A fleet of ships is shown near a rocky coast. One of them, in stern view, is shown on the left with its sails half down, clawing to windward off the land, and the other shipping is visible on the horizon. A large rock rises vertically in the centre and beyond it is a coastline with another sheer rock face. A Dutch ship on the right, with carved lions visible on the stern, is foundering under the cliff and waves are shown pounding against its side. Its masts have broken off and sailors are preparing to jump from it into the water. One in the foreground clings to a broken piece of mast and a barrel floats nearby. In the waves, left of centre, is a ship's boat laden down with men. There is a small beach in the foreground on the right with men approaching the water's edge, both to help the survivors and retrieve wreckage. Some are on horseback and others are in the waves.

Nature is shown at its most threatening to man, indicated by the jagged flash of lightning highlighted against the dark, menacing sky. The painting provides a meditation on the struggles of mankind in a turbulent universe by demonstrating the intense human perseverance needed to avoid disaster. In Dutch marine paintings rocks, storm and ships can all be invoked as allegories for the trials and tribulations of the life of man. The ship moving through the water becomes a metaphor for either man's or the nation's journey through life. Prominently featured rocks in a stormy sea can imply man's endurance and steadfastness of faith, standing as symbols of constancy in virtue and in political principles.

De Vlieger is also of interest in this regard as the first Dutch marine artist to introduce the motif of a rocky arch over water, which may stand as a symbol of hope. Alternatively, where rocks are shown in association with cliffs they can constitute a deadly danger to man. The power of a storm can either undermine and destroy the seemingly immovable, or else be emblematic of God's supreme power. Such an ambivalent reading is implied in this painting, where one ship has already succumbed to the treachery of the rocks. Yet at the same time the presence of land can also be the means of salvation for the men on board, the two figures onshore in the foreground here endorsing this duality of interpretation. Familiar motifs such as the broken masthead and barrel floating near the dangerous shore act as reminders of the consequences of wreck and stress the need for alertness and vigilance. Such indicators of past catastrophe convey the underlying theme of life as a rough sea, which mankind must skilfully navigate in order to reach the rock of Christian salvation.

Born in Rotterdam, Simon de Vlieger was one of the important early painters in the emerging discipline of marine art. He was a member of the Delft Guild of Painters from 1634 and by 1638 was in Amsterdam. He settled in nearby Weesp and remained there for the rest of his life. De Vlieger decisively influenced the direction of Dutch marine art during the 1630s and 1640s. Significantly, as the pupil of Jan Porcellis and the master of Willem van de Velde the Younger, he provided a bridge between the second generation of Dutch marine painters and the third. He demonstrated his versatility and technical accomplishment by painting a wide variety of marine subjects and was also a sophisticated early exponent of the Dutch realist tradition. He moved away from a monochrome palette towards a silvery tonality and demonstrated a closely observed knowledge of shipping. He also painted figural representations for churches, genre scenes and landscapes, and was also an etcher. This painting is a mature marine picture, produced at the time he was already working on commissions for tapestry designs from the city magistrates of Delft. It is signed 'S de V 1640' on rock lower right.