Shipping is shown off a coast which is apparently intended to be English. Above the sheer cliff face on the left is a small fort of Henry VIII's style flying the red cross of St George on its flag. It is possible that this indicates Fort Paull in the Humber Estuary. The fort is occupied by soldiers and its wall adjoins the forbidding rocks. On the beach below several figures stand in the shadows, looking out at the shipping at sea. Seagulls are shown hovering on the cliffs and the scene is atmospheric and evocative. A Dutch ship is shown in starboard-bow view flying the Dutch flag. On the far right is an English warship with her sails lowered, flying the red ensign, and in front is a smaller yacht with passengers on board, shown in port-broadside view.

The picture may have been a Dutch commission because, while the fort and land of England is shown in darkness, the Dutch ship is cast in brilliant light. The painting may also have a Civil War connotation at the time that Charles I was barred from the walled city of Hull. This reading is reinforced by the knowledge that there was Dutch colony of artists based there.

Born in Rotterdam, he 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 signed 'S de Vlieger' on a rock in foreground, right.