A 55,000 tonne car carrier is making her own way to port after breaking down in gale force conditions off Land's End.
A Coastgaurd tug went to the aid of the Figaro - carrying over 2,500 vehicles - after she suffered main engine failure.
The tug Anglian Princess managed to get a tow line onto the stricken vessel - but it parted, said Falmouth Coastguards.
Then the Figaro managed to start her engine and is now heading under her own power to Falmouth, Cornwall, escorted by the tug.
The Sennen lifeboat, which stood by, is heading for Newlyn as conditions are too bad for her to make for her own station.
Coastguards are monitoring the progress of the Figaro, which was bound from Santander, northern Spain, to Bristol, when she got into trouble.
There are 30 people aboard the carrier but no one has been injured.
The coastguards received a call around 5pm that the Figaro had suffered main engine failure and was drifting in a south western gale.
At one stage she was just five miles from the Wolf Rock lighthouse, which is six miles from the Cornish coast.
