Although it cannot be considered an accurate representation or record, it was intended by the artist to be an atmospheric response to ships bombarding a shoreline in the Mediterranean. He wrote later that the point of the design was an 'attempt to give the explosion quality and rending of the air', and that he had treated the work as a 'dissection of gunfire'. The scene is shown from an aerial perspective, with the ship to the far left bathed in white light at the bow and firing from the stern, while the ship to the right is dark grey against the pale sea and sky. The smoke and explosions from her firing guns are bright orange in the foreground and as the smoke moves upwards it merges with the sky. The sea is represented as glassy and still, with the reflections of the action clearly visible on it. The town is hinted at on the horizon to the far right, where the grey vertical streaks of the bombs fall.