Charles Ogilvy was born in Liverpool in 1832. He is first mentioned as a plumber in the 1851 census and does not appear in any other records until Gores Liverpool Directory in 1868, where he is listed as a marine painter residing in Everton. Over the following fifteen years, he appears only sporadically in local records, and it is likely that he was a sailor as well as an artist. Approximately a quarter of his paintings feature pilot boats as the main subject, and he may well have had some connection to this service. Of his known paintings, those are dated between 1863 and 1886. Some of his finest works depict American clipper ships and are comparable to the marine painter Samuel Walters from Liverpool.

The painting in this auction portrays the full-rigged ship AMY. She is a merchant vessel with painted gun ports along the side to deter any potential pirates. To the left is the pilot schooner Lancashire Witch, which operated in the Bay off Liverpool.