In this painting, Verbeeck takes up the established subject of ships sailing off a rocky coast in a gale, which appears in both Flemish and Dutch seascapes during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Under a moderately clouded sky, four vessels are riding out gigantic, crested waves. The water, in the foreground, is plunged into deep shadow. Three of the vessels are seen in a lighter area close to the horizon, in the distance to left and right, all running before a moderate gale which is blowing from the right background. In the centre of the composition, the fourth is shown, in port-bow view, pitching in the waves on a rough sea. In the right foreground, a rocky coastline rises up. Wreckage and a barrel can be seen floating beneath the menacing cliffs. Waves crash against the ship from astern and figures in the rigging lower the fore and main yards, whose sails billow out accordingly. The spritsail and lateen mizzen sail are, also, furled. The pitch of the ship shows a number of figures on the deck and potential for disaster is implied by the proximity of the vessel to the rocks, which it is, however, managing to avoid. The dangers of a rocky shore are emphasized by the floating barrel and masthead, presumably from a ship already wrecked nearby. To the left, the whale raises its head out of the water and opens its ferocious mouth. The sailors, pictured as tiny figures on the deck of the vessel, are obviously trying to negotiate the dangers.
The motif of the vesse
