A port bow view of the passenger/cargo liner Suevic (1900) aground by the bows on the Maenheere Reef, just off The Lizard. The tide is out as the ship appears to be high in the water. The photographer was standing on the shore looking out to the ship and the foreground is dominated by the rocks and boulders along the shore.

The negative has a number of blemishes around the emulsion edges from the photographic process and graphite on the emulsion side to emphasise the dark areas of the image. This may be a glass copy negative from an original print due to the unusual lack of good quality of the image.

The Suevic was on passage from Melbourne to Liverpool with 382 passengers, 141 crew members and a nearly-full cargo, including thousands of sheep carcasses worth £400,000. Due to a navigational error the ship was closer in shore and further ahead of their assumed position. Suevic ran aground at full speed on 17 March 1907 and despite attempts to get her off using full stern the ship was stuck. The passengers and crew were removed by RNLI boats from four stations, taking 16 hours. As the bow was stuck on the rocks and lightening the ship did not refloat it, White Star decided to take the advice of their salvage contractors and had the stern section detached using small charges of dynamite. The stern section then steamed in reverse under its own power to Southampton while a new bow section was built by Harland and Wolff.