By noon, she was off the southwest coast of England on the approach to Plymouth. This section of the English coast was hazardous, due to shallow waters, sharp rocks, and often-dense fog. By 10 pm, "Suevic" was encountering a strong south-westerly winds and severely reduced visibility due to showers of drizzling rain, the ship's officers were not able to fix their position using stellar navigation, so they intended to use instead the Lizard lighthouse on Lizard Point, Cornwall (known simply as "The Lizard"). At 10:15 pm the lighthouse was sighted through the gloom: at the ship's estimated position it should have been more than away, however unbeknown to the crew, due to miscalculations "Suevic" was ahead of her estimated position.