An elevated starboard, just forward of the broadside, of the three-masted cargo ship Horsa (1860) aground in Bread and Cheese Cove (Loop Hole), St. Martin's, Isle of Scilly. The tide has dropped enough for the waterline of the ship to be exposed. Two RNLI lifeboats (possibly the Henry Dundas and James & Caroline) are alongside the ship with rowing gigs outboard of the forward lifeboat. A third gig is being rowed close to the stern of the ship. The lifeboats and gigs have a number of people in them, some transferring to or from the ship. One of those being transferred into the lifeboat via a wooden ladder is a woman, possibly the captain's wife or the nurse accompanying her and her child. The photographer was standing on the cliffs above the cove looking northeast towards St. Martin's Head and the red and white striped 17th Century day marker on the headland.

Red masking fluid has been used along the top of the glass side of the negative to create clouds and on the emulsion side to pick out details in the sails and people.

The Horsa (1860) was on passage from New Zealand with a cargo of tinned meat, wool and grain and picked up a pilot off Round Island, Scilly. According to the report in the newspaper after the Board of Inquiry, the pilot allowed the ship to stand on port tack too long before deciding that they would not pass Hard Lewis Rocks. The attempt to tack northward failed as the light winds and the tide caused the ship to miss her stays (i.e. could not get the bow through the wind quick enough). The ship was run aground in Bread and Cheese Cove to save it and the crew [Liverpool Mercury, 27 April 1893]. The ship was towed out of the cove by the packet steamer Lyonesse and eventually the captain sailed Horsa after three tow lines snapped. The ship rolled over and sank in the early hours of 5 April 1893. The Lyonesse rescued the remaining crew before Horsa sank.