A starboard bow view of the Italian steel general cargo steamer Tripolitania (1897) broadside onto the beach at Low Bar, one mile east of Porthleven. The tide is out enough that the hull is exposed on the landward side. However, large waves are breaking against the port side sending spray high into the air over the ship. The bows of the ship has been obscured by the heavy use of red masking fluid to create the effect of waves breaking against them.

A glass copy negative from an original print.

The Tripolitania was on passage from Genoa to Barry in ballast when it was hit by a gale and heavy weather, which drove it ashore onto the Loe Bar. The 27 crew and captain were rescued except for one who drowned. Despite attempts to refloat her by removing the shingle from the seaward side of the hull, successive storms pushed the ship further up the beach and eventually it was condemned as a wreck and broken up in situ.