A two-masted Mount's Bay pilot gig or similarboat of about 16ft is viewed from a pier of Penzance Harbour, under sail on a port reach towards the harbour mouth, with the railway station among buildings visible in the distance. The boat is being sailed single-handed. It is clinker-built, and has standing lug main and mizzen sails, a jib set to a bowsprit and a bumkin for the mizzen sheet.