A scene showing an estuary with shipping and land rising up on either side. The land on the far right includes white cliffs rising up towards fields and woods. Several church towers are implied on the skyline and this specificity indicates this may be the coast of England.

The ship on the far right is shown stern view to port at anchor. She flies the flags of an East Indiaman and the English ensign and her stern bears a crest. In the centre of the estuary is a larger ship, port broadside view, flying the standard of James I and similar in appearance to his warship 'Prince Royal'. She is weighing anchor and preparing to get under way firing a salute. She has the figurehead of a man on a white horse carved on the bow. On the left is a third ship port bow view, also at anchor and with men working on her fore sail. She also flies the flag of an East Indiaman and the English standard. Other boats are at anchor or on the shoreline, several with their leeboards visible.

In the distance on the left are the buildings of a town perched on a hill and close to the shore. In the foreshore on the left a bustling fish market takes place. In the foreground a variety of characters are shown in a linear arrangement, variously occupied. They indicate a range of social types differentiated by clothing, activity and attributes. Only two figures face towards the viewer, one is a girl in a red dress and a white apron holding a basket of fish on her head, and the other is a jaunty man in the foreground wearing a brown doublet and hose and a red feather in his hat.

One man stands up in a boat shown broadside starboard view on the beach. It has three seated figures on board and he is blowing a trumpet perhaps to announce that the boat is preparing to leave the shore. This pronouncement of departure endorses the ship's salute out in the bay and reinforces the theme of arrival and departures, a theme Willarts returns to in a number of paintings.

The purpose of the commission is unclear, although it could document a specific but unidentified incident. It may show the return of Sir Edward Michaelbourne, 9 July 1606, with the 64-gun ship 'Prince Royal', and an East Indiaman. The presence of the white cliffs identifies England with the event and more specifically either Sussex or Kent.

Born in Antwerp, Willarts emigrated from Flanders to the northern Netherlands at a time when many protestant Flemings did so, to seek work free from religious or political persecution. A leading marine painter, he also spent some time in England before settling in inland Utrecht, aged 23, in 1604, where he lived for the rest of his life. Here he knew Roelandt Savery, whose influence can be seen in his landscapes, and he was almost certainly influenced by the Brueghel family since he also painted genre subjects. He had three sons who were also marine painters. The painting has been signed and dated '1640' on piece of drift wood centre foreground of the painting.