From the time of Charles II Royal Yachts had effectively functioned as 'floating State Apartments' with lavish rooms decorated for royal comfort and ceremony. However, when the Victoria and Albert II was built, Queen Victoria hoped it might also feel like a 'home from home'. She spurned the gilt and ornately carved wooden furnishings of previous yachts in favour of greater simplicity and convenience. Prince Albert himself was involved with the practical preparations, designing a gimbal table with counterweights to keep it level in rough weather (RCIN 60002). The interiors of the Victoria and Albert II nevertheless remained a grand affair. The Dining Saloon, which is shown in this watercolour, was lined with crimson carpet and comfortably sat 18 people. In other rooms were maple wood walls, Brussels carpets and an Erard piano. As Queen Victoria wrote, 'it is indeed a most magnificent and enormous vessel. One feels quite lost in her!'