East Indiamen are shown in a storm, being driven on to rocks. The ship on the right is perilously close to the coast while in the foreground to the right wreckage in the water indicates that a ship has already gone ashore. On the left another ship is shown in more detail, pitching in starboard-bow view in the violent sea with its sails furled, except for the fore-course which billows out of control. Figures can be seen on the deck, their raised arms indicating that they are attempting to take it in hand. Other shipping can be seen in the distance. The sky, which dominates the composition, is highly stylized in effect with layers of dark cloud giving way to brilliant light in the centre. It has been suggested that the painting may have been produced around the time of the Great Storm of 1703.

The artist was the son of William van de Velde the Younger and was born in England after the family moved from Holland in 1672-73. He was his father's pupil and continued the family practice after his death, although relatively few of his works are identified (perhaps not least because of his crabbed signature). In 1717 he was called in, with other artists, by Greenwich Hospital to give an opinion on the value of Thornhill's decorative scheme in the Painted Hall and he was living in London in 1729, when he had a considerable reputation as a copyist of his father's work. Until 1965 this painting was believed to be the work of Charles Brooking, but during conservation it was found to be signed 'C V Velde'.