3-021-047 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Arrival of the Prince and Princess of Wales at Constantinople, 1869. The future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on a royal visit to Turkey. '...the Ariadne, escorted by the Pertif Piali and the British despatch-boats Caradoc and Pysche, came before the Golden Horn entrance to the port of Constantinople at nine o'clock in the morning. Here the Prince and Princess left the Ariadne, and went on board the Pertif Piali in order to gratify the Sultan by arriving in the waters of Constantinople in his yacht. As the Royal barge put off and their Royal Highnesses were piped over the side the men on the yards cheered, and presently from the ironclads up the Bosphorus and from a battery at Seraglio Point rolled out a Royal salute, while all the ships had their colours flying and their yards manned; the harbour was crowded with a flock of caiques and boats'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.