Bonaventura Peeters the Elder was a baroque Flemish marine painter, engraver, draughtsman and poet.
Amid wind-whipped waves, sailing-boats struggle though a thunderstorm. The ships strive in all directions, apparently disoriented in the storm. Luck seems to be on their side, however; the dark clouds break up, driven aside by the sun. A ray like a spotlight illuminates dramatically one of the boats towards the rear, as though in a stage-set.