This painting shows a variety of shipping at sea off a Dutch harbour. A church tower and other buildings indicate a town on the right, probably Enkhuizen on the Zuider Zee. During the 16th and 17th centuries the town prospered, mainly thanks to the herring fishing and trading through the Dutch East and West India Companies.

The sprit-rigged vessel on the right in the foreground is a coastal craft with vari-colored (perhaps repaired) red sails. This unusual feature reflects the artist's interest in the depiction of material, since he was originally a silk merchant. The ships on the left and centre are Indiamen, flying the Dutch flag and pennant, with capacious holds under armed upper decks. The stern of the second ship on the left is ornately carved. The ship with a round-tuck stern and small transom in the far distance in the centre is a fluyt, a typical Dutch European trading vessel of the 17th century. A horse and carriage are shown on the top of the dyke on the right.

Pompe was an artist working in Rotterdam during the 1690s, although he came from a family with close ties with the shipping industry. He was believed to have earned his income initially as a silk merchant in Enkhuizen, and may have studied with the marine artist Jacob Gerritsz Loef. After he moved to Rotterdam in 1689 he was influenced by the work of Ludolf Bakhuizen. The painting is fairly characteristic in showing the main ships rather 'under-hatted' (the masts ands spars small in relation to their size). It is signed and dated on the wooden revetment of the dyke, 'G Pompe Ao 1680'.