A fine three-quarter length, white-painted female figurehead, with gilded decoration, from the Spanish iron barque 'Primos', lost on the Seven Stones in 1871. The dress is essentially 19th-century but classicized and the figure wears a small gold crown or tiara. The right arm is across the breast and the left by the figure's side holds a fold of the gown.

In heavy weather and about dawn, 'Primos' hit these notorious rocks between the Isles of Scilly and Land’s End, where almost a hundred years later the super-tanker ‘Torrey Canyon’ was to be wrecked. One of her boats drifted away and another capsized with the master and four crew before the ‘Primos’ foundered, barely 12 minutes after striking. All eleven crew were drowned except for Vincenzo Defilice who had a remarkable escape. After swimming for some hours he found a floating hen-coop, onto which he climbed and kept afloat for a further hour. He then saw the ship’s figurehead, to which he was able to cling for several hours before one of the ‘Primos’s’ own boats drifted by; in this he rowed himself to English Island Neck where he was rescued by Scilly pilots. By these strange methods he had travelled a distance of at least 8½ miles in the open sea. According to tradition, Defilice knew he would be saved because of the serene expression on the face of the figurehead, which washed ashore on St Martin’s.

‘Primos’ details at time of wreck. Iron barque of 466 tons, registered in Bilbao. Built by Oswald of Sunderland, 1869. Dimensions (in feet and tenths): 155.6 x 27.2 x 16.0. Owner: De Anduza. Registered voyage: Havana to Falmouth and Greenock. Cargo: sugar. Master at loss: Anduza. Wrecked: 24 June 1871.