Wreck of the Alba

On this Day in January 1938, Alfred Wallis witnessed a dramatic shipwreck unfold behind his cottage in St Ives. The steamship Alba was driven ashore off Porthmeor Beach during a ferocious storm, and rescue attempts ended in tragedy when the St Ives lifeboat, Caroline Parsons, was itself wrecked on the Island.

It would have been a stark reminder of the storms Wallis had survived at sea in 1876. Departing from recollected scenes, he painted this contemporary event, capturing the towering waves engulfing the steamer, and the stricken lifeboat.

Wallis’s great-nephew Bill found him observing the wreck on the beach, and later recalled that Wallis made each of the dozen or so paintings of the Alba at this time, a testament to the impact of that fateful night.

I’ve been able to track down ten of these paintings, but if you know of any others please get in touch.