Monamy was born in Jersey, but settled at an early age in London, where he was apprenticed to a sign- and house-painter on London Bridge. There, as a contemporary wrote, ‘The shallow waves that rolled under his window taught him what his master could not ... and fitted him to imitate the turbulence of the sea.’

Here Monamy produces a highly theatrical version of the theme of the storm-tossed ship. The two vessels are violently buffeted by the force of the wind and the sea.