Thanks to Geoff Pritchard for dropping in to see us with this picture of a magnificent four masted schooner - a periodic visitor to Weymouth before the Second World War.

Yxpila from Rauma, Finland often arrived at Weymouth harbour with a cargo of timber.

This picture was given to Geoff by photographer, the late Douglas Hoppins about 35 years ago.

Geoff said: "His father was a senior Great Western Railway marine official so Doug had access to a number of interesting places from which to take photographs.

"The photograph is unusual in that he took it on September 12 1939, nine days after the start of the Second World War. Already, the edge of the harbour wall has been picked out in white to act as a warning to unwary pedestrians in the blackout, although that did not prevent some immersions!"

Also of note in the picture Geoff points out is the gable end of the house adjoining the marine workshops on the opposite side of the harbour advertising Leonard Dominy Weymouth’s Family Butcher.

Having survived the war, Yxpila sank at anchor in the early 1950s.