Several fishing boats are shown leaving a Dutch shore. In the left foreground three men stand close to the water's edge. The two men on the far left hold baskets while the third carries a basket on his back with his feet in the shallow water. A barrel, roller, rudder and a length of wood have been arranged on the foreshore. In the shallows a small boeier or coastal freighter is being pushed off. A man standing in the boat attends to the mast and amidships the mainsail and sprit is about to be put up. Since the vessel has a wider leeboard than a weyschuit it can be identified as a boeier. In the left background is a ship with topsails loosed, in starboard-bow view. There are four other ships in the distance. In the centre background, starboard-broadside view, a Dutch ship is at anchor. Just off the groyne or breakwater on the right is a ship's barge pulling out to sea.

Visible over the breakwater is a States yacht and a smalschip. In the foreground, right of centre, a weyschuit is shown on the beach from the starboard beam. The weyschuit was a small open fishing boat, with narrow leeboards used on the Zuider Zee and North Sea coast. It was propelled by oars, a bargepole, or as in this case by a small sail, and was used for fishing close to the shore. Originally employed around farms it developed into use in estuaries and there were numerous varieties of it. Three men are shown manoeuvring this one down to the water's edge on two rollers. One man stands under the bow, one forward on the starboard bow and another amidships on the port side. A fourth man is pulling on the after roller. In the right foreground a man on a hillock of sand is dragging another roller towards the weyschuit, which appears to be rigged with a sprit-sail. This is half hoisted with an upper hoop round the mast and the sail is furled loosely round it below. A lowered brown foresail is lying in the bow. Sticking out from the stern is a sprit, the rudder is lying across the stern and there is large Dutch flag at the masthead. The coast shown in the painting is probably near Den Helder with the ships probably at anchor in the Marsdiep. The painting shows the freedom of interpretation of a rapid sketch and is of a subject the artist first worked on in the 1660s.

Born in Leiden, he was the younger son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, studied under Simon de Vlieger in Weesp and in 1652 moved back to Amsterdam. He worked in his father's studio and developed the skill of carefully drawing ships in tranquil settings. He changed his subject matter, however, when he came with his father to England in 1672-73, by a greater concentration on royal yachts, men-of-war and storm scenes. From this time painting sea battles for Charles II and his brother (and Lord High Admiral) James, Duke of York, and other patrons, became a priority. Unlike his father's works, however, they were not usually eyewitness accounts. After his father's death in 1693 his continuing role as an official marine painter obliged him to be more frequently present at significant maritime events. The painting is signed 'W.V.Velde J' lower right.