The picture may have been a Dutch commission because, while the fort and land of England is shown in darkness, the Dutch ship is cast in brilliant light. The painting may also have a Civil War connotation at the time that Charles I was barred from the walled city of Hull. This reading is reinforced by the knowledge that there was Dutch colony of artists based there.

Born in Rotterdam, he was one of the important early painters in the emerging discipline of marine art. He was a member of the Delft Guild of Painters from 1634 and by 1638 was in Amsterdam. De Vlieger decisively influenced the direction of Dutch marine art during the 1630s and 1640s. Significantly, as the pupil of Jan Porcellis and the master of Willem van de Velde the Younger, he provided a bridge between the second generation of Dutch marine painters and the third. He demonstrated his versatility and technical accomplishment by painting a wide variety of marine subjects and was also a sophisticated early exponent of the Dutch realist tradition. He moved away from a monochrome palette towards a silvery tonality and demonstrated a closely observed knowledge of shipping. He also painted figural representations for churches, genre scenes and landscapes.