A sketch of an empty horizon from the deck of the 'Birkdale'. Taken from a low viewpoint Everett explores the relationship between sea and sky through the reflections from the sun. He has painted the waves with a series of short brush strokes of different colours. The sky is shown in shades of graduated tones from yellow to blue with cloud shown as a pink mass on the right. The sun is painted with thick impasto paint and the reflection it casts plays over the surface of the water in the foreground. Everett joined the barque, 'Birkdale', and sailed from Bristol to Sabine Pass, Texas, April to June 1920. It was his first journey after World War I. The 'Birkdale' was due to take sulphur from Texas to the Cape, but when she arrived in Texas the ship was re-chartered to Australia and so Everett reluctantly left her and came home by steamer. The 'Birkdale', built in 1892, was the last barque to fly the red ensign and spent nearly all her working life in the Chilean nitrate trade. For a short time after World War I she switched to taking sulphur from Texas to the Cape. The 'Birkdale' went back to the nitrate trade and was wrecked on the Chilean coast after catching fire in 1927. The painting is inscribed 'Birk'.