This painting was inspired by a large and magnificent W.L. Wyllie watercolour sketch; it is not a specific event. The lifeboat shown in this painting was based on one in the RNLI Headquarters Museum in Poole in Britain. The wreck is a typical West Country fruit carrying topsail schooner, with two remaining crew members huddled at the stump of the mizzen mast. The lifeboat crew is wearing cork lifejackets and their own selection of foul weather gear
This painting was used as an RNLI national fundraising Christmas card and the cover picture for the RNLI London fundraising ball in 1990.
In a Private Collection