A painting showing the movement of waves from the 'Birkdale'. They are arranged diagonally across the painting, breaking into pronounced crests of thickly applied white paint. The sea in the foreground on the right is streaked with colour to indicate the foam. The sky is arranged as bands of horizontal colour in lemon and mauve. Everett has used colour and form to convey the image. 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.