In this panel, van Eertvelt has taken up the popular motif of ships sailing off a rocky coast in a fresh breeze. The theme was introduced into Netherlandish art by painters such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder during the second half of the sixteenth century. In the foreground a Dutch Merchantmen flies the Dutch flag and ensign. The vessel has been painted in careful detail. It is depicted heading for rocks, which project forward into the dynamic waves, while rounding a mountainous, wooded coastline on the right. To its left a small sailing boat appears to be chased by a large creature that resembles a dolphin but was probably intended to represent a whale. The coastline has only been portrayed loosely. A second large, more docile, fish can be seen on the right. The ship is shown trapped between dangers that could end in its shipwreck. On the left the view opens to the horizon and three merchantmen are entering the scene.

The smooth almost metallic painting of the sea is typical of the early work of Eertvelt. In this scene the cloudy sky has taken on a pale tone. The sky and sea are perceived, here, with a new degree of realism. The artist departs further from earlier stylized concepts of marine painting by creating spatial depth; the overall green of the waves has been gradually lightened towards the horizon. The transparency of the water around the rocks and the giant fish, in the right foreground, are further indications of this new ‘realism’. However the swirling, crisp wave crests, which are painted in undulating lines of separate white brush strokes and dots, are a distinct marker of van Eertvelt’s style before his journey to Italy. Furthermore the abstracted, conceptual approach to the landscape, on the right, still shows a mannerist legacy. The painting has been signed with the artist's initials and is dated to around 1610–15.

The danger to shipping presented by rocky shores is frequently explored by seventeenth century Dutch marine artists. The presence of large fish or whale is, also, a common motif in the early part of the century and derives from the work of Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom 1566-1640. Generally it represents the unknown, monstrous dangers of the deep. Shipwrecks and storms occur with frequency in van Eertvelt’s early work. However the former title of this painting, 'Dutch Ships running down onto a Rocky Shore', may be misleading. This allegorical scene might refer to potential danger rather than certain danger. This would have, also, carried moral overtones for a seventeenth century audience. The ship as a symbol was open to a number of different interpretations, from the ‘Ship of State’ to the ‘Ship of Life’. Metaphorically, the spectator would be reminded that the safe stewardship of a ship demanded vigilance, wisdom, caution and prudence and, in case of the ‘Ship of Life’, God’s guidance.

Andries van Eertvelt was born in Antwerp in 1590, where he joined the Guild of St Luke as a master in 1609/10. He is generally seen as the first Flemish marine painter of the seventeenth century. However his work reflects the enduring influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. There is a discernible ‘Dutch’ influence in van Eertvelt’s work, which may have come from Hendrick Vroom, despite van Eertvelt not necessarily having been Vroom’s pupil. Eertvelt lived in Italy, 1628-30, staying with the painter Cornelis de Wael in Genoa. After his residence in Italy, van Eertvelt was painted by van Dyck in 1632. His high reputation is reflected in the celebration of his work in Cornelis de Bie’s 'Het Gulden Cabinet van de Edel Vry Schilderconst' (The Golden Cabinet of the Honourable Free Art of Painting). His pupils reputedly included Hendrick van Minderhout, Matthieu van Plattenberg, Sebastian Castro and Kasper van Eyck.