Fleet Salutes The King At Spithead Review - Officer saluting as a 21-gun salute was fire from H.M.S. "Barham". Aboard the Royal yacht ''Victoria and Albert", the King passed through the five-mile lines of 160 warships and merchant vessels when he made his Coronation Review of the British Navy and Mercantile Marine at Spithead. Nearly 500 ships, including 17 from foreign fleets, were reviewed. May 20, 1937.