A distant starboard bow view of the three-masted sailing barque Dovre (1885) under tow from a mail steamer from Penzance. The barque is partially dismasted with no bowsprit, the upper masts of the foremast missing and the main topgallant mast hanging down in the rigging. The foreground is dominated by large boulders, possibly from the shore of The Garrison, on the west side of St. Mary's.

The Lifeboat Journal of the RNLI, 1 May 1901 (VOL. XVIIL—No. 200.), states that the Dovre of Porsgrund was bound for Cardiff from Rio de Janeiro with a cargo of coal when it got into difficulties near Seven Stones on 7 November 1900. The ship had lost its bowsprit, foremast and main-top-mast. The Henry Dundas lifeboat was launched when the ship was 3-4 miles off St. Martin's. After sailing the ship into smoother water on the advice of the lifeboat coxswain, the ship was towed by the mail steamer from Penzance. When the tow parted lifeboat men boarded to help handle the ship and eventually it anchored in St. Mary's Sound.