McTaggart's childhood days in Kintyre on West Coast of Scotland induced a love of the sea that stayed with him for the rest of his life. He excelled at painting the scudding foam and spray, and the changing light and colour of the sea. Here, he has perfectly captured the essence of life spent among the elements on the cold, green sea. McTaggart was knowledgeable about boats and made precise studies of the skiffs that were used to catch the once plentiful herrings, or 'Silver Darlings'. These fishing vessels were particular to western Scotland and measured around thirty feet in length, with room for four oarsmen. As McTaggart shows here, their masts were raked at an angle with brown tanned sails.