In this painting, Verbeeck takes up the established subject of ships sailing off a rocky coast in a gale, which appears in both Flemish and Dutch seascapes during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Under a moderately clouded sky, four vessels are riding out gigantic, crested waves. The water, in the foreground, is plunged into deep shadow. Three of the vessels are seen in a lighter area close to the horizon, in the distance to left and right, all running before a moderate gale which is blowing from the right background. In the centre of the composition, the fourth is shown, in port-bow view, pitching in the waves on a rough sea. In the right foreground, a rocky coastline rises up. Wreckage and a barrel can be seen floating beneath the menacing cliffs. Waves crash against the ship from astern and figures in the rigging lower the fore and main yards, whose sails billow out accordingly. The spritsail and lateen mizzen sail are, also, furled. The pitch of the ship shows a number of figures on the deck and potential for disaster is implied by the proximity of the vessel to the rocks, which it is, however, managing to avoid. The dangers of a rocky shore are emphasized by the floating barrel and masthead, presumably from a ship already wrecked nearby. To the left, the whale raises its head out of the water and opens its ferocious mouth. The sailors, pictured as tiny figures on the deck of the vessel, are obviously trying to negotiate the dangers.

The motif of the vessel endangered by a giant sea creature during a storm can be traced back to the art of the Bruegel family in the latter half of the sixteenth century. It was circulated in contemporary prints and appeared in seventeenth-century emblem literature. Sea monsters symbolized the terrors of the deep in a generally overwhelming universe. More specifically, sailors feared that whales would deliberately ram their ships. Therefore, the allegorical meaning of the motif, particularly when combined with the danger represented by the rocks, is part of a more complex iconography of divine supremacy and human insignificance and the need to lead a pious life (compare with BHC0749). The meaning of the barrel, though, may be understood separately. Popular belief saw it as a remedy for the threatening whale, which would be distracted by a barrel thrown overboard and swim after it. In 1604 Joachim Camerarius interpreted the sacrifice of the barrel as the necessity to sacrifice all one’s riches in order to save ones life. The painting demonstrates the intense human perseverance needed if disaster is to be averted and, thus, serves as a meditation on the struggles of mankind in a turbulent universe. The presence of rocks in Dutch marine paintings can, also, be seen as an allegorical warning of the threat posed by passion and the power of the storm to undermine and destroy, emblematic of the supreme power of God. The painting relates to Verbeeck’s small panel of the same subject (BHC0769) but, judging from its higher horizon, appears to have been painted slightly earlier.

The artist, Cornelisz Verbeeck, was born in Haarlem in about 1590. He appears to have been a violent character continuously caught up in fights and stabbings, which have left us with considerable legal records. He became a member of the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem in 1610 and would have been familiar with the work of Hendrick Vroom and Jan Porcellis. The painter signed his work either 'CVB' or 'CVB H'. Only a small number of his paintings are known today, but it is evident that he specialized in beach scenes, ships on rough seas and historic maritime events. He died after 1637, most likely in Haarlem.