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Imposing and famous sailing ships are the subject of countless Dutch paintings of the 17th Century. But the works not only bear witness to the skills of their creator; they are documents of historical, topographical and meteorological events. Visibly billowing sails, glorious and proud sailing ships, a ship heeled in the swell and the salvation of banks never to be reached: Many of the paintings of Dutch painters from the mid-17th Century give impressions of maritime affairs that never occurred. These images thus open a wide horizon of interpretations from different areas of knowledge from the period. They document the range and richness of Holland's marine culture in the 17th Century. The works stimulate multiple interpretations: the ship as a metaphor for life, as a symbol of the state, for the exploration of distant lands, as a demonstration of foreign and trade policy in the 17th Century. This book explains the various interpretations in selected examples while at the same time laying bare the picturesque characteristics of eachwork. In cooperation with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, the exhibition brings together masterpieces from the leading marine painters of the Golden Age, and show alongside unique, large-scale seascapes the subtle drawings from the Print Room of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. German text.