A starboard bow view of the Italian steam cargo steamer Rosalia (1892), on rocks below Hartland Quay. The ship is heeling to port. The boat davits are lowered and empty. The photographer was standing on the grass bank to the left of the quay looking over the rocks to the ship. The tide is out. exposing the foot of the stem jammed in the rocks. A solitary man stands in the middle distance on a rock with his back to the camera. On the extreme right is a group of people sitting or standing on the rocks looking at the bows of the wreck.

The Rosalia was in ballast steaming between Genoa and Newport, Monmouth, when it grounded in calm seas and fog on 27 May 1904. Despite preparations being made to tow Rosalia off, the ship had already been holed badly and was underwater on the high tide.