On 11 December 1869, H.M.S. Monarch - one of the newest and most powerful battleships in the Fleet - cleared Portsmouth harbour on what was probably the most remarkable voyage in her twenty-six years of service in the Royal Navy. Sailing in company with the United States corvette Plymouth, Monarch was carrying the body of one George Peabody home to America for burial, the permission to do so having been specially granted by Queen Victoria. Peabody, born in Danvers, Massachusetts in 1795, had been a Baltimore wholesaler whose business had prospered to the extent that he began to make frequent visits to England. In 1843, having by then become an enthusiastic Anglophile, he transferred his interests to London, took up permanent residence there and embarked upon a second highly successful career as a merchant and broker. By the 1850's, he had amassed a huge fortune which he began to devote to many philanthropic causes in both this country and the USA, particularly in the fields of education and housing for the poor. His concern for London's poor resulted in the offer of a baronetcy and the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, both of which he graciously declined. It came as no surprise to many therefore that when he died leaving instructions that he was to be buried in his native land, the most modern warship of his adopted country was given the honour of carrying his body home. Equally unprecedented was the salute accorded to his remains by H.M.S. Duke of Wellington, depot ship at Portsmouth and shown on the left of the paintings, as Monarch put to sea.

H.M.S. Monarch was the first successful armoured turret ship in the Royal Navy and was designed after the revolving gun turret had been used to such effect aboard the iron monitors in the American Civil War. Built at Chatham dockyard at a cost of (345, 575, Monarch was laid down in June 1866, launched in May 1868 and completed in June 1869. With her hull, armour and equipment totalling 8,300 tons, she measured 330 feet in length and carried 27, 700 square feet of sail. Originally armed with 4 12-in. and 3 7-in. guns, she was capable of 15 knots under full steam thus making her the fastest battleship of the day. Despite participation in only one major action - the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882 - Monarch had an exceptionally interesting career beginning with a particularly fast North Atlantic passage with Samuel Peabody's remains in the winter of 1869. Although she spent much of her service life in the Channel Fleet, she ended her career at Simonstown (South Africa) in 1906 having remained on the effective list longer than any other British armoured ship.