, and each flies a pennant from the masthead. A similar view of the race is by John Fraser (RCIN 402306).