One of a contrasting pair with BHC0988. The artist has chosen to portray English men-of-war in a gale, to create a contrast with the companion picture showing Dutch shipping in the calm of a harbour. The painting has been signed with his initials. There is a monogram lower left on a spar. Cornelis Pietersz. Bouwmeester, or Boumeester, was born about 1652, son of Pieter Cornelisz Bouwmeester. On 13 December 1676 he married in Rotterdam, but he and his wife (Adraentje de Back) had no children. They drew up their will on 29 November 1691, when living in the Westwaagenstraat, naming each other as sole heir. Bouwmester signed it ‘CBM’ which the notary confirmed as his mark, though his wife signed in full. He therefore seems to have been, at best, semi-literate, though later documents (the earliest from 1715) show he had learned to sign his name, consistently using ‘Cornelio’ for the first. His wife died in March 1732 and he followed on 10 November 1733, his death being registered in the Orphan’s Chamber in Rotterdam. He is said to have been living on the Vest near the Delftgate at the time. He is known to have been both a painter/draughtsman and a tile painter’ (and thought to have been employed in the tile factory of Jacobus de Colonia) specializing in ‘penschilderij’ (pen painting) work. It was mainly seascapes, though also landscapes and architectural pieces. He signed his work either ‘CBM’ or ‘C. Bouwmeester’ and his tiles were particularly valued by clients as far away as Portugal and France. In 1698 the Rotterdam chronicler, van Spaan, praised him as 'an excellent ship painter. He is also a master at rendering towns, coasts, bays, creeks, storms and shipwrecks, and at representing ships without omitting even the smallest piece of rope’.