Large seagoing ships are lying offshore in a roadstead. A merchantman is casting anchor while a barge negotiates between the giant vessels. The wind is picking up: the flags are flying taut and in the swell is rising.
The merchantman in the centre is an old seventeenth-century vessel. The stern is high, while the stem is half submerged in the water. The ships in the middle plane are clearly more modern. These were no longer built with a towering stern, while the bow rises well above the water. As a result these ships have a more horizontal aspect. The stern was still the most decorated part of the ship, but the ornamentation was now integrated into the whole of the vessel. Left, in the foreground, is a barge. This kind of boat was used as a lighter on inland waterways, especially the Zuiderzee, to carry freight from large seafaring ships that were unable to moor in shallow harbour waters from the anchorage to the quayside.
Adam Silo taught maritime technical drawing to the Russian Tsar Peter the Great during the latter's stay in Western Europe in 1697. The tsar commissioned Silo to paint five marines. These are currently on display at Petershof palace near St Petersburg. The Hermitage collection also contains paintings by Silo.