It was the 4th of November, 1966, and while a flood was devastating Florence and Tuscany, I was in the little Cornwall port of Penzance, completely in the dark about what was happening in Italy. I was unhappily looking at the little ferry Scillonian II in service to the Isles of Scilly. What made me most apprehensive was the sign under the timetable: “Weather Permitting”. The ferry was new and looked solid, though perhaps a bit small for really bad weather. I remember having thought: “I've never been seasick, and I won't this time either.” I was never so mistaken. While filming with my Bolex-Paillard that the Captain, perhaps softened by my youth, had authorized me to use on the little platform to the side of the bridge, in the viewfinder I followed the image of a tanker rising up the waves, then falling, in a kind of never ending roller coaster. It was deadly, so I missed our entry into Hugh Town harbor on St Mary's, nicknamed “the last place of England”. There are about 140 islands in the Scilly archipelago, the westernmost land of England, but only five are inhabited. The weather wasn't very good and my stay only lasted 48 hours, but my thoughts had already turned to the old ships that were unlucky enough sail these waters. The loss in 1707 of the HMS Association, Eagle, Romney and Firebrand, with as many as 2,000 sailors, was the most significant. This tragedy was one of many that eventually led to the creation of the Board of Longitude in 1714, to encourage the search for a solution to finding longitude at sea (see Arte Navale N°84). According to legend, a sailor from the Scilly Isles aboard the flagship tried to warn his Admiral, Sir Clowdesey Shovell, that the fleet was off course, but was hanged at the yardarm for inciting mutiny. Another story would have it that the Admiral survived the wreck of the Association, but upon reaching shore in Porthellick Cove was murdered by a local woman for his valuable emerald ring. There are many legends regarding shipwrecks on the Scilly Isles, but after 1869 these stories were no longer only oral traditions. From that year on, until 1997, each shipwreck was promptly photographed by one of the Gibson family, and their use of the recently arrived telegraph brought them to the forefront of early photojournalism. This tradition lasted for four generations and documented more than 200 wrecks. John Gibson arrived on St Mary's in 1866, with his two sons Alexander and Herbert as apprentices, while his first image of a shipwreck was taken in 1869. ... follows