One dark night on 12th November 1917 the steamship Belem nosed her way nervously through thick fog off the North Cornwall coast. She was closely hugging the shore to avoid the patrolling German U Boats and protect her cargo of precious iron ore needed in Cardiff to support the war effort. Disaster struck and she foundered on rocks north of Northcott Beach, Bude. Amid steam, fire and devastation the alarm was raised and thankfully thirty-three crew members were saved by breeches buoy.

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These paintings capture the memory of S.S. Belem, the emotive remains of her skeleton and suggest the manifest power of Nature