In the midst of crashing waves and a foaming sea, the hull and broken mast are all that’s visible of a sinking ship, which has dashed against the rocks in a bay. The shapes and colouring of the objects are so indistinct from one another that the viewer has to look more closely to discern them. Marine views were an important sub-genre of Dutch landscape painting, featuring not only impressive naval units, but also losses caused by the power of the sea.