Fishing craft are shown in a fresh breeze off the Dutch coast by moonlight, with heavy dark clouds on the right. In the centre is a kaag shown in rough water. Her foresail is set and her mainsail half lowered. The vane at the masthead is red, white and blue. A man at the helm is trying to lower the sail yet more and there is another man amidships on the port side. A bird is visible just below the kaag’s rudder. In the right foreground a weyschuit with three men in it following the kaag. In the left background in the light from the moon is another small boat with other shipping visible in the distance.

The use of moonlight represents a change in style of painting to a lighter treatment than is usual in the 17th century, so this may be an 18th or 19th century version, possibly after an engraving of the same subject.