Queen Victoria died at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, on 22nd January 1901 and, in accordance with her wishes to be buried beside her husband, Prince Albert, her body needed to be taken to Windsor for burial. On 1st February, her coffin was placed on a crimson velvet-covered dais in the deckhouse of the royal yacht Alberta and conveyed across the Solent between two columns of anchored warships, all with crews mustered on deck and each firing a minute gun as the Queen’s body passed through the lines. The majority of these warships were, of course, drawn from the late Queen’s beloved Royal Navy although a number had been despatched there to represent foreign countries which wished to show their respects, including Germany and most of the other European monarchies. Escorted by destroyers, Alberta was accompanied by the royal yacht Victoria & Albert II with King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra aboard as well as Kaiser Wilhelm and many other members of the dead Queen’s family.