The ship in the foreground is a 50-gun ship bearing up before the wind and shown in starboard quarter view in a brilliant light. It represents the smallest type of mid-18th-century two-decker built for the navy and later superseded by the frigate. The ship is carefully delineated and has the red ensign flying. It also flies the Union flag, the jack of 1606-1800 and a white pennant. The fighting tops are painted red and there are a number of figures on the deck. The ships on either side and behind the principal ship also fly the Union flag. Small boats move through the ships on the left and in the foreground several figures attend to the sails on a small fishing boat, shown in shadow. On the left is a fishing boat together with merchantmen in the distance.

The artist was a painter and draughtsman who worked as a messenger for the Navy Office in 1735. He was practising as a marine painter by the late 1740s, and regularly exhibited in the Free and Incorporated Societies of Artists from 1761. His work was an interpretation of formulae made popular in England by Willem van de Velde the Younger's formulae, but shows an informed knowledge of English shipping.