Typical of the scenes of calm with shipping on which Van de Velde the Younger’s fame rested in his native country, the picture shows Dutch fishing boats at low tide among the mud banks of Holland’s northern coast. A smalschip, designed for inland waterways, is carefully placed slightly off-centre with a ship in the right mid-distance firing a gun and a beached weyschuit, rowboat, and kaag, cargo boat, in the left distance together creating a satisfying pyramidal composition. A church can just be discerned on the far horizon on the left, which with the tiny boats on the right horizon emphasizes the sense of depth and distance in the picture.