A painting showing a dramatic encounter between Dutch shipping and Barbary pirates. The ship to the right of centre is a Dutch merchantman surrounded on two sides by pirate ships. The smoke indicates the ferocity of the battle as the Dutch ships fight to avoid being captured. The wreckage of another pirate ship floats in the foreground on the left. This battle is taking place off a coast amidst a considerable amount of other shipping, probably also involved in trading.

The struggle to protect merchantmen trading to the Levant was continued until the Barbary pirates were finally crushed in the early 19th century. Barbary pirates, sometimes called corsairs, operated from the Barbary Coast of North Africa. They preyed on Christian and other shipping in the western Mediterranean until the early 19th century. They also carried out raids along coastal areas into the North Atlantic as far as England, Iceland and even North America.