A rocky coast with low vegetation dominates the right side of the painting. On the far right they form a pinnacle cut off by the picture's edge. On the left, a large ship flying the Dutch flag, is foundering and heading for certain shipwreck on the rocks. The main and mizzenmasts have already gone overboard and the rigging is out of control, which the artist has carefully detailed. Another ship is shown in the distance already wrecked on the coast. In the foreground on the right two men with boat hooks watch the plight of the ship. There is wreckage in the water and they are positioned to help the sailors, or salvage wreckage. A barrel is shown floating in the lighter portion of the sea, bearing the artist's monogram 'H S T'. The painting alludes to the threatening side of nature, through the storm and the obvious danger of the rocks.

In Dutch marine painting, prominently featured rocks in a stormy sea could be understood to stand as symbols of constancy in virtue and political principles. Although they could imply man's steadfast endurance, where rocks were shown in association with cliffs they implied a deadly danger to man. Rocks could be interpreted as an allegory, either warning of the power of the storm to undermine and destroy the seemingly immovable, or be emblematic of God's supreme power. There is ambivalence in the depiction of the rocks here since although they constitute a danger-made clear by the ship which has already gone aground on the treacherous coast, the presence of land could also represent salvation for the men on board, and thus stand as a symbol of hope. The floating barrel with the artist's initials on it often symbolised an offering thrown overboard to placate the spirits of the deep. It may be seen to symbolize the uncertainty of man's fortune between hope and disaster.

Simon de Vlieger was believed to have influenced Hendrick Staets who worked in Leiden, and was a painter of finely crafted marine pictures in the Dutch realist manner. He was chiefly interested in the fashionable art of depicting storm-tossed ships off rocky coasts, but few biographical details about him are known. Although little survives that is readily identifiable, Leiden inventories indicate that he was a highly prolific artist. His work was rediscovered in the 1950s and stylistically he resembles Jan Porcellis, Pieter Mulier, Simon de Vlieger and Jacob Bellevois.