A Spanish flagship explodes in the middle of the Bay of Gibraltar, hurling timbers, sails and men high into the air after being rammed amidships by a smaller Dutch warship. In the foreground, sailors scramble into boats and others swim among the wreckage, while more ships crowd the bay behind under a smoky gray sky. The battle took place on 25 April 1607. The Rijksmuseum says it was the first sea battle the Dutch fleet fought against Spain beyond its own waters, and that the painting is meant to celebrate the spectacular Dutch victory.

Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen painted it around 1621. The museum's cataloguers think it was probably a trial piece for the large Battle of Gibraltar that the Amsterdam Admiralty commissioned in 1622. For years the picture was catalogued as the work of Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom, and it was under his name that the Rijksmuseum bought it at an Amsterdam sale in 1905 for 975 guilders.

From 1921 to 1930 it was on loan to the Netherlands Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.