An elevated port bow view of the three-masted cargo ship Horsa (1860) aground in Bread and Cheese Cove (Loop Hole), St. Martin's, Isle of Scilly. An RNLI lifeboat (possibly the Henry Dundas or James & Caroline) is along the port side opposite the main mast and is full of lifeboat men in their cork lifejackets. A rowing gig is underway a short distance from the port bow heading for the shore. People are on deck leaning over the bulwarks or standing and sitting on the forecastle. The photographer was standing on the cliffs above the cove looking north towards Murr Rock.

Red masking fluid has been used to touch-up the rocks, some of the people in the gig and details on the ship.

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.