Black and white engraving of a party of men on a small boat in a harbor. A naked man lies in the water, his right arm outstretched, as a shark approaches from the right. At the prow of the boat, a man stands poised to strike the shark with a long pole or lance. Behind him stands an African man. Below the two standing men, two others reach their arms over the side of the boat to offer help to the man in the water. Figures are rendered with significantly less realism than in the painting, Copley's "Watson and the Shark", upon which this engraving is likely based. Mounted on a piece of paper probably from a book, which bears impressions of letters in ink.
