A dramatic scene showing figures on the deck of the 'Birkdale' during a storm. The format of the painting enhances the dramatic effect together with the emphasis on the vertical mast on the left. It is also demonstrated by the ladders and rigging on the right and the sails looming across the top of the painting and over the figures on the deck. The pitch of the ship is indicated by the sharp angle of the deck-house. Six sailors stand waist-deep in water, along the deck on the right. The first figure is holding on to a rope. They are all facing aft which is the orientation of the picture. This is revealed by the lower visible yard, which crosses in front of the mast in the painting, and must in reality cross forward of the mast. The seventh figure stands up on the side of the ship and is pulling on the rope attached to one of the beams of the sail. There is a large wave behind the boat which is higher than the boat itself. It towers over the figures as a wall of water, breaking on the far right in a white foaming mass.

The sketch was made during Everett's trip on the barque, 'Birkdale'. His first journey after World War I, he sailed in it from Bristol to Sabine Pass, Texas, April-June 1920. The 'Birkdale' was due to take sulphur from Texas to the Cape, but when she arrived in Texas the ship was re-chartered to Australia and so Everett reluctantly left her and came home by steamer. The 'Birkdale', built in 1892, was the last barque to fly the red ensign and spent nearly all her working life in the Chilean nitrate trade. For a short time after World War I she switched to taking sulphur from Texas to the Cape. The 'Birkdale' went back to the nitrate trade and was wrecked on the Chilean coast after catching fire in 1927.