This panel is one of a set of three sea-pieces, illustrating a storm (this one), a night-battle (CW 149, 402744) and ‘how the ships sail with a fair wind’ (this one thus described in 1613 has not survived). Their format suggests that they were originally intended as over-doors. The remaining pair are the earliest surviving works of Porcellis: they must have been painted before 1612 (the year Henry, Prince of Wales, died). They show him working in the precise anecdotal style of ship-illustration, which he learned from Hendrick Cornelis Vroom. At either side, a rocky coastline with a derelict tower; in the foreground, a small three-master, which has lost its mainmast and a large fish spouting water; behind, other storm-tossed ships; the ship in the centre carries a Dutch flag.