A watercolour and bodycolour view of HMS Galatea sailing through the straits of Bonifacio (between Corsica and Sardinia) in a gale. Signed "O W Brierly".

In 1867 Brierly was invited to join what was intended to be a world voyage on the Galatea made by Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and Captain of the ship from 1866, with the specific intention of visiting the Australian colonies. An attempted assassination on the Prince's life cut the voyage short. Brierly had previously worked for the Prince making drawings of earlier ships on which he had served (see, for example, RCIN 925410), and also for Queen Victoria, who first commissioned him to record the Naval Review of 1856 (see RCINs 920312 and 920311). On 13 June 1867 Prince Alfred wrote to his mother to inform her that "Brierly [would] send a little sketch occasionally of the same size as those you have already received." Brierly's work during this voyage was later to be exhibited at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), and the Prince personally supervised the arrangements for the show, which opened in January of 1872. This watercolour was exhibit number 819.

HMS Galatea sailed through the straits of Bonifacio on its way to Marseilles, which was reached on 11 April 1867.