A starboard quarter view of the steam collier Llandaff (1865) aground and dried out in Nanjizal Bay [Mill Bay], Land's End.

A starboard quarter view of the steam collier Llandaff (1865) aground hard against the cliffs of Nanjizal Bay [Mill Bay], Land's End, Cornwall. The tide is completely out leaving the ship upright but high and dry. The sharply rising pinnacle of rock seen in the other photographs of the series, is off the starboard bow . At the bottom of the pinnacle on the right is a man dressed in white. Two further people are standing in a rectangular-shaped niche in the pinnacle just above deck level.

The photographer was standing on the boulder strewn beach looking back at the cliffs and the gully leading down to the ship. Red masking fluid has been used on the glass side to create a cloud effect in the sky and graphite on the emulsion side has enhanced some of the cliff and ship details.

The Llandaff, in ballast, was on passage from Sheerness to Cardiff when it went ashore in Mill Bay/Nanjizal Bay in thick weather. The crew were taken off and landed in Sennan Cove. The ship had a hole in the hull which filled with the tide [Royal Cornwall Gazette, 4 May 1899]. The ship was later refloated in May 1899 by the West of England Salvage Company and sold for £870.

Object Details

ID: G14309
Collection: Historic Photographs
Type: Glass plate negative
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Gibson & Sons of Scilly
Date made: 27 April to 9 May 1899
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Gibson's of Scilly Shipwreck Collection
Measurements: Overall: 6 1/2 in x 8 1/2 in