The subject is the city of Gloucester, Massachusetts' nineteenth-century boatbuilding yards and wharves perched on what was then the edge of the inner harbor, known as Vincent's Cove. The amber hues in this woodcut suggest a past memory. The atmospheric sky demonstrates the painterly effects Don creates through his reduction woodcut technique. The colors shift from a dark grey to blues, light greens, and pale yellows.

The reduction woodcut "Seafaring City" is a precursor to the larger reduction woodcut "Sharpshooters at Twilight."