3-083-068 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal by the German Emperor: Mr. Gladstone meeting the King of Denmark on board the "Tantallon Castle'', 1895. Facsimile sketch '...by our Special Artist, Mr. Melton Prior. The completion of a great engineering work by which the navigation of the Baltic is connected with that of the North Sea, occasionally called "the German Ocean"...is an event of much interest to Englishmen as well as to Germans...On Tuesday, June 18, when the ship lay at Copenhagen, the King and Queen of Denmark, with the Crown Prince and Princess, and other members of the Danish royal family, came on board, and were entertained by Sir Donald Currie with luncheon. His Majesty proposed the health of Mr. Gladstone, who spoke, of course, in acknowledgment of this honour, and proposed the health of the Queen of Denmark, referring also with much feeling of sincere esteem to the virtues of the Princess of Wales [future Queen Alexandra], through whom the royal families of England and Denmark are bound together by kindred affection'. The artist has made notes on colours of clothes: 'black - white lace' etc. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.