A Bangor, Maine coastal schooner heads south just beyond the Montauk point lighthouse at the eastern tip of Long Island. The large black buoy marks the hidden treachery of Great Eastern Rock, 1½ mile from the lighthouse and the Montauk shoal beyond. This area was a favorite of the marine artist, Stubbs.

Built in 1871 in Brewer, Maine, the three-masted schooner Addie G. Bryant exemplified the standard of the coastal workhorse of the northeast. Her sharp clipper-like dead rise and lean profile for a 124' schooner conceal her respectable carrying capacity. Her green hull and black rail are complimented with a traditional carved gilt trailboard decoration, while uncommonly, the gaff topsails all have cutouts near each mast. The 1870-built schooners outperformed many of the later built three-masters. Addie G. Bryant sadly met her demise in the mid-1890s in a collision with the bow of a carelessly piloted iron barge while she was being towed in off of Cape Cod.

The owners' pride in their ship is shown through the display of streaming pennant, flag and named hull. Stubbs shows his strength in understanding the working ships of the Atlantic, painting her pushing a full spread of gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sails and jibs, with the prominent Montauk headland and New York/New Jersey shoreline in the distance. One salt views the headland through a telescope just before the helm.