Clustered at the centre of this complex composition, which is spilling forward towards the spectator, Spanish ships are locked in combat with corsair galleys out on the open sea. A Spanish ship is engaging several of the corsair galleys which posed a great threat to merchant and other shipping. The large ship, in the background, is flying a Spanish flag and the red flag flying from the stern probably indicates that she is preparing to attack. She has fired her guns and is flanked by galleys on either side. The vessel, in the foreground, has probably been hit and is sinking. A sense of turmoil is prevalent as the half-clad rowing crew, possibly slaves, attempt to escape drowning. Her men are shown climbing the rigging, in a desperate attempt to reach safety, and several of the crew have been trampled underfoot. The figures, in the foreground, have been observed closely. Small boats are shown going to their rescue. Gun smoke is billowing over the scene. On the horizon to the right more ships replicate the fighting. The water itself is calm. The colours are bright and, in the warm light, all detail is shown in great clarity.

Throughout the seventeenth century North African corsairs, who are identified, in this scene, by their turbans and the crescent moons on their galleys, operated off the coast of North Africa and posed a threat to merchant shipping in the Mediterranean. Various European nations mounted punitive expeditions against the ‘Barbary Pirates’. Therefore it is understandable that the naval battle with corsairs became a popular subject in Dutch and Flemish painting. The main ship, here, probably being associated with the Spanish Southern Netherlands. Vroom has given the scene a distinctly Italianate lighting but neither this nor his knowledge of Mediterranean vessels indicates a journey to Italy. Relevant drawings would have been available in Haarlem. However Vroom certainly showed particular interest in the subject matter of Mediterranean shipping, which bore an exotic character attractive to his contemporaries, before he specialized in landscape painting.

Cornelis Hendricksz Vroom was the eldest of four children of the famous Haarlem marine painter Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom. He was probably born in 1591 or 1592, in either Haarlem or Danzig, where his parents resided around this time. He trained with his father and specialized in marine painting before moving on to landscapes in later years. He fell out with his family in the early 1630s and became engaged in a dispute with the Haarlem Guild. Vroom was nevertheless held in high esteem by his contemporaries, as is apparent from Samuel Ampzing’s praise of the artist in his 'Beschryvinge ende Lof der Stadt Haerlem in Holland', of 1628. A journey to Italy and particularly a residence in England in 1627 or 1628 are disputed. Vroom died in Haarlem in 1661. The painting, which is signed and dated on the mast of the sinking ship ‘C Vroom 1615’ is the earliest known painting by Cornelisz Vroom and was painted at a time when the artist occasionally collaborated with his father Hendrick.