When Jacob Lawrence was drafted into the U.S. Coast Guard (then part of the U.S. Navy) during World War II, his "Migration of the American Negro" series and his narrative paintings on the lives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Toussaint L’Ouverture were already well known. Serving from 1943 to 1945 as a public relations specialist, he was encouraged by his commanding officers to continue painting by documenting life at sea. This watercolor depicts a lifeboat from the USS "General W. P. Richardson". Two men, rendered in the same blues as the color of the sea, operate brightly colored ropes and chains. Though the sky is calm and the two men appear to be in control, the sea rises up behind them, tilting at an unsettling angle.