The waist of a ship, looking forward, is depicted in a heavy sea. The mainmast intersects the image to the left, with two bare-footed figures in rolled-up shirt-sleeves hauling on the mainsail clew-line, while on the far left another man in boots looks aloft, probably to men working on the unseen main yard above. The viewer is looking down on the action from the height of a deckhouse roof and the image is off-centre and at an angle to create a sensation of a heaving deck. The sky is light to the top right and the sea is shown coming over the lee gunwale, in this demonstration of all the actions associated with a sailing ship in a heavy sea.

Briscoe studied at the Slade School and at Julien's in Paris. He was a keen sailor and lived aboard his yacht for some years with his first wife and young son. He also sailed in square-riggers that were the inspiration for many of his paintings. He was a brilliant etcher as well as being successful in oils and watercolours. He was also a first-class cartoonist, his work regularly illustrated in 'Yachting Monthly', and he exhibited at the Royal Academy. The painting has been signed and dated by the artist in the lower right sea. 'A. Briscoe/25'.