A sketch showing an empty horizon from the 'Birkdale'. The artist has used colour and form to convey the effects of sunlight on the surface of the sea and sky. The sea is shown as a series of short brush strokes of colour from purple to dark blue to light blue to pink. The sun is implied as a mass applied with thick yellow paint of various shades in the centre of the painting and the sky is streaked with bands of colour. The clouds are shown as blobs of violet and there are vivid reflections in the central foreground of the painting. Everett joined the barque, 'Birkdale', and sailed from Bristol to Sabine Pass, Texas, April to June 1920. It was his first journey after World War I. The 'Birkdale' was due to take sulphur from Texas to the Cape, but when she arrived in Texas the ship was re-chartered to Australia and so Everett reluctantly left her and came home by steamer. The 'Birkdale', built in 1892, was the last barque to fly the red ensign and spent nearly all her working life in the Chilean nitrate trade. For a short time after World War I she switched to taking sulphur from Texas to the Cape. The 'Birkdale' went back to the nitrate trade and was wrecked on the Chilean coast after catching fire in 1927.